Black Myth Wukong: No Fun to Pray
How China's Gaming Industry Turned the Beloved Monkey King into a Power Fantasy
Chinese game developer, Game Science, just released a 13-minute follow-up to its instantly viral gameplay trailer for a big-budget Chinese videogame starring the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. With more details of the plot revealed, it appears the game will do for the Chinese mythological tradition what God of War did to the Greek and Norse: give players the epic ability to utterly destroy it. To hell with the Taoist-Buddhist-Confucian metaphysics that underpin the entire novel, the trailer’s narrator declares, indulge your passions, embrace bodily pleasure, and seek “true wisdom” in decadence. Having spent the last two years covering every single chapter of The Journey to the West on our podcast, I was seriously bummed at first.
God of War: China Edition
On a superficial level, the game has the look absolutely right. The art draws inspiration from media representations of the characters and dials them up to 11 in their aesthetics and fluidity. To play a game in which the Monkey King and mythical Tang Dynasty China are so gorgeously rendered would be any fan’s dream. Sadly, what’s captured is only surface level. Yes, mythologies across cultures often involve supernatural elements, epic battles between colossal figures, and talking animal demons. But to port Sun Wukong into a videogame and make him little more than “Kratos with hair” grossly misses the point.
Religion Should Be Fun(ny)
What actually makes Journey to the West and the Chinese culture that inspired it unique and interesting is what Scott Park Phillips has called a “comic” view of religion. Contrast this with the “tragic” view of the Greeks. Where the pantheistic heroes of western mythology struggled mightily against fate and were defeated by the god’s cruel tricks, Sun Wukong and the Asian pantheon were trying to find a path to salvation for humanity together.
Western myths frequently center around the theme of the culture’s best and brightest trying to defy the gods, an impossible ambition with typically tragic results. Meanwhile, Journey to the West is about its best and brightest going on a perilous quest to retrieve scriptures from their culture’s highest deity. When things go wrong, it’s often the result of some bumbling divine bureaucrat letting their pet rabbit run amok and take demonic form. A day up there is a year down here, so by the time anyone notices, we could be decades into a calamity. Everyone means well, and the gods do try to make things right, but there’s only so much even angels can do.
In both worldviews, life is cheap. But whereas the Greeks saw this as a cosmic affront to humanity, accompanied by much wailing, chest-beating, and teeth-gnashing, the Chinese took this as a sign that one shouldn’t take life so seriously. Nonsensical chaos ensues, but also opportunities for mirth and merriment. If you got a raw deal this time around, there’s always the next reincarnation.
Monkey See, Monkey Not
Nobody exemplifies this attitude better than the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. Even when his master, the monk Tripitaka, is captured, he can’t help but try to pull a prank on the captors. This frequently results in the monk suffering and bemoaning his fate as he waits for his distracted savior to arrive.
Throughout the novel, Wukong finds over and over again that brute force won’t solve his problems or rescue his master. Instead, the trickster figure relies on his wits, compassion, and the help of various deities to help Tripitaka finish his quest. Wukong never loses his sense of humor, and we never forget that he is a mischievous monkey. Many recent depictions of Wukong have left this core part of his identity out completely, choosing instead to make him an action hero with magical powers. They are doing the character, and potential new fans, a huge disservice.
It’s All Mara
Worse still, instead of virtue and compassion, the game encourages players to revel in wanton destruction and sin. The big sell is that you get to beat up monsters and gods alike (here represented by the corrupt old statues in the archaic temple demanding that visitors bow down). It all just seems like such a wasted opportunity; to apply the best that modern CGI tech can offer to JTTW and make it about hedonism.
But now I think I get it.
The more "realistic" the illusion of a piece of media like a game or movie is, the less likely you are to get the deeper meaning. I now believe this is why the old plays and rituals with their loud makeup and costumes and exaggerated movements were so obviously "not real". They were mytho-poetically real. The aesthetics were pointing to something beyond the physical, i.e. the metaphysical.
What's the difference between pure fantasy and mythical allegory? Pure fantasy is made to enrapture you, mythical allegories were made to awaken you.
So with works like Journey to the West, you have markers all over it that point to it being "not real”, intending to guide readers to "the real". The morals of each chapter are written out in couplets at the end, the plots are spoiled in the chapter titles, and there are often errors in its own story logic. Unlike modern media that’s judged solely on its ability to entertain, the book wasn’t going to let that overshadow its ability to enlighten. Improving oneself, not getting caught up in materialistic illusions, cultivating healthy habits. These truths have value whether we’re talking about everyday life or kung fu monkeys fighting mountain-sized demons.
What the game did was take the character of Wukong and turn him into a power fantasy for the player.
This will almost certainly make them more money than a game that's also a Buddhist/Daoist allegory. Maybe that’s okay as those who get what the story is really about won’t even bother to get lost in this illusion. While those who have never read the books might just find themselves drawn to its greater depth after playing the game.
Either way, the graphics are pretty sick.
"What's the difference between pure fantasy and mythical allegory? Pure fantasy is made to enrapture you, mythical allegories were made to awaken you." —A perfect clarification!