The story of the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kong, is one of the most popular in China. The said immortal, who ate the life peaches of the Jade emperors gardens...is a foolish, extremely intelligent and cunning....rock. Some stories say he was born from a rock, other say he was hatched from a magical egg of rock, either way he is a very powerful immortal. He has the ability to transform into 72 different images from trees to bugs to help him fight is opponents. He also makes use of clouds to travel great distances. His weapon of choice is a staff called "Wishing Staff" which he can shrink and keep in his ear for handy use. Also he has the ability to change his hair into any object he wants. With all of these abilities he fights evil and is the king of the monkeys.

Its a hell of a story, although a lot of Chinese people will tell you its boring because they have seen and heard it over and over and over again, on Chinese tv right now there is still a very old and crude monkey king program which plays over and over every day.

The story of the monkey king comes from the book "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng En in the 1500's. Mostly fairy tales and legends with lots of monsters and a dose of Taoist and Buddhist religion. The book was actually based on a true story of the Chinese monk Xuan Zang, who is credited with the translations of the sutras into Chinese.

In Beijing opera, the monkey king is a character used in a few of the stories, always foolish and playful, the actor who plays him must be very nimble since he must do a lot of jumping and tumbling. And of course, the facial expressions are key to the performance to give the mood of playfulness.

Canon 20D, Canon 17-40mm f/4 L Lens, 1/60 sec, f/4, ISO 3200