He was born with magical and extraordinary talents. He was renowned for defying fate and formidable foes. He, whose name is Ne Zha, began as an ancient myth and has now become a modern hero.
Ne Zha’s Beginning
A well-known Chinese novel called The Investiture of Gods (封神演义), from the 16th Century, that was based on ancient tales, is where Ne Zha’s story originates. In the mythology text, they stated that Ne Zha was actually born to military commander Li Jing (李靖) following an extraordinarily lengthy three-year pregnancy. In modern versions, rather than being born normally, Ne Zha was born from a lotus blossom and was already very powerful.
An image of Ne Zha in Fengshen Yangyi
Ne Zha had a reputation for being a mischievous and defiant child. He opposed the Gods, engaged in many battles, and disobeyed authority. In the original tale, despite these traits, Ne Zha ultimately sacrifices himself to protect his family and people.
Ne Zha’s Powers & Cultural Symbolism
Ne Zha wielded the powers of fire and fought with many weapons. He rides on his flaming wheels, carries a cosmic ring and a fire-tipped spear.
Rebellion/Defiance: Ne Zha often defied the gods, dragons, and fate itself. This symbolizes the struggle between societal standards versus personal opinions. Oftentimes, Ne Zha symbolizes challenging injustice.
Filial Piety/Courage: Ne Zha sacrifices himself to save his family and people after an incident with the Dragon King. This symbolizes the culture of loyalty and moral duty to protect loved ones.
Transformation/Rebirth: Ne Zha is reborn again from a lotus after his self-sacrifice. This symbolizes the idea that even after tragic events, one can return stronger and wiser.
Ne Zha’s story has a blend of Taoism and Buddhism. Some Taoist elements contain the Lotus flower, and he had a Taoist mentor in the original story. Some Buddhist elements contain the ideology of karma, rebirth, and filial piety.
Modern Adaptation: Ne Zha (2019 Animated Film)
The 2019 animated film of Ne Zha is a modern retelling of this ancient myth. In contrast to conventional depictions, the movie portrays Ne Zha as a youngster who was born with the demon spirit, leading to chaos within the world. Similarly, Ne Zha defies social norms, embraces his own path rather than giving up to his destiny.
Ne Zha 2019 Animated Film Cover Photo
New Meanings
The 2019 animated film directed by Jiaozi reimagines Ne Zha’s character, emphasizing themes of self-determination, resilience, and identity. Unlike how in the traditional narrative, Ne Zha was born to be a heroic figure. This reinterpretation of Ne Zha was able to captivate and resonate with audiences worldwide due to its universal themes and storyline. At the time, it became the highest-grossing animated film in China, surpassing Zootopia by Disney and Coco. Now they’ve released Ne Zha 2, which has surpassed $2 billion in worldwide revenue.
2019 Film Ne Zha’s Themes
Challenging Fate & Authority: Ne Zha struggles against the “curse” of being born with the demon spirit, which everyone deems will be his destiny. However, this film encourages asserting your own path and critiques prejudice and societal expectations.
Individuality versus Social Pressure: Ne Zha faces prejudice from villagers and elders because he has a demonic origin. This mirrors the original story’s tension between filial piety, societal duty, and personal will but reframed as a modern struggle for identity and acceptance from society.
Moral Lessons & Redemption: Ne ZHa’s journey focuses a lot on resilience and self-determination. Similar to the original storyline, in the 2019 film, Ne Zha dies and is given a chance to receive new physical bodies through the lotus. The ties into the Buddhist idea of purification, karma, and personal enlightenment.
Symbolic Authority Figures: Ne Zha’s battles, though, are physical; they also symbolize standing up against injustice and societal pressures, redefining how the original myths critique of rules that misuse power.
Conclusion
With its contemporary retelling of an old Chinese tale, the 2019 animated feature Ne Zha emphasizes themes of resilience, identity, and self-determination. The film offers a new take on classic stories by recreating Nezha’s persona and journey, making them applicable to modern audiences. Its widespread popularity demonstrates how universally appealing tales are that delve into identity and societal pressures.
Everyone has that one friend who falls for someone that everyone told them they shouldn’t be with. Someone that is going to cheat on them, mistreat them, or otherwise is just flat out wrong for them, but the friend always has a way of shrugging it off. If you have a friend like that then they might resonate with the legend of the White Snake. It’s one of China’s oldest and most famous love stories. It features love, betrayal, morality, and spiritual insight.
Over the centuries this tale has morphed almost as much as the stories protagonist. It has taken on new meanings and messages to reflect the anxieties and culture of the times. At first the tale encapsulated a few paragraphs of essentially a warning about the dangers of women on high ranking officials and the distraction they can play from their more important duties, no where near a complex love story with intricate and nuanced details. However this was a real anxiety of the time with stories like Yáng Yùhuán’s where a beautiful woman essentially put an empire into turmoil because of a distracted emperor. But, as the times changed so did the tale. In modern renditions the tale is a lot more nuanced and complicated, but it essentially takes on the following plot.
The modern versions of the tale have a much more complex, intricate, and meaningful story than the original. They includes love, betrayal, heart break, and more. They reflect a lot of the anxieties we have today about if we are with the right person, the fear of “others” and acceptance of the marginalized, social norms and the fear of crossing them, and many more.
Above are 2 depictions of the White Snake legend. On the left an illustration from Stories to Caution the World (1624). On the right a modern Hubei Han opera.
The Movie
The 2019 animated film White Snake, by Light Chaser Animation re-imagines this classic legend with a Pixar like animation style. It has elements of fantasy, romantic drama, and traditional Chinese culture. On its surface the movie is a cheesy, predictable kids’ movie with talking dogs and a PG rating but its much richer than that. It explores identity, memory, and much more.
Analysis
Instead of focusing on the tragic romance of the White Snake and Xu Xian, it instead focuses on a mission to retrieve the White Snake’s lost memories, and understand her true identity while facing outside threats who want to exploit her. In a lot of ways this refocusing on finding the White Snakes true identity encapsulates the identity crisis many Chinese people face today.
