The Monkey King steals the limelight at Moscow National Theater

By Yuan Shenggao and Han Junhong | China Daily | Updated: 2017-11-09 07:43

The Monkey King stole the limelight at the Moscow National Theater on Oct 23.

In a highlight performance of the 2017 Russia-China Tour, Jilin Culture Week, the Peking Opera show called Havoc in Heaven was created and performed by the working staff in Jilin Opera Theater.

With the goal of telling Chinese and Jilin stories, 2017 Russia-China Tour, Jilin Culture Week launched a series of cultural activities in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other places in Russia.

The activities include an overseas book promotion fair, a Jilin movie exhibition, China-Russia poetry reading and a heritage photography exhibition.

Also known as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King is a mythological figure from the Chinese fantasy novel Journey to the West.

The show's storyline was a segment picked up from the novel, one of the four great masterpieces of ancient Chinese literature.

The Monkey King wore exquisite costumes and vivid makeup onstage. He somersaulted while waving his legendary golden cudgel, winning rapturous applause from the audience.

The group of famous Chinese actors and performing artists, such as national first-level actors Yang Xuebin and Wang Quan, gave their full efforts in the performance.

At the beginning, the show started with the classic scene in which the Monkey King travels to the palace of the Dragon King - the master of water in ancient Chinese legend - in the East Sea to borrow a weapon. The Dragon King treats him with contempt and tricks him into trying to move the heavy magic golden-hooped rod. But the Monkey King is able to move the divine rod and makes it become his own weapon, meaning his power surges considerably.

This misbehavior is reported to the Jade Emperor, the highest god in Heaven in Chinese legend.

To suppress the Monkey King's power, the Jade Emperor introduces the Monkey King to Heaven and gives him a godly position to watch him closely.

The Monkey King on one hand is not used to the dull days in Heaven. On the other hand, he feels hostility from the other gods.

Finally, a fierce battle ensues between the Monkey King and the troops in Heaven.

Having been through dangerous and rough days, the wise and brave Monkey King conquers the troops. In the end, the Monkey King goes back to Huaguo Mountain where he was born. His brothers and followers celebrate his return.

The show, lasting two hours with interlinking and constantly exciting scenes, left a deep impression on the more than 2,000 locals from different fields in Moscow, who attended and watched the show.

When it finished, the audience broke into warm applause and cheers for a long time, even though the actors had answered the curtain call several times.

That night, the artists and performers used their artistic skills to establish a friendship bridge from Northeast China's Songhua River to Europe's Volga River, the continent's largest.

"Chinese Peking Opera is amazing. It is exciting to watch this excellent traditional performance in my city. This kind of stage art belongs only to China. It is your giant cultural treasure," Yevgeny Sinizen, an audience member said after the show.

Another Russian audience member took his child to watch the show and said: "I have never been to China and know very little about Jilin. But after watching the performance, I am thinking about taking my child to visit China and Jilin so as to learn more about Chinese culture."

"The activity builds the bridge of cultural exchange between China and Russia. Through it, we can know more about Chinese traditional cultures and arts, and make new friends," said a Russian man in his fifties. He added that he would never forget the Chinese kung fu performed by the actors.