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At 10:00 a.m. on August 20, 2024, Black Myth: Wukong was officially released. As of 12:00 noon, the number of concurrent online players on a certain platform exceeded 1.14 million, topping the list. You can see the company's announcement of holidays in many social news, so that employees can experience it immediately.

These are all expected popularity. Just 4 years ago, the first trailer of "Black Myth: Wukong" was released on Bilibili, which immediately triggered a tsunami of popularity. It rushed to the top of Bilibili's hot list within 2 hours, and the number of views has reached 57.532 million so far. In the past 4 years, the emotions of all parties have continued to accumulate and ferment. In the current context, it is no longer just a game, but a carnival that affects the entire industry and society.

The image of "Sun Wukong" itself is like an inexhaustible gold mine of themes. As one of the most well-known public IPs in China, it can be said that every long night of the cultural industry has waited for the salvation of this monkey.

It could be the dagger and javelin used by artists to save the nation during the most difficult period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; it could be the strong pillar relied upon by a generation of pioneers to establish their own schools after the founding of New China; it was the last stronghold when domestic animation as a whole was at a low ebb, and it was also the greatest support for later generations to blow the first clarion call for the revival of domestic animation.

Both practitioners and players hope that this time the Monkey King can once again forge ahead and create a new world.

Everyone loves Sun Dasheng

Where did Sun Wukong come from first?

There are many different opinions on the answer to this question, and there is no final conclusion yet. Involved in this case are not only Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Chen Yinke, Ji Xianlin and other celebrities, but also many overseas scholars. The first to examine the prototype of Sun Wukong were Lu Xun and Hu Shi. Lu Xun advocated the local origin theory. He believed that the image of Sun Wukong came from the Tang Dynasty legend "Ancient Yue Du Jing" about the water monster Wuzhiqi who was "like a monkey" and "supernatural and swift", and was later subdued by Dayu to help him control the flood.

Hu Shi believed that the image of Sun Wukong might have been influenced by Hanuman, the monkey god in the Indian epic Ramayana, who "can fly in the air", "can jump from India to Ceylon in one jump", "can pull up Mount Himaya and carry it on his back", and was once swallowed into the belly of an old mother monster, expanded and contracted inside and then emerged from her ear. This corresponds to many plots in Wu Chengen's 100-story version of Journey to the West.

Zheng Zhenduo and Chen Yinke both agreed with Hu Shi's conjecture. Chen Yinke further linked the story of Journey to the West with the story of Buddhist scriptures, believing that the story of Sun Wukong's havoc in the Heavenly Palace was pieced together from the story of "The King of the Topborn Ascension to Heaven" in the Buddhist classic The Sutra of the Wise and the story of the monkey Hanuman in the Ramayana. During the Republic of China period, Lu Xun's theory of local origin was not widely supported. After the founding of New China, due to Lu Xun's lofty status, this conjecture gradually became mainstream.

After the reform and opening up, Mr. Ji Xianlin supported the "hybrid theory", saying: "It is futile to deny the relationship between Sun Wukong and the monkeys such as Nala and Hanuman in the Ramayana. But at the same time, it is also impossible to deny that Chinese authors have developed and innovated Sun Wukong, combining the Indian monkey god with the Chinese Wuzhiqi."

Although the origin cannot be verified, its spread can be traced. In the Song Dynasty vernacular novel "The Story of the Great Tang Tripitaka's Journey to the West", the image of Sun Wukong first appeared, but at that time he was still dressed as a scholar in white clothes, claiming to be the 84,000 copper-headed and iron-foreheaded macaque king of the Purple Cloud Cave in the Flower and Fruit Mountain, coming to help Tripitaka on his journey to the west, and changed his name to "Monkey Walker". The prototypes of the "Kingdom of Women" and "Stealing Peaches" already appeared in the vernacular novel, but it was Tripitaka who advocated stealing peaches, and Sun Wukong was very reluctant.

In the contemporary vernacular novel "Chen Xunjian Lost His Wife at Meiling", Sun Wukong lived in the north of Meiling and called himself the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, but he was not a great and glorious person, but a rapist who stole other people's wives and daughters. This may be related to the legend of "savages stealing wives" widely circulated in southern my country.

