#buddist monkey

[the-monkey-ruler]

I was reading The Monkey King's Daughter (you can read the whole book for an hour) and apparently the protagonist is also Guanyin's grandchild? Can Guanyin be shipped?

I mean I can’t say like what are like the moral implications of shipping GuanYin itself cause that is so not my place but I’m still going to answer this cause it kinda of interesting when it comes to modern media. First off saying that like I have never really seen romance done with GuanYin. At least in a serious way. But if I had to take a guess it can be seen as 'possible' as much as like shipping anyone in Chinese mythos, in that isn't really taken seriously at all. In a lot of modern fan spaces there are a variety of crack ships for more humorous or hypothetical situations like I have seen literally the Star of Venus shipped with Jade Emperor just cause. But I don't see much with buddhas or bodhisattvas in either post-modern media nor in fan spaces. At least that isn't Wukong or Sanzang since they are both Buddhas. And I have done a whole thing about how Wukong for decades wasn’t seen as a romantic figure until like there was a huge character reconstruction, but that isn’t usually the case for most characters.

I would say that the most mainstream instance I can think off the top of my head is The Lost Empire (2001) where it had the main character has a romantic plot with Gaunyin herself. Of course, that wasn't really a masterpiece within itself but this was considered like a 'bad choice' more so that it was just a very strange and awkward romance at that.

Funny enough I think I see more romantic for humor's sake on Guanyin in comic books or games as likes gags at most. Like in Westward comics (later a tv series) Guanyin has a celestial-turned-demon trying to pursue him that he always rejects. Another is more play for laughs but Guanyin in the Fei Ren Zai where people just don't know it's Guanyin and think she is so attractive.

I've seen some games that have Guanyin as like a pretty boy/girl but otherwise nothing even close to a romance plot. Those are more just for like aesthetics of making every character look overly attractive to sell it.

The best I can say is that is just kinda strange and a little strange personally but I can't say that it can be taken seriously. I mean Wukong is supposed to be a Buddha by the end of the novel, so if The Monkey King's Daughter has it that a buddha can have a daughter then there wouldn't be anything stopping the author from having a bodhisattva having kids.

[sillytigergrimlin]

Journey to the West info dump!

Journey to the West is four [depending on the version] novels that depict the Journey of a Buddist Monk and his four superpowers deciples. They are going West to get the Tripitaka, a scroll that will redeem any sinner.

The main character of the book is the Buddist Monk, Tang Sanzang:

The most recognizable character, is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, The Monkey King, Sun Wukong:

Funny how the first 7 chapters are about Sun Wukongs origin story, very entertaining, while Tang Sanzangs origin story was pretty boring to read for me- which is crazy that it was boring because Tang Sanzangs mother bit off his left pinkie toe then send him down a river ! In a basket or something like that-

Crazy stuff

Very good book, I do recommend-

Makes watching things based off of it even more fun, like Lego Monkie Kid

[Finished product]

[loyaltykask]

Chapter 58

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

Aww he still worried about his grandkids

Kinda interesting that they add Six Ears has 'false Buddist' claims, 'shortens the ground', and has 'staff of iron'

But that he is also long-cultivated

It sounds like Six Ears could have cultivated without eating humans But he is a spiritual monkey from birth, they seem to be special cases And yeah he has an iron rod as well, but it doesn't say what it came from

I do find it funny they are laughing on the way down Like a couple of scamps

Lots of regrets on here today Sanzang with Wukong and POOR WUJING KILLEd A MONKEY

What matters is that he is trying

Tripi still got faith the monkey is kicking ass

Make that 71, and that so didn't work

Ten Kings of Hell

I know if this means that 130 names were crossed out compared to the 47,000 monkeys he had living with him, or that 130 species of monkeys were ALL crossed off his list, and that even monkeys that have never met Wukong are just immoral now

SO many immortals

Goodness these lists just keep going and going

These poor monkeys damn

[amberstarangelle]

AAI2 - new names just dropped

Spoilers for Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Seriously, if you haven't played the game (either the fan translation or the upcoming official one) buzz off. I mean it.

Seriously. Go away.

Those guys gone? Okay. So, a bunch of new names were confirmed (at least 90% sure these are legit) on a french website. I'll stick it in the replies if you wanna check it out for yourself. Of exclusive interest to me is Simon's new name. Simeon Saint. The pun for the first name is obvious (simian = monkey) but given how close it is to Simon it may be an intentional nod. Maybe. His last name is almost more interesting. Saint is obviously ironic given who he is as a person, but I also think it may be a non-direct nod to the word bishop, in this case obviously referencing the chess piece. Which would tie in with the other chess based names (Knightly/Knight & Rooke/Rook). Its less on the nose than those two but I think that is intentional subterfuge. Saint could also be a non direct nod to Dogen/Kanis given the man's whole buddist monk thing. Though honestly how they resisted using the word Monk in any part of Simon's new name is beyond me. I mean, I honestly prefer it this way but the temptation must have been strong. Though they may have just wanted it to have an S sound so that together it would flow to be reminiscent of 'simon says' my overall thoughts? could have been worse. could have been way worse. I can live with this.