In China there is a identity crisis between tradition and modernity. Preserving ancient values vs embracing a new world. Reconciling your past with your present situation, and understanding who you are. In the movie, Blanca has to reconcile her memories of her self with the new version of herself that wants to connect with humans. These two versions of herself come to a conflict when her sister the Green Snake tells her that Blanca can’t live safely with humans. Rather than rejecting a single version of herself, Blanca integrates the two identities of herself into one and embraces her dual nature. She uses her powers to protect humans and her sister. This gives guidance to Chinese people that your true identity is not one of modern China or historic China, but of both. You are a product of your past and present and these don’t have to conflict, they can both influence you and develop you into a more intricate and complex person.
The film chooses a Pixar like aesthetic with beautiful CGI, and more global visual signage of good vs evil with light colors on heros and dark auras around villans. This allows the story to transcend language barriers with a wider audience. This is the goal in it being a global retelling but it has some trade-offs. In the original telling of the story there is more moral complexity with a central conflict being of the morality of spirits and humans intermingling, represented by Fahai. However in this movie the materialistic general provides a much less nuanced moral dilemma, the audience does not feel conflicted on if he is doing the right thing.
Dark Menacing energy of the GeneralThe light aura of Blanca
Conclusion
The legend of the White Snake has stayed popular for so long because it evolves along with time, just like its protagonist. What began as a simple moral warning about temptation has transformed into a deeply emotional story about identity, love, and the struggle between worlds. The 2019 White Snake film captures this transformation beautifully, translating ancient anxieties about order and transgression into modern questions of identity and belonging. In adopting a global visual language, it opens the story to a broader audience while still preserving its emotional and cultural roots.
Ultimately, whether read as a myth, a romance, or a reflection of modern China, White Snake remains a story about the courage to embrace one’s full self, even when that self defies the rules of the world around you.
Watched "White Snake" (2019), a Chinese animated film, and it was really beautiful. The main male MC was so corny 💀 But certain moments had me sad af 😭 The twist at the end was pretty neat I can't lie on that. pic.twitter.com/aU11tBGBfE
The epic Journey to The West has been retold and built upon in innumerable ways since its inception in the 16th century. Especially in the modern day, as our values continue to evolve, it becomes imperative to evaluate the modern adaptations that build upon the dense layers of the characters. One, perhaps surprising place from which we can see this is through the children’s TV show Lego Monkie Kid. This TV show envisions the well-known characters in somewhat of a new light allowing for a subversion of the viewer’s expectations. While many aspects change in this adaptation, one of the most interesting changes occurs to Macaque, or Sun Wukong’s doppelganger. Despite being villainous in both works, his arc and motivations differ between the two adaptations.
Popular novel version of Journey to the West
Journey to the West
In the original Journey to the West, the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) is born out of a cosmic stone. As he grows with age and power, the rash and arrogant Sun Wukong becomes obsessed with cheating death. He fears his own mortality so much that he wreaks havoc in the underworld, attempting to remove his name from the register of life and death. He continues to wreak havoc in the heavens until the Jade emperor sends one hundred thousand soldiers after him. Sun Wukong is able to defeat them but eventually his luck runs out. The Buddha traps him the Monkey King under a mountain, imprisoning him for his sins. After five hundred years of imprisonment, the Buddha awakens him to send him on a pilgrimage across China to retrieve holy buddhist scriptures. Along with Tang Xuangzang and Pigsy, he undergoes trials and tribulations including foiling his doppelganger’s (Macaque) mischievous activities. He is forced to kill his doppelganger at the end of chapter fifty-eight with the help of the Buddha. Overcoming this trial allows the journey to finish and becomes a massive symbolic victory for Sun Wukong.
Popular Movie adaptation of fight between doppelganger and Sun Wukong
Lego Monkie King
The TV Show Lego Monkie Kid picks up in the distant future that resembles our civilization in some ways. The fantastical characters like Pigsy still remain but in a new and refreshing way. The protagonist, Monkie Kid (MK), is a noodle delivery boy who accidentally acquires Sun Wukong’s powers by holding his staff. Sun Wukong then chooses him as his successor to fight off evil. The rest of the show involves MK fighting off familiar foes from Journey to the West to protect the city. With each episode dealing with different villains and an overarching season theme, the narrative structure is vastly different from the original source material. This allows for new ways to explore the characters.
Sun Wukong (Right) and Macaque (left) fighting. Macaque is not pictured exactly as a doppelganger in this but rather as a more sinister-looking version. Despite this appearance, he oftentimes helps MK and tries to save others allowing for him to be redeemed.
Symbolism and Comparison of characters
In the modern adaptation, lots of inspiration is taken from the symbolism of Sun Wukong’s journey. The protagonist MK is a very similar character to Sun Wukong. He is arrogant and often naive about the smartest ways to solve problems. However, his moral compass is much more intact than Sun Wukong’s was. Monkie King differs from Sun Wukong in that he does not cause unnecessary havoc and is not motivated by selfish desires such as immortality. He, under the Monkey King’s guidance, protects the city from demons. His character arc throughout the seasons is akin to a modern fighter protagonist as he has to learn new moves to defeat new villains. However, one of the largest departures from the original source material includes the new representation of Macaque, the doppelganger. In the original Journey to the West, Macaque fights with Sun Wukong confusing Tang Xuangzang and Pigsy. However, Sun Wukong, with the help of Buddha, eventually helps him defeat his doppelganger. This fight symbolizes the moral triumph of Monkey over his evil side. Macaque represents the Monkey King’s double-mindedness and his defeat at the hands of the Monkey King. The fight also shows the illusion of identity. Neither Tang Xuangzing nor Pigsy can differentiate between the two monkeys. In order to understand one’s true identity, ultimate enlightenment or realization is required. However, the show picks up later and views the character in a different light. For one, it is revealed early on that Macaque had survived the fight but was badly wounded. This leads him to resent Sun Wukong and MK, by extension. This resentment leads to conflict between MK and Macaque as Macaque fears MK becoming like Sun Wukong and severely injuring him again. This adaptation also gives more depth to Macaque’s character. Despite being an “evil version” of Sun Wukong, he is able to be redeemed as a character, just as Sun Wukong was. In this case, he no longer represents the duality of Sun Wukong, but rather becomes his own character. Even despite knowing the power MK could hold, and the pain he could inflict, Macaque still goes out of his way to protect him because he knows that MK is the only one that can protect them from their existential threats.
