A seven-meter-tall bust of the Monkey King, built entirely from discarded plane-tree branches, has turned a rural village in Dongying, Shandong province, into a local attraction.
The figure depicts Sun Wukong, the rebellious monkey hero of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, who called himself Qitian Dasheng, a title embodying a longing for freedom.
Fan Lijie, an artist born in the 1980s, spent more than two months assembling the piece by hand. The materials were branches left over from urban tree pruning.
There were no blueprints and no polished wood — only nails, rough twigs, and patience.
The figure's downcast eyes and quiet defiance carry personal weight. Fan began the work shortly after his father passed away, and he acknowledges that some of that grief entered the sculpture. When people urged him to add the Monkey King's iconic golden headband, he refused. "The headband is a constraint imposed by others," he said. "The Monkey King in my heart has no headband."
On social media, the work has taken on a life of its own. People have made short videos, posted comments, and used AI to place the branch-built figure in snowstorms and battle scenes.
Fan plans to set the Monkey King's golden cudgel — the signature At-Will Gold-Banded Staff — upright. He hopes birds will nest among the dry branches and children will return to the garden to watch seeds break through the soil next spring.
Video by An Xianglin and Shao Feng.
