Written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West is one of the most important works of Chinese historical fiction. In the last 90 years it’s inspired over 30 movies, 18 television shows, 7 plays, 25 comics/mangas including Dragon Ball, 30 video games and even a style of kung fu. The 2,346 page epic tells the story of a monk, Xuanzang, who travels from China all the way to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures. Along the way he’s escorted by three magical beings, a playful immortal and sometimes homicidal monkey (Sun Wukong), a fat lazy woman crazy pig (Zhu Bajie) and a man-eating sand demon (Sha Wujing).
Journey to the West: American Demons is a sequel written by Jori Sackin and is being released online chapter by chapter right here for FREE! It is recommended but not necessary to read the original book. If you’re interested, “Monkey: Folk Novel of China” translated by Arthur Waley is a highly condensed 320 page version that’s easy to read and gives you all the main plot points. If you are wanting the most authentic translation that leaves absolutely nothing out and comes highly notated with a lengthy introduction giving historical context then, “The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 1” by Anthony C. Yu is where it’s at. Or, you can just dive into American Demons and figure it out as you go along.
Jori Sackin graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in painting in 2004 though his main area of focus is cognitive linguistics, specifically Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which he writes about on Ten Millimeters. He is one of the originators of Shitty Guy Theatre, a core member of Stray Cat Film Center where he hosts a lecture series, “Metaphors in Cinema” and owns and runs The Harry J. Epstein Co. He is currently working on another book, “Falling Off a Mountain Burning in Flames: The Metaphoric Ways We Conceptualize Sex”, is an avid card player and once beat the former Tag Team Heavyweight Champion of the World, Hacksaw Butch Reed, in dominos. He lives in Kansas City, Kansas with his cat.