Macaque scenes from the show
Conclusion
The TV show Lego Monkie Kid builds upon the original legend of Journey to the West. However, it also puts new spins on characters such as the protagonist, MK and the doppelganger, Macaque. While the source material used Macaque as symbolism for Sun Wukong’s duality, the show uses Macaque as a redeemable character who overcomes his resentment for Sun Wukong to ultimately do the right thing to save the city.
It is said in south-eastern China that male homosexuality was commonplace and was referred to as 男风 (male wind). In Fujian, men who were lovers couldn’t get legally married but would be adopted into each other’s family, usually the younger into the elder’s. This was called 契兄弟 (lit. duty brothers). The younger would help pay for the elder’s legal wedding, as they were expensive affairs, and both men would sometimes continue to be together long after both were married. The literati and some scholars today blame a gender imbalance or the maritime culture of south-eastern China as the cause for increased homosexuality, but others, like Korean scholar Choi Yun-joo, say the Ming and Qing dynasties’ obsession with the south-eastern Chinese provinces being homosexual was to other the peoples from Fujian and blame them for homosexuality existing in China. I lean towards the latter.
Story of the Rabbit God
兔兒神 (Rabbit God) was a south-eastern Chinese, Fujian and Zhejiang, deity most famously, but not firstly, described in chapter 19 of 子不語 (What the Master Would Not Discuss) by 袁枚 (Yuan Mei) (1716–1797). Yuan Mei tells of a man named 胡天保 (Hu Tianbao) who is entranced by the beauty of a government official sent to his town in Fujian. As the inspector is driven around town by carriage and goes about his day, Hu Tianbao watches him, confusing the inspector, but none of his clerks dare tell him why Hu Tianbao watches him. One day, while the inspector is inspecting a different county, Hu Tianbao, who is still following the inspector, hides in a bathroom in hopes of seeing him naked. The inspector finds him, and after beating him, Hu Tianbao confesses: 「實見大人美貌，心不能忘，明知天上桂，豈為凡鳥所集，然神魂飄蕩，不覺無禮至此。」or “I have indeed seen your beauty and cannot forget it. I know that the laurel tree of heaven is not meant for mortal birds, but my mind wandered and I was so rude that I did not realize it.” The inspector, enraged, lynches Hu Tianbao. Months later, Hu Tianbao appears in a dream saying that he was wrong and deserved to die, but the officials in the underworld laugh at him and do not deem this a serious crime, as it was not done with evil intentions. Hu Tianbao then says that he has been named 兔兒神 (Rabbit God) and that a shrine should be built to him. The villagers, hearing this and already following the custom of 契兄弟 (sworn brothers), build the shrine. The author Yuan Mei then gives the opinion of a man, 程魚門 (Cheng Yumen), who says the inspector would not have lynched Hu Tianbao if he had read 晏子春秋. Cheng Yumen also gives as an example 狄偉人 (Di Weiren), an editor who had entranced a male rickshaw driver who worked for him. When Di Weiren offered payment to the driver, the driver refused. When the driver was on his deathbed, he confessed his love for Di Weiren, who responded, 「癡奴子！果有此心，何不早說矣？」 or “Foolish servant! If you really wanted to do this, why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Cheng Yumen then ordered the rickshaw driver to be buried with generous rites.
There are also records of the very real shrine to the Rabbit God from the Qing dynasty by authors 施鴻保 (Shi Hongbao) (1804–1871) and 丘复 (Qiu Fu) (1874–1950). Shi Hongbao describes that a shrine in Fujian worships the Rabbit God and quotes the very first recorded telling of the story above by 徐𤊹 (Xu Xinggong) (1563–1639) in 竹窗雜錄; this telling shares major plot elements but differs somewhat in specifics and in time, one being set in the Ming and the other in the Qing dynasty. Qiu Fu describes the actual appearance of the shrine as two figures, one pale and one fair, sitting next to each other. Additionally, Qiu Fu describes the rites associated with the shrine as burning incense and sprinkling the ash onto the boy you like, and once you are successful in courting the man, to rub sugar and pig intestine fat onto the lips of the figures. Another text by an unknown author, 重纂福建通志卷 (Re-edited Fujian Chronicles) (Qing dynasty), corroborates this account. According to Qiu Fu and the 重纂福建通志卷, a man 朱珪 (Zu Gui) (1731–1807), while acting governor of Fujian, had a shrine destroyed by splitting the statue described above in two and throwing each man under different bridges.
Use of Rabbit as a pejorative
During the Qing dynasty, rabbit, among many different connotations, also carried the meaning of gay. Specifically, it was used to describe a catamite or 门子 (lit. “door son”), a word originally meant for young, soon-to-be nobles who worked for an older nobleman to deliver things, but which began to gain the connotation of a young male prostitute around the Qing. The phrase 兔崽子 (lit. “son of a rabbit”) could mean that you were a bastard, due to the rabbit’s fecund nature, or that you were a 门子.
天天有喜(Happy Everyday) vs 有兽焉(Fabulous Beasts): Depictions of 兔兒神 and Homosexuality
天天有喜(Happy Everyday)
天天有喜 is a very popular comedy/romance/fantasy drama from 2013 that features 兔兒神 (Rabbit God) as a main character. I was able to watch it on iyf.tv without English subtitles. He helps the main and other couples (not gay) get together and has multi-episode-spanning subplots with a clone of the main female love interest. 兔兒神 is played by actor 陈威翰 (Chen Weihan), who also played 兔兒神 in the Taiwanese series 兔儿神弄姻缘 (Rabbit God’s Marriage), and is dressed as a woman. In episode 52, a character, also played by Chen Weihan, who is the reincarnation/aspect of 兔兒神 transforms into 兔兒神, as seen in the image below.