[treetownconfessions]

I leaned that Buddist Monkey’s ears are diff colors

The more you know

WHAT

[chrisgraves09]

More HTF characters as FNaF animatronics

[starsfic]

Ok what clever trickery did mk use to steal he staff you my friend have peaked my interest 🤔

So, the thing to know is that in my AU, Qi Xiaotian is the youngest of the four immortal monkeys. Which means that, even without the staff, he still can summon a cloud, summon clones... and shapeshift. And when the pilgrims ran into him and he saw the power of the staff, he decided he had to have it.

Both Red and Xiaojiao supported his desire. And the two adopted siblings put their heads together.

One day, Xiaojiao sent a few demons who owed her a favor to attack a village. This created enough of an issue that Tang Sanzang was sent to do some Buddist prayers and Wukong went with him to make sure he didn't get kidnapped. While they were busy, Xiaotian transformed himself into the form of a young boy.

When the battle was over, the village threw a massive party in celebration. The battle was difficult enough that Wukong was a bit high on victory, enough to accept a glass of wine or two. (Something he hasn't indulged in since Havoc in Heaven.) When the party had died down enough, Xiaotian made his move.

The "young boy" offered to play a few games of Go, playing up the act of being a human child who was just fascinated with these real gods. Wukong, tipsy enough that he didn't use his eyes of truth, agreed. The two played for a while, Wukong winning some and the boy winning some and Tripitaka just having fun cheering them on.

Eventually, they were at a tie. Wukong, having immense fun and still on the victory/wine high, decided to make things a little interesting. If the boy won, he would give him whatever he wanted. He even made a binding oath to it.

The boy agreed.

And then proceeded to completely wreck Wukong.

When the game was over, Wukong kept to his promise. When he asked for what the boy wanted, he was cheerfully told his staff.

Wukong figured that... was impossible. But he could let the kid try and when he couldn't pick it up, he would offer something else. So he set the staff on the ground and told the boy to pick it up.

...which he did.

And, in an instant, Qi Xiaotian transformed into his true form and, with a cheerful thank you, ran off. Leaving a horrified Wukong and Tripitaka in his dust.

And now, because of the binding oath, Wukong can't get his staff back unless Xiaotian gives it back.

Wukong is very upset by this.

[brunhiddensmusings]

Tell me more about this conspiracy theory about dragonball as a retelling of journey to the west please

okay, some of this is pretty surface level to the point its just face value but also just more ignored then denied firstly, i must establish ‘journey to the west’ to those not familliar with it- its a 2000+ page long chinese novel from the ming dynasty, like 1600 if i recall, but odd because it focuses on a buddist mindset in a time when china still considered buddism to be a foreign influence. the author uses fairly large sections to critisize the other contemporary options to buddism such as daoism (for being largely unconcerned with helping people or betterment) and confucianism (for being rigid to the point it cant adapt and promote extremely bloated beaurocracies incapable of doing much) as well as to extoll the upsides of budism (namely magic powers) and how badass demons are journey to the west is notable for being the origin of about 80% of all anime tropes and over a dozen anime and videogames are directly based on it son goku, unsurprisingly, is pretty much a dirrect anlouge for son wukong, the magical stone monkey king that was born with laser eyes spends the first 7 chapters becoming about (i lost count) 8+ kinds of immortal, learning how to shapeshift and fly from an old hermit monk, and pissing off most gods of any note and the entire bureaucracies of both heaven AND hell. as i said, this is face value to the point its pretty open

son wukong’s identifying features including a size-changing 8 ton iron staff, being pretty much indestructible even to major gods, being extremely impulsive and moderately arrogant, flight, and pretty much openly admits he has probably eaten some people. this should sound familiar however he is not the main character, Buddha himself buries him under a mountain (which has a magic seal on top because a regular mountain wouldnt be heavy enough to hold him) to try and teach him some humility (which fails) saying he needs to wait untill someone frees him in which case he will be endebted to and be the servant of said free-er. while we progress to the ACTUAL protagonist of the story a bald monk named Tang Sanzang is in fact the central charachter, although his name has been interpereted several ways including Tripiṭaka (also the name of the baskets of scrolls hes supposed to carry). the big B entasks he of the shiny head with the task of journeying from china to india to pick up said sacred scriptures so holy they can redeem anyone and then bring them back to filthy filthy china thats badly in need of these ‘morals’ things people keep talking about. but this is where you start to get a lot of ‘wait, that sounds familiar’ when i describe things like ‘bald monk’ and the adventures cueball the magical is going to go on with his companions of anime

because almost immediately after freeing son wukong from the magic mountain of sityerassdown and putting a magic circlet on his head that causes him great pain when baldy says a prayer to keep him in line (yes this is where inuyasha gets the ‘sit’ necklace) they come across a SHAPESHIFTING PIG DEMON who turns out inst all that bad a guy its just that his new wife is very upset because she thought she was marrying a handsome bishounen despite admitting hes a dilligent worker and treats her well because hes seeking attonement for having eaten people after being kicked out of heaven (where he used to actually be a bishounen in the celestial army) for hitting on women. yet another case of DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR

