Fall 2025 Literature Course Journey to the West: The Monkey King
Society for Asian Art and Asian Art Museum are separate non-profit organizations with separate memberships. Please use the appropriate registration buttons to register for Society programs.
Join us as Ling Hon Lam, Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UC Berkeley, gives a presentation entitled Journey to the West: The Monkey King, on the 16th century Chinese novel that is the basis for the upcoming San Francisco Opera world premiere of The Monkey King.
The novel is a fictional account of the pilgrimage of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India in the 7th century to find and collect Buddhist scriptures. The story focuses on the exploits of Sun Wukong, a monkey born on Flower Fruit Mountain from a stone egg that forms from an ancient rock created by the coupling of Heaven and Earth. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, was tasked by Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Buddha to become Xuanzang’s first disciple. Along with 3 other disciples, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing and White Dragon Horse, Sanzang and his disciples journeyed to a mythical version of India and find enlightenment.
Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, mythology, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoist and Buddhist folklore. The novel is a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, and a source of spiritual insight. The Monkey King and his quest for immortality have influenced pop culture for generations with countless modern manhua, manga and anime series as well as numerous movies and television series.
This presentation will consist of two two-hour sessions with a one-hour lunch break. Please note that lunch is not included in the registration fee. Attendees can purchase lunch in the museum café, and are welcome to bring food into the Koret Education Center.
1st Lecture Syllabus:
1) Journey to the West, revised edition, trans. Anthony C. Yu (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), Introduction, Chapters 27-31, 56-58.
2) Ling Hon Lam, “Allegory and ‘World’ Formation in The Journey to the West,” in A Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature, vol. 2, ed. Christine Chism. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2020), pp. 1013-25.
2nd Lecture Syllabus:
1) Journey to the West, revised edition, trans. Anthony C. Yu (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), Chapters 1-7, 14, 32-35, 64-66.
2) The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories, trans. Daw Mya Tin (Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1990), pp. 146-47, 438.
3) Dhammapada with Accompanying Narratives, trans. Samuel Beal (Varansi: Indological Book House, 1971), pp. 20-21.
4) Zachary Horton, The Cosmic Zoom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021), pp. 1-12.
Reading materials will be provided to registered attendees.
Registration Policies
The Society for Asian Art's cancellation policy requires at least one week's advance written notice in order to receive a refund of registration fees. This excludes our Travel programs, which have separate cancellation policies, as well as any programs where a specific refund policy is stated on the event page. Your fees will be returned to you through a check in the mail. To cancel, please contact us.
For programs located within the Asian Art Museum, the museum entrance fee must be paid separately and is not included with your registration fee.
Please note that by registering for a program, you are giving consent to the SAA to be photographed or videoed as a participant.