In another episode, 兔兒神 causes a man to get pregnant and give birth. 兔兒神 is additionally given many scenes where he is naked or bathing, and it is played as humorously embarrassing for the other male characters to look at him. This wouldn’t be strange if he weren’t the only character to whom this happens. While I haven’t seen the entire show, 兔兒神 a gay deity depicted as a crossdresser who “transitions” from a character played masculine into one played feminine, being present in any given episode seems to be the writers’ license to include anything sexually deviant. While the Rabbit God’s depiction in this series has been praised, there is a forum on Baidu called 兔儿神吧 with a lot of media from this show. Ultimately, the Rabbit God’s origin as a gay deity and his queerness are played for laughs in the show.
有兽焉(Fabulous Beasts)
Fabulous Beasts is a Chinese fantasy manhua and donghua by Xue Xia Mao Yao Zi. One of the characters, 兔爷 (Lord Rabbit), is a pretty clear analog of 兔兒神. I haven’t watched past the first season of the show, and I haven’t read any of it, but it was the most positive depiction of an openly gay character I could find in Mainland Chinese media without going into less wholesome sources (the exception being 春光乍洩, which is a very good movie but doesn’t fit my narrative); there are major critiques of that genre of media. He is infatuated with one of the male characters. Lord Rabbit is played like any other lovestruck character, both in the series and out, and he is shown to be genuinely caring towards his love interest. Overall, what I appreciated was that the character’s love wasn’t played as a joke. This, I view, is a more positive depiction of both 兔兒神 and homosexuality than the ones seen in other media.
Special mention 陈情令(The Untamed)
陈情令 (The Untamed) is a hit television series based on a written work whose nature is alluded to in the previous section. However, in the television series, all explicit mentions of the main characters being a romantic couple are removed. Instead, the watcher is flooded with a near-constant stream of homoerotic subtext, including multiple scenes involving them holding rabbits. I have included a video of an edit of such scenes made by user Penthésilée below.
I think the characters being explicitly gay in the original work, and all of the symbolism regarding rabbits previously discussed, should indicate what that scene is trying to say.
兔兒神(Rabbit God) worship in China and Taiwan
Sources for public 兔兒神 worship in Taiwan are easy to find because there is a publicly available and widely known temple to his worship in Taipei. In China, I have seen two dubious sources that claim there is a temple to his worship in the mountains of Fujian and another somewhere in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, where a man operates a temple to 兔兒神 out of his house. The sources for this are included below, separately from the other sources, mostly because they are less academic (ignore that I cite Bai Du or this is a valid reason).
There are very few characters in world literature that travel as far, and morph as fluidly, as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. He begins not as a god or a man, but as a miracle of nature: a monkey born from a magical stone upon the Flower-Fruit Mountain. Endowed with great strength, intelligence, an d in explicable thirst for power, Monkey learns under a Taoist immortal, masters seventy-two different transformations, and gains control of the Ruyi Jingu Bang, an iron stave that can shrink to the size of a pin or expand to the size of a spear that can pierce the heavens.
Drunk on his own strength, he wages war on the celestial realm, defeats the heavenly generals, and declares himself “Great Sage Equal to Heaven.” He devours the Peaches of Immortality, empties the Elixir of Life, and laughed a t Ja de Emperor. The gods, powerless to stop him, beg Buddha for help. When Sun Wukong brags to Buddha that he can leap out of Buddha’s own palm, he discovers too late that he has been tricked, based on that hubris, Buddha contains him in a mountain, trapping him there for five hundred years to stew in his own bitterness and rage.
Sun Wukong is freed by the Buddhist monk named Tripitaka, as long as he agrees to join the monk on a pilgrimage to India and recover sacred scriptures. In order to control the unruly Monkey, Tripitaka puts a magical hot tightening headband on him that constricts painfully around his head each time he indulges his rebellious impulses. Thus begins their dangerous journey west, along with Pigsy and Sandy, during which Sun Wukong fights off demons, spirits, and his own violent urges to protect his master. Journey to the West is not simply an adventure story; it is a story of transformation; it is a moral allegory about Sun Wukong’s transformation from rebellion to redemption. However, beneath the willful restraint of the disciplined Wukong, there is uncontrollable, restless, untamable energy. He is still a creature that questions every hierarchy, mocks every kind of law, and overthrows what power represents.
The God of High School: A Global Stage for Myths
The God of High School, from Korean artist Yongje Park, begins as a high-school martial-arts tournament, but eventually unravels an epic cosmology in which contestants use the powers of gods and mythological figures. The happy-go-lucky but impulsive protagonist, Jin Mori, is more than he seems: he is the legendary Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. The anime adaptation produced by MAPPA Studios, which is streaming and distributed worldwide on Crunchyroll, is teeming with cultural symbols across cultures. It has an embodiment of one Chinese myth told by a Korean author, animated in Japan, and streamed worldwide, it is a narrative of cultural migration in action.
While Mori has retained the same irrepressible spirit as Wukong, his rebellion is now constructed from a multicultural blend: he is grounded in Chinese myth, enriched with is Korean narrative, animated with Japanese anime tropes, and celebrated among a global audience with is pop cultural popularity.
Plotline: From High School Tournament to Mythic Quest
The God of High School starts off with a rather simple setup, a martial arts tournament for high school students across South Korea; but, underneath that apparent surface, the story emulates the classic journey of Sun Wukong and shifts the narrative of divine rebellion into a contemporary globalized format. At first, the protagonist Jin Mori is a somewhat arrogant and irreverent youth, who perplexes his opponents with his extraordinary martial prowess. The chaotic energy that Jin emits an apparent ignorance of consequences, quick improvisation, and never ending wit, all of which mirror the legendary antics of Wukong in the classic, from mocking celestial generals to besting exceptionally powerful giants. As the narrative develops, he succumbs to hints of his actual identity: Jin is are creation of the Monkey King and his mythical powers are purposely hidden to conveniently exist in a mortal world.
