Legendary Monkey King Appears At Bottom Of Chinese Mountain To Be Fed By Tourists
This is the moment a boy ignores COVID-19 fears to feed the Monkey King – made famous in the UK in the 1970s TV show ‘Monkey Magic’ and more recently via the popular manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball Z – at a popular tourist spot.
The encounter was filmed at the Wuzhishan Scenic Spot near the city of Handan in the Chinese province of Hebei on 4th May.
A man was hired to dress up as the Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong, one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.
And while social distancing and even lockdown is still a major factor in the rest of the world, China appears to have moved beyond it now with the young boy using his own hands to insert food into the actor’s mouth.
The novel was the basis for the cult Japanese TV show ‘Monkey’, commonly referred to as ‘Monkey Magic’, that ran from 1978 to 1980.
More recently, the manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball Z – and more specifically its predecessor Dragon Ball – feature Son Goku as its main protagonist. The beginning of Dragon Ball is also based on Sun Wukong, with Son Goku sporting a monkey tail, a staff, and tellingly, the ability to transform into a giant monkey at the full moon.
The actor at the scenic spot pretended to be the Monkey King and interacted with tourists.
In the myth, The Buddha arranges two earth spirits to feed the Monkey King with fruit when he is hungry and spring water when he is thirsty from where his head and hands protrude from the base of the mountain.
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In the footage, a young boy is seen re-enacting the scene while feeding the Monkey King fruit at the bottom of the mountain.
A spokesperson for the scenic spot said it is a new initiative that was launched during the May Day holiday, adding that the actor works two and a half hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.