Later, these two images gradually merged, and Sun Wukong was no longer the image of a scholar in white clothes, but he completely returned to his true self, but he still wanted to steal other people's wives at every turn. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, vernacular dramas gradually flourished. At first, they were mostly performed in brothels and theaters, so the style was not high, and it was inevitable that obscene jokes would fly everywhere.

Even so, the image of Sun Wukong has always developed in a more positive direction. Yang Jingxian of the Yuan Dynasty compiled a complete story of the journey to the West by combining the stories of the past dynasties, namely the drama version of "Journey to the West", which basically covers most of the plots that are familiar to later generations. The popular "Journey to the West Pinghua" in a later period has been lost, and only remains in the notes of Koreans, in which Sun Wukong has already been named the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Shidetang version of Journey to the West was completed, and all subsequent Journey to the West stories were centered on it. Readers can see the author's preference for this monkey between the lines. As this version of Journey to the West became popular across the country and lasted for a long time, the image of Sun Wukong was finally established. He truly became the Monkey King who hated evil and was full of resistance, and was internalized as a precious part of the national spirit.

Writer Chi Zijian once said: "Myths make the cold winter warm and the darkness bright. There are also horror myths, such as reincarnation and fox spirits harming people, but in the end there will always be a person like Sun Wukong who can eliminate the evil spirits and punish evil and promote good." What is even more valuable is that the spirit of resistance displayed by Sun Wukong became a rare "fish that slipped through the net" in the harsh ethical environment of the imperial era.

There are countless examples of "castration", the most well-known of which is Yin Jiao, the crown prince of the Shang Dynasty. In "The Story of King Wu's Conquest of King Zhou", Yin Jiao has more scenes than King Wu and Jiang Ziya, and is treated as a complete protagonist. But such a story of "patricide" is detrimental to the great defense of ethics. In the more widely circulated "The Investiture of the Gods", the story becomes boring and conventional. Not only does Yin Jiao's role decrease sharply, but his character's motivations are also twisted and contradictory, and he finally gets a box lunch.

Because of this, the image of Sun Wukong became the emotional sustenance and banner of resistance for the lower classes in the imperial era who faced political, economic and ethical oppression. The image of Sun Wukong was passed down orally, then written down, and then compiled into plays and novels. The reason why it has lasted for so long is that it meets the expectations of the lower classes for a hero.

The Golden Monkey Rises His Thousand-pound Stick

As pioneers of Chinese animation, Wan Laiming and his brothers were inspired by the film Snow White, which was screened in Shanghai in 1940, and decided to shoot Princess Iron Fan to boost the morale of the people. At that time, a large area of ​​the country was lost. After reaching a peace agreement with Japan, the Soviet Union cut off its aid to China for more than a year, and the United States was constrained by domestic isolationism and could not provide large-scale support. The international situation was turbulent and the war of resistance entered its most difficult period. At that time, the army and civilians across the country were facing great dangers, just like Tang Monk and his disciples who had to cross the Flaming Mountain.

In order to respond to the current situation, the Wan brothers adapted the story. Unlike the original novel, where Sun Wukong sought external help to defeat the Bull Demon King, this film emphasized self-reliance and unity. Sun Wukong relied on his wisdom, animal traps made from trees by the people of Huoyan Mountain, and the iron chain he conjured to subdue the Bull Demon King. This means that as long as the army and the people of the country are united, they will surely win the war of resistance.

After the release of "Princess Iron Fan", it received rave reviews and resonated widely among many oppressed nations overseas. The Japanese also noticed the theme of the cartoon and banned it from being shown in Japan. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the isolated island of Shanghai fell and the Wan brothers had to flee to Hong Kong.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the 1960s, Wan Laiming led his team to produce "Havoc in Heaven", which not only pioneered the Chinese color animation feature film, but also became the foundation of the future Chinese animation school that is famous both at home and abroad. This film is based on Peking Opera culture and enriched with the image of flying murals. It is very different from the Disney style that was popular in the world at that time, showing a unique national characteristic, and inspiring and leading many animators at home and abroad, such as Osamu Tezuka, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki.

After the reform and opening up, inspired by the Japanese version of "Journey to the West", CCTV at that time took the lead in filming the 1986 version of "Journey to the West", which not only created CCTV's highest ratings of nearly 90%, but was also replayed more than 3,000 times in total, becoming an unforgettable childhood memory for generations.