Mori meets fighters throughout the tournament who go beyond the typical fighter role into carriers of various mythologies. Some refer to Taoist immortals; some refer to Buddhist legacies; others Japanese folktales. In each fight, Mori’s creativity, stubborn bravery and playful rebellion extends Wukong’s legacy of contentious cooperation, applying a centuries-old motif to a contemporary act. Whereas Wukong fought heaven itself, Mori squares off against contemporary “deities” to confront dishonest organizers, conspiratorial elites, and Bōrei spirits, but the motif remains similar despite cultural changes, figurations of embodied liberty versus distorted hierarchy remain part of the tension in their relationship.
Mori is not only confronted by enemies attempting to divide his divine nature against his humanity, he received support from others like Tripitaka as well, imitating Tripitaka’s purported role in assisting Wukong’s transformation to normative discipline. Just like Wukong’s pilgrimage was a test of his commitment to obedience and concern for others, Mori’s pilgrimage is testing his fidelity to friendship, morality, and self-restraint against excessive powers, even when chaos tempts him. He finds himself contending with several frames of combat which represent a metaphorical pilgrimage: a negotiation between mischievousness and responsibility, harshness and compassion.
This parallel is made emphatically clear at the climax of the film. Mori entirely inhabits the Monkey King role, demonstrating incredible skill with his staff (wielded as a weapon or symbol of magic) while striking a balance with his human relationships. The narrative affirms the perennial lesson of Journey to the West: rebellion only has meaning if it is grounded within some ethical framework. Therefore, Mori extends Sun Wukong’s rebellion to a wider audience as part of his reframing of Sun Wukong’s escape for a global context, to be energetic and playful while also being clearly grounded in a set of values for a multicultural world.
From Stone Ape to Martial Artist: Transformation and Continuity
Aspect
Sun Wukong (Journey to the West)
Jin Mori (The God of High School)
Origin
Born from stone on Flower-Fruit Mountain
Human form concealing divine identity
Mentor
Trained by Taoist immortal
Self-trained fighter learning empathy
Weapon
Ruyi Jingu Bang – magical iron staff
Same staff, reimagined as glowing anime weapon
Personality
Rebellious, witty, chaotic good
Energetic, idealistic, humorously stubborn
Enemies
Celestial bureaucracy, Buddha’s order
Corrupt gods and authoritarian systems
Mori preserves Sun Wukong’s moral ambiguity: part savior, part anarchist. Both characters utilize humor as a weapon, laughing in the face of authority.
However, their confrontations unfold in different contexts. In Journey to the West, Wukong’s rebellion is a spiritual rebellion: challenging divine hierarchy to achieve enlightenment. In The God of High School, rebellion is expressed socially and generationally in contemporary efforts for self-definition.
Visually, both anime embodies Wukong’s mythic energy. Mori’s golden aura and rapid pace function to conjure a Buddhist transcendence motif and the glowing staff paired with urban spaces translates a heavenly chaos to demonstrate a contemporary visual language.
Cultural Evolution – From Classic Text to Digital Myth
The evolution of Sun Wukong from a Novelist’s work in the Ming era to a character in modern date anime shows us how globalization works to rework myth. It is not an export of mythology, but a work of “translation through transformation.” The God of High School takes the Chinese heroic story and reframes it through Korean narrative rhythms and global anime aesthetics. One can see how myths evolve to live again.
Sun Wukong’s journey from a Ming-era novel to an anime expresses how myths travel and develop within and among cultures and even media. In The God of High School, the Monkey King does not just arrive in a new story. The Monkey King’s rebellion and irrepressibility are expressed through the merged narratives of multiple cultures, the foundational cultural story of Chinese myth, the narratives of Korean story, visuals with anime aesthetics that visually express his journey, and pop cultural conventions that allow the story to connect to a global audience.
The story also changes morally. Where the original story had the principle of spiritual redemption grounded in obedience to Tripitaka, the anime offers a perspective built on belief (conviction), friendship, and justice, while still preserving Wukong’s cheek and humor. This gives Mori the ability to also express the same spirit of rebellion that the original Monkey King expressed, but in a way that may be understood by a modern audience of youth, who are themselves grappling with complicated social and ethical landscapes.
The combination of these cultural components elevates Sun Wukong into a global archetype: a character whose spirit, wit, and moral ambiguity transcend boundaries of nation or history. Streaming services and webtoon adaptations bring Mori’s adventures to a global audience who may never experience the original text, making the Monkey King a modern symbol of textual and cultural freedom, moral courage, and playful rebellion against social and cultural conventions.
Through this weaving of cultures, The God of High School not only reanimates Wukong for a contemporary generation, but also demonstrates how myths endure: myths endure when they adapt to appeal to the aesthetics, ethics, and narratives of new audiences, and still preserve the frame of the character that has intrigued readers and viewers for centuries.
If you haven’t read the story yet: Journey to the West is a classic Chinese story about a monk’s pilgrimage guarded by the hero Sun Wukong (the Monkey King). Black Myth: Wukong is a retelling that turns those trials into an action RPG. You don’t play THE Wukong, but you’re a “Destined One” earning his mantle, boss by boss. I’ll show what the game keeps, what it changes, and what new meanings it creates.
Journey to the West follows the monk Tripitaka as he travels to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures, protected by disciples like the Monkey King. Wukong starts as a rebellious trickster with huge power and 72 transformations, then gets tamed by a magic headband and ultimately attains Buddhahood after completing the pilgrimage. The novel brings together Buddhist/Daoist ideas with monster adventures and moral tests. Black Myth: Wukong is an ARPG that exploded globally, which launched in 2024. You play as the Destined One, a monkey with a staff on a path tied to Wukong. The main arc the game gives you is collecting six relics linked to Wukong’s six senses, which reframes the pilgrimage into a personal, Buddhist-like progression system.
