Chinese actor Liu Xiao Ling Tong, famous for starring as Sun Wukong or Monkey King in a popular 1980s Chinese TV series, raises numerous monkeys to the point his daughter thought one monkey was her father.
The 51-year-old internationally-acclaimed star in the epic ‘Journey to the West’ gave an exclusive interview Saturday with Tuoi Tre during his five-day tour in Vietnam starting December 25.
Can you communicate with monkeys in real life?
The number of monkeys I keep in my house are even more numerous than my family’s offspring.
But it’s not always an advantage if you keep close contact with the monkey. My daughter grows up thinking that she is a daughter of the monkey.
Even my wife sometimes becomes shocked at seeing our house like a hideout for monkeys. Also she is sometimes panicked seeing me in anger with my eyes opening wide [in imitation of the Monkey King].
I know a photographer who won an international award with a photo he took of me and a monkey. At the time, I was costumed as Sun Wukong and the real monkey looked like it was trying to shake my hand.
It’s in the animal’s instinct to raise its hand upon seeing me. The picture undergoes no modifications like Photoshop or whatsoever.
The monkey shares similar feelings with humans being, has happiness, anger, love and hatred. It may become sulky if you tease it with fruits but then take them back.
If you treat a monkey well, it will return the favor to you.
You announced that you will not teach anyone how to act the Monkey King the way you did?
A minor crisis has taken place with the role of Sun Wukong in China. Those who act differently from me will not be accepted by the audience. But doing it similarly to me is called mimicking.
Many learners who train themselves to become actor of the Monkey King admitted that the more they tried to mimic, the more impossible the task would be.
So I don’t want to teach anyone because I want to let them study themselves from what I did and develop it into their own, not to mimic it.
Besides, I now find it interesting with the other job: writing and taking care of the Hall of Fame of Wu Cheng’en [who is credited with authoring the novel] and an exhibition hall for me [in the eastern province of Jiangsu].
What do you think about new variations of Sun Wukong, the main character of the novel?
In some films adapted from the novel, they let Sun Wukong having sex with monsters, or marrying an adopted daughter of the Bodhisattva of Mercy.
I always give the advice when I come to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and others that ‘you should develop it not to distort it’.
One of the main characteristics of Sun Wukong is honesty.
I know children in Vietnam enjoy watching Sun Wukong on television every summer and I want to tell them that Sun Wukong always keeps his eyes over children’s development.
Source: Tuoitrenews
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