On the eve of the millennium, Stephen Chow, who had already become famous in Hong Kong, was still unknown in the mainland. The two "A Chinese Odyssey" films released in 1995 only earned a total of 54 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, which was not a good performance and barely recovered the cost. But in 1999, the two films were introduced to the mainland with pirated DVDs, and Stephen Chow's name began to be "deified" among the mainland youth group. The "nonsense" Hong Kong comedy style began to be accepted in the mainland, and in the eyes of mainland movie fans, it was given a layer of "post-modern deconstructionism". The "Stephen Chow phenomenon" once became a cultural term.

At the turn of the century, when domestic animation as a whole fell into a slump, CCTV's animated version of "Journey to the West" held its last ground amidst the swarm of Japanese animations. This is China's first self-produced fully digital animation, with more than 2,000 animation and computer technicians involved in the entire process, drawing nearly 1 million animations, designing 20,000 backgrounds, and creating more than 500 character models.

In 2002, when domestic Internet companies were in a general slump, NetEase launched the game "Westward Journey Online", which, together with the later "Fantasy Westward Journey", became the iconic products of NetEase's transition from agency to self-research, and also found the most stable yet most controversial profit point for Chinese Internet companies in the future, which has an impact to this day.

The sudden release of "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" in 2015 was a dark horse and earned 956 million yuan at the box office. It showed for the first time that "adult animated films" have huge market potential in the Chinese film market, and provided the most powerful proof of the slogan of "the rise of Chinese animation" that has been shouted for a long time.

There are few cultural images that can remain so timeless, and can maintain their vitality after being constantly given new appearances and directions by creators of different generations, while maintaining their basic color. They are even often used as the "fire captain" and "pioneer" of the industry. But, has "Sun Wukong" appeared too many times?

"Monkey King" Addiction

The over-reliance of the domestic ACG industry on traditional IP represented by Sun Wukong has become a commonplace issue. Animated films are mostly based on Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods, and Legend of the White Snake, while games revolve around several traditional themes such as the Three Kingdoms, martial arts, and Journey to the West.

Local myths and historical stories have their own heritage and vitality, but if the industry focuses on the same type of subject matter, it is difficult to avoid the problem of similar core ideas leading to aesthetic fatigue among audiences and users. Moreover, many historical and mythological stories have been accumulated over the years and have their own logical framework and story context that are deeply rooted in people's minds and are difficult to shake easily.

If you put old wine in a new bottle and just improve the technical indicators within the original framework, you will be accused of being conservative and lacking sincerity; but if you make a radical change and use the skin of traditional IP to wrap up a new narrative logic or even a deconstructive story, it will greatly test the ability of the main creators and easily lead to polarized reputation. Those who are lucky will lose reputation but win box office, but cast a shadow on the future, and those who are unlucky will disappear silently.

The reason for relying too much on traditional IP adaptations is not only the obvious lack of confidence in originality, but also the insufficient supply of high-quality original IPs. The comics industry in mature markets such as Europe, the United States, and Japan is very developed, providing a steady stream of IPs for film and television adaptations and games, and many works are built on the basis of successful comics. In recent years, the main source of IP in China's entertainment industry is online novels. Therefore, drawing on traditional IPs and mythological stories is a safe card with not much room for choice.

In fact, traditional IP is a crutch for the entertainment industry in its start-up phase, helping it achieve a breakthrough from zero to one, but it cannot always be held on to.

This time, Black Myth: Wukong has achieved unprecedented success, not only making Luckin Coffee's co-branded products sell out quickly, but also pushing up the share price of Huayi, which indirectly holds a stake. But this success is largely unrepeatable. In addition to its own technical indicators, Black Myth: Wukong also hit the long-awaited players for domestic 3A games, and even took advantage of the macro narrative of "culture going overseas". The right time, right place, and right people are all there.

Some people say it was just luck, others say it was born at the right time. But in any case, after Wukong, there is always a need to find another successful image. Every time the market is saved by the Great Sage, the same words can be heard, "The Great Sage is tired, let him rest."

References:

1. The Paper - "Havoc in Heaven": Sun Wukong, the Unyielding National Fighting Spirit

2. Vista View the World-------- "Why did Sun Wukong become a monkey?"

3. The Paper--------------"Domestic or imported? Uncovering the mystery of Sun Wukong's origin"