What the game keeps from the classic
The game keeps its imagery and powers. The long staff, cloud-like mobility, and shapeshifting all carry over. Bosses and creatures come from the text’s demon collection, and the world leans hard into Chinese temples, mountain passes, and folk-religious symbols. (It’s basically Chinese myth in a triple-A game). It also keeps its episodic trial structure. The novel’s one trial after another becomes a bunch of boss arenas and zones. The soulslike game rhythm makes the moral/spiritual tests like literal skill checks—you learn a pattern, fail, adjust, and move forward. When I read Journey to the West, the tests in the story would funnily remind me of how I felt when fighting the bosses in the game.
What the game changes (on purpose)
You’re not exactly Wukong. Making the hero the Destined One (not the big guy himself) creates distance from the trickster and makes what I see as a zero to hero/ humbler arc. It’s a way to let players earn power without rewriting Wukong’s story.
From pilgrimage to perception: Making the search for six relics about the senses is a way to focus the story on the path to becoming enlightened. Instead of escorting Tripitaka west, you’re disciplining perception itself, sight, sound, etc. It’s kind of like the journey is internal. That’s a cool thematic point the novel seeds but the game makes a big component.
Tone shift: The novel has comedy and satire. But, the game goes somber and heavy. It takes from games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls (empty roads, mysterious NPCs) to make the game and stakes feel weighty.
New meanings that show up in play:
Failure becomes doctrine: In JTTW, backslides and scoldings (the headband!) discipline Wukong. In Black Myth, however, death-learn-retry is the law. The loop teaches patience and self-regulation. To me, basically a gamer’s version of cultivation.
Individual vs. collective: The book’s team (Wukong, Pigsy, Sandy, the monk) emphasizes interdependence. However, the game trims the party down and spotlights a lone striver. This creates a different take that keeps that single-player feel while still showing the master-disciple tradition in the background.
Global reach (and the noise around it)
The game broke records at launch, with almost ~2.2M CONCURRENT players on Steam in the first day! That is extremely good, especially for a single-player game. That made Wukong a mainstream entry point to JTTW for people who’d never heard of Tripitaka or Guanyin. It also became a talking point about triple-A (high-budget) games made in China, which is a space that is known to be dominated by Western/Japanese studios. Thus, making people more open and interested in Chinese culture and future games made by their studios.
My read on why this retelling works
I like that the game doesn’t just reenact the scenes chapter-by-chapter. Instead, it builds a playable scene out of JTTW’s ideas (discipline, illusion vs. insight, transformation) then lets you discover them at your own pace. Making us the Destined One also avoids the Wukong is OP (overpowered, because he’s immortal and extremely strong) problem and keeps growth meaningful. In other words, Journey to the West becomes less of a map and more like a lens. This can also spark curiosity in players to learn more about the JTTW and Chinese culture in general. Personally, I believe it’s essential for everyone’s growth and mutual understanding that we learn about and appreciate all cultures. I like that the game pushes that.
From an old Chinese poem to a well-known animated movie, the story of Hua Mulan has changed a lot over time, as each version reshapes the story to fit its audience. People often compare them, by talking about the broad ideas and themes, noting that the original focuses on filial piety, while the Disney version celebrates individuality and feminism.
But the real difference isn’t just in these themes. It also shows up in something smaller and more personal: how Mulan’s body and appearance are shown. In both the original and Disney’s versions, Mulan is shown leaving behind the “traditional” women’s life and developing into someone who embraces more masculine traits as she enters the world of martial arts. Making this move means she has to change how she looks and carries herself.
In the original poem, this change is quick and practical. Mulan puts on men’s clothes, goes to war, and that’s it. Her body isn’t described or questioned. In Disney’s version, her body becomes a central part of the story. She’s told how a woman should look and act, then later cuts her hair and puts on armor to pass as a man. These moments show how her outer change mirrors her inner journey and search for identity.
By looking at how each version shows Mulan’s physical change, we can see what each one values. The ballad shows her body as serving her family and community, while the film shows her body as expressing her own identity.
The Ballad and Mulan’s Quiet Change
In the original Ballad of Mulan, her transformation is described very simply. She buys a horse and armor, leaves home, and goes to fight in her father’s place. The poem does not give details about her disguise or appearance. What matters most is her loyalty to her family. When she returns home and removes her armor, her fellow soldiers are surprised to discover she is a woman. The story shows that her actions, not her appearance, are what really count.
The poem treats Mulan’s body as a practical tool. She does what she must to fulfill her duty, but her physical change is almost invisible. The focus is on her courage and skill, not on her appearance or identity. In this version, her body supports her role rather than telling its own story.
“Mulan Joins the Army” by Feng Luoxia (1900)
Disney and Mulan’s Visible Transformation
In Disney’s 1998 film, Mulan’s body is central to the story. Early on, the movie shows strict expectations about how a woman should look and act, especially when she prepares for formal society. Mulan is cleaned up, dressed, and made to look like the perfect woman, and her tense body language shows her discomfort. When she cuts her hair and puts on her father’s armor, the change becomes both physical and emotional. It is not just her pretending to be someone else; it is her taking control of who she wants to be. During training, her body continues to show her progress as she pushes herself to keep up with the soldiers. By the end, she moves with confidence. Later, when she reveals who she is to Shang, letting her hair down and speaking in her own voice, her body finally matches her true self.
Disney’s “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” : Mulan’s progress during training shows her physical and emotional growth as she adapts to the soldiers’ world.
Every change in how Mulan looks or moves signals her inner growth. Her physical changes are part of the journey, showing that who she is inside comes through in her actions, movements, and the way she carries herself.
