Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year + Monkey King!


Earlier last week I sent out a digital CNY greeting card. Zaobao (our main Chinese newspaper) columnist Lim Fangwei received it and included it in his Zbnow comics page on the 21st Jan (Wed), titled "Anime/comics greeting cards welcome the Year of the Ox".

Why use the Monkey King for the card? In Chinese folklore, the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) is the sworn-brother of The Ox Demon King (Niu Mowang). As economists forecast a gloomy picture of negative economic growth around the world, I hope that everyone can be as resourceful and powerful as the Monkey King in dealing with this new year's challenges.

"Fear Not The Ox!"

Just click on the pictures below for a full-sized ecard and send it as an encouragement to all your friends!



Another reason why I am invoking the Monkey King this year is because I am thinking of publishing a comic anthology of the Monkey King. But I'll talk about that in a later blog post. Instead, I'd like to share with you a most wonderful comic book I just read:


"American Born Chinese" is a comic book by Asian American artist/high school teacher Gene Luen Yang. Yang skillfully weaves the Monkey King story into his personal experience as an Asian American.


I studied in America, so I can appreciate what it feels like to be a minority race: you try so hard to fit in and be accepted into that society, and yet there are many road blocks you must overcome along the way. I won't spoil the powerful message it delivers in the end, but I am just delighted that there are still fresh ideas that spring from such a classic character. To see the Monkey King from Yang's comics is a joy, and an inspiration.

Highly recommended!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My friend and I were recently discussing about how technology has become so integrated in our day to day lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.


I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as memory gets cheaper, the possibility of uploading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about every once in a while.


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Cover of Sir Fong 2

Cover of Sir Fong 2