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A review by pzorging
Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng-En
4.0
It was a fun read. Julia Lovell's translation seemed natural and was quite readable, the mark of any good translation. I appreciate the editing she apparently did on the story to make it flow better. Her introduction also brought in a lot of important background and context on the Monkey King story.
Originally a collection of oral tales of a Chinese monkey trickster character, the stories were collected and written down by a person later credited as Wu Cheng'en. The stories are quite entertaining since, as with all trickster characters, the Monkey King usually succeeds through his cleverness, except when he fails in a comedic manner. Of course, it's important to remember that all stories of anthropomorphic animals (or weather, heavenly bodies, etc) are really about people who possess human desires and reasoning.
I can see why these stories are so important in Chinese culture and why so many adaptations have been done. In translations, there's always a risk of errors or distortions being introduced by the translator, or of things being left out or changed to serve the needs of the text. Apart from learning the original language, the only hope that readers have is to put ourselves in the hands of a capable translator. Julia Lovell seems to be such a person.
Originally a collection of oral tales of a Chinese monkey trickster character, the stories were collected and written down by a person later credited as Wu Cheng'en. The stories are quite entertaining since, as with all trickster characters, the Monkey King usually succeeds through his cleverness, except when he fails in a comedic manner. Of course, it's important to remember that all stories of anthropomorphic animals (or weather, heavenly bodies, etc) are really about people who possess human desires and reasoning.
I can see why these stories are so important in Chinese culture and why so many adaptations have been done. In translations, there's always a risk of errors or distortions being introduced by the translator, or of things being left out or changed to serve the needs of the text. Apart from learning the original language, the only hope that readers have is to put ourselves in the hands of a capable translator. Julia Lovell seems to be such a person.