Clothes and Makeup: Historical vs Disney
In Disney’s Mulan, clothes and makeup show her transformation. Her matchmaker outfit has white foundation, pink cheeks, red lips, and a neat bun with a ribbon to make her look like the perfect woman. In Mulan’s historical era, women sometimes decorated their foreheads with patterns or symbols, and their outfits were more layered and patterned. Soldiers wore practical armor without fancy decorations.
Comparison of traditional Chinese makeup styles (top) and Disney’s version in Mulan (bottom). Both use pale skin, red lips, and pink cheeks, but the historical style adds symbolic forehead patterns and heavier detailing.
The movie simplifies these details to make it easy for viewers to see her change. Her Hanfu is bright and simple, while the armor she puts on for war has teal and green accents and looks more elaborate than real armor of the time. These costume choices clearly show her move from following expectations to becoming a warrior.
Comparison between traditional Hanfu from Mulan’s historical era (left) and Disney’s simplified version (right). The real Hanfu features layered fabrics, detailed patterns, and symbolic colors, while the film’s version uses a cleaner, modernized design for clarity and animation ease.
By comparing the movie to historical styles, we can see how Disney mixes tradition with storytelling. The way Mulan dresses and does her makeup helps the audience understand who she is and what she is doing in the story.
Disney’s version of Mulan’s armor (left) is light and stylized for animation, while traditional armor from her era (right) was heavier, layered with metal plates, and built for real protection. The contrast shows how Disney simplified the look to highlight her bravery rather than realism
Conclusion
Looking at how Mulan’s body is treated in each version shows how the story’s focus has shifted over time. The ballad presents a practical, almost invisible transformation that serves duty and family. The Disney version uses Mulan’s body as a visual marker for self-expression and confidence.
These subtle differences show that Mulan’s story is not just about her accomplishments or personality, but also about how her physical appearance is part of the tale. Her adaptability and transformation can be shown both visibly and meaningfully, which helps explain why her story continues to resonate across generations.
For many young girls, including me, Disney’s Mulan (1998) served as an inspiration to be brave, strong, and to break gender barriers. However, it would be a lie to say that this remake of the original “The Ballad of Mulan” was entirely accurate.
Disney’s Mulan poster
The Original Story
In “The Ballad of Mulan,” Hua Mulan joins the army in place of her father. After 10 years of fighting, she returns home with her army to be rewarded by the emperor. Afterwards, she finally reveals herself as a woman.
The story reflects strong Confucian ideas of filial piety when Mulan decides to join the army in place of her father, showing her devotion and care to protect him. At the same time, however, she defies him by enlisting without telling anyone and acting on her own belief about how best to protect her father. This aspect of the story provides an interesting perspective on the concept of filial piety. Should you disobey your parents in order to devote yourself to and protect them?
Another primary aspect of this story is gender roles. When Mulan reveals herself to her fellow soldiers at the end, she says,
“Some say the male rabbit’s paws tend to thump and move about, while the female rabbit’s eyes are soft and hazy; but really, when they run side by side, can you tell which is male and which is female?”
This line illustrates the theme of gender roles in the story. Because Mulan fought with as much strength and bravery as her fellow soldiers, they were shocked to learn that she was a woman. They didn’t expect a woman to be strong and capable enough to fight alongside them due to their society’s gender roles.
Illustration of Hua Mulan
Disney’s Adaptation
The Disney movie Mulan (1998) retells the story with the addition of details that slightly shift the narrative. In the film, the story begins with Fa Mulan preparing to find a suitor in order to bring honor to her family, only to fail in doing so. Then, to protect her injured father from being drafted, she enlists in his place and begins her training. Throughout this time, she carefully guards her identity but is eventually discovered after being injured in battle. She is branded a traitor and nearly executed, though the captain spares her life in gratitude for saving him and instead sends her home. Later, even after being expelled from the army, she travels to the capital to warn them of the enemy’s return and ultimately helps defeat him. At the end of the story, she returns home and presents her father with gifts of honor from the emperor.
Disney’s decision to include Mulan’s failed attempt to find a suitor sets up a personal motivation for her journey. Her story is not only about protecting her father, but also about proving to herself that she is not a failure.
This takes place after Mulan’s identity is discovered and she is thrown out of the army.
Compared to the original story, Disney’s adaptation shifts the focus from filial piety to self-discovery and acceptance. Although filial piety is still present through the idea of bringing honor to one’s family, Mulan’s journey is also deeply motivated by her desire to accept herself for who she is, rather than conform to what others expect her to be.
Another major change is the treatment of Mulan’s identity as a woman. In the original story, her fellow soldiers were simply shocked when she revealed the truth. In the Disney version, however, her discovery is portrayed as an act of treason, nearly costing her life. This dramatization highlights the seriousness of gender roles in her society. Her identity was further emphasized after she saved the palace from the enemy and was praised and honored by the emperor, despite being thrown out of the army. This illustrates the theme of breaking out of gender roles and boundaries. Even when faced with extreme obstacles, women can rise and even excel in male-dominated areas. Mulan was one of, if not, the first Disney princess to show that she could not only save herself but also the man too.
Mulan is praised by the emperor, her former comrades, and the city after defeating the enemy
Traditional vs. Western
The creative changes Disney made to Mulan’s story reflect their goal of appealing to their target audience: young girls in the United States. In the original ballad, Mulan’s primary purpose for joining the army is to protect her father, reflecting Confucian ideals of filial piety. In Disney’s adaptation, there is an added motivation for her to prove her own worth. The story moves from traditional, family-centered values to more individualistic, Western values.
Furthermore, Disney’s emphasis on Mulan’s identity as a woman was clearly designed to empower young girls, encouraging them to break through restrictive gender roles and embrace their own strengths. This was an especially powerful message in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a time when more women in the U.S. were beginning to enter male-dominated fields and make a name for themselves despite barriers. While the original story acknowledges gender roles and critiques them subtly, the Disney version actively challenges and reshapes them.
Reflection
As mentioned at the beginning, Disney’s Mulan was deeply inspirational and empowering story for me and many other young girls. Not only was she was one of the earliest major representations of Chinese culture in American media, but her story also taught an important lesson about embracing one’s flaws and turning them into strengths. Many of Mulan’s greatest achievements in the movie did not come from physical strength, but from her intelligence and quick thinking, traits she had from the very beginning.
Is the Disney film a 100% accurate retelling of the original ballad? No, it is not. But is it an entertaining film with a meaningful message? Absolutely. It is difficult to say whether one version is “better” than the other, because each reflects the values of its time. The ballad emphasizes traditional values, while Disney emphasizes modern, Western values. At the end of the day, both versions beautifully illustrate the story of a strong woman succeeding against all odds.
The 2021 animated movie Green Snake, directed by Amp Wong, builds off of the famous Chinese Legend of the White Snake, exploring the dynamic of the ancient characters through Asuraville, adding themes of emotional strife and modern feminine power.
Green SnakeNetflix cover
Foundations of the Legend
The story tells of a White Snake demon who transforms into a beautiful woman and falls in love with a human man, Xu Xian. Fahai, a Buddhist monk, exposes her true nature after forcing her to transform with a potion. Startled, Xu dies of freight leading white snake to go on a dangerous quest to recover a herb to revive him. Green Snake aids her journey. After overcoming obstacles and reviving Xu, White Snake is confronted by Fahai, where the story diverges.
Fahai
The Old Legend
Before the 18th century the story’s ending was one of tragedy with the white snake being imprisoned by Fahi under Leifong pagoda after giving birth. This version of the legend is what green snake draws from. The animation begins with the violent battle between the monk and the two snake sisters, ending in defeat. This sets up green snake’s quest to escape Asuraville.
White Snake’s Fall
Green Snake Plot
After White Snake (Blanca) is trapped by Fahai, Green Snake (Verta) struggles against him and is transported to the realm of Asuraville, where those who can’t let go of obsession are banished. Zodiac demons roam this cyberpunk realm where spirits attack in waves. To survive, she teams up with Sun, a woman from the 20th century who is later killed during gang warfare between the Ox-Head and Horse-Face Gang and the Raksha. Verta is picked up by the Raksha and proves herself to Simon, their human leader. At Good Day Market, Simon, Verta, and their new masked companion learn that to leave they must surrender their obessions to the Well of Rebirth. Verta refuses to forget Blanca. A flood sweeps over Asuraville, trapping the masked man. Desperate to leave, Simon betrays Verta, blocking the exit as she saves him. When she loses hope, the man reveals a face resembling Blanca’s. Ox-Head invades the market and kills Simon. Verta’s trust shatters when Ox-Head reveals the masked man betrayed her as the magical Blanca disguise he wore gave off a traceable scent. Verta presses on toward the Wish Bridge to escape Asuraville with her memories intact. In the Wind Tunnel when Fahai is weakened, she destroys the Pagoda, breaking his blessing over Ox-Head. As they near the end, the possessed Ox-Head grabs them. The man lets Ox-Head transform him into a spirit, sacrificing himself to carry Verta to the bridge. Back in the human world, Verta restores Blanca’s hairpin with the man’s bone flute, realizing he was her reincarnation. Blanca’s voice calls to Verta, signaling their reunification.
Movie Trailer
Modernizing Feminine Strength
The ancient story flips gender roles, positioning white snake as the more yang character who exudes assertive traits and strength that move her to protect and sacrifice herself for her family. While certainly a progressive story of feminine power for its time, white snake’s feminine strength is demonstrated in the context of motherly love and protection which is the typical picture of what older civilizations viewed as female strength. Verta embodies a character with external motivations beyond maternal duty and romantic love who is strong and decisive in all situations. Verta survives the rough lands of Asuraville by adapting quickly, learning to use modern weapons, forming strategic alliances, and confronting characters like the Baoqing Fox. This reflects how we define and celebrate modern femininity. Female strength is characterized by leadership, resilience, and autonomy rather than being tied only to motherhood.
Modern femininity emerging from the cultural revolution
Modern Emotional Care & Love
Like many western works, Green Snake follows a sort of hero’s journey structure. Centering the plot around Verta reorients the emotional underpinning of the story, creating new meaning through Verta’s introspective struggles. Verta, removed from Blanca’s strong emotional passion for Xu, acts as a critical observer. Seeing others struggle with relinquishing their attachments at the Well of Rebirth and the consequences of Blanca’s love, Verta grapples with her perceptions of love and obsession with saving Blanca. Symbolized by her sister’s scarf tied around her arm, Verta’s obsession with saving Blanca traps her in Asuraville. At the end of the story, as she leaves Blanca in Asuraville, she realizes accepting Blanca’s death, but keeping her memory alive, can bring them both peace. She is reincarnated, completing her emotional development. Others in Asuraville give up memories of loved ones, like Simon, or aspirations to escape. Verta’s rejection of this and eventual acceptance of Blanca’s death embody the modern focus on confronting emotional turmoil through means like therapy, which forces people to relive and journey through their most intense emotions, much like Verta does. The story, however, masterfully crafts this emotional journey through the framing of Buddhist rebirth, with Blanca’s reincarnation into the masked man being the way in which Verta is able to engage with her emotional turmoil. The story challenges modern escapism, which takes the form of drugs and other addictions, ironically through the Well of Rebirth, which allows a person to avoid painfully working through loss.
Well of Rebirth & Modern Escapism
Verta’s assertion that her sister’s entrapment is due to Xu’s lack of strength initially makes her value strength and authority in a partner, which makes her fall for Simon. However, his betrayal shows her, empathy and love for someone outweigh strength. This internal change in Verta’s perception rejects the idea that a man should be a strong provider, reimagining Xu a good partner. Sun and Verta’s partnership further emphasizes the movie’s modern idea that relationships, romantic or platonic, should never be defined by one character overpowering and leading alone. Just like in the movie when the two are separated, partners must have enough independence to fight for themselves at times, but should constantly be backing each other in response to calls for support.