and i just now realize why he was wearing the chinese military officers uniform or at least would sound familiar to people who watched the original ‘dragonball’ and not just DBZ where oolong and the 50 other characters who were all established to be quite powerful when used cleverly were all relegated soely to be sideline cheer squad and ‘hey, remember these guys, from back when this wasnt the kiss goku’s butt show’- which is the point here following the original journey to the west story you started with the magical monkey shenanigans (check) then he learns from hermit (check) how to fly (check) and shapeshift (i guess they thought he was powerful enough without it despite it being one of his major go-to solutions in the story but i get that they already established thats a power someone else had so i understand leaving it out narratively) battling demons, gods, and pissing off the kings of hell and the emperor of heaven (check) and then gets humiliated by Buddha (absent, again i understand leaving this out for narrative tone and to avoid being overly religious in a kids cartoon despite actively leaving king Yema in the story) teams up with the bald monk who they initially clash but becomes his friend over time (check) who then becomes the main protagonist (major not-check) magical monkey jerk is repeatedly scolded for wantonly killing people and given a magical crown of headaches ( fail) teams up with shapeshifting pig who also becomes close ally with useful powers but has deep character flaws (check) and then team up with a dragon who ate their horse who then apologizes by transforming into a horse and then everyone forgets its a dragon (wait, what) and then team up with a river god named sandy (by this time the dragonball plot has already passed mars and is orbiting Jupiter because i think this is when frankenstein appeared and then king piccolo with his sons drum, tamborine, piano, and cymbal, i think goku kills one eats another and asked a samurai if he could eat the third but this is before they retcon piccolo to be a namek {eg- from the planet ‘slug’} instead of a demon because they keep waffling if demons are real) and is then followed by a long list of falling into traps laid by demons because the monk is naive, the pig is cowardly, the monkey is foolhardy, the dragon is too busy staying in his ponysona, and the river deity is carrying the bags narratively this is confusing for several reasons but i could literally teach a college level class on what DBZ does that no writer should ever, EVER, do and every friday to prevent unkind amounts of homework point at how original dragonball at least had narrative cohesion of purpose when it went off in left field but that's part of the journey- in original dragonball everything is a journey of the human spirit for self improvement, in original journey to the west everything is a journey of the human spirit for a shot at redemption, but in DBZ everything is goku is awesome and nobody else is worth his time unless they go ‘ha-ha, i am the most powerful fight punch guy in universe, we must fight’ because fuck anyone who isnt the most powerful being in the universe and even fuck them because they almost never have a reason for being the most powerful and its irritating how shit they are like some of them are mentally five years old who gave you the power to be this dangerous. whats odd is they specifically set it up several times that goku is supposed to narratively step aside and his son(s) step up to carry on the legacy in a return to the earlier more sensable formula, even presenting them as being less powerful as him as an attempt to move away form the absurd escalation issues the series had where goku can destroy a planet by farting yet every thursday they mysteriously find someone five times stronger then the last strongest person in the universe as that wasnt the point in either original dragonball or journey to the west where being clever was always far more important then being powerful, especially as son wukong was mostly more powerful then goku anyways but still got in monster of the week shenannegans not solvable by impulsive brutality. they knew this was a problem, they understood that the endless escalation had gone to the realm where the audience had lost any investment and nobody other then goku could be useful to the story to the point that they even had a WHOLE SERIES where to try and counteract the power creep they had some weird explanation goku is actually time traveled or cursed or some shit so hes only a kid and roughly as strong as he was in later episodes of the original dragonball..... close, so close to actually addressing the problem but also keeping so many other problems krillin moving into being the protagonist would have alleviated the majority of the problems DBZ had- the power escalation bullshittery and the complete lack of stakes as you know goku is going to punch the thing untill it explodes after six episodes of yelling and anything without ‘planet gonna go boom’ no longer seems like a problem worth caring about. goku being downgraded to being the impulsive muscle on a team that included others that were less overtly powerful but still narratively useful to the adventure would have also alleviated almost all the ‘everybody who isnt goku is a fragile useless  porcelain figurine of a child’ problems that are very counter-intuitive and kind of insulting: in original dragonball, for example, master roshi was the only known human capable of doing the kamehameha which took 50 years to learn (goku learns it by watching it once and that should have been the cap for him being overpowered{a rival teacher had a more powerful version that nobody else learns}), climbed the sacred tower which took 7 years (it took goku about a week, which is well within the realm of where escalation should be), and blew up the fucking moon but in dbz his ‘power level’ is lower then his pet turtle..... despite all of that and being the one who trained goku and krillin allowing them to be absurdly strong in the first place so they apparently forgot their own history.  so taking the actual good story points they aready had and throwing them in the trash is a running problem

they even had the setup for krillin being in peril continually, all the ‘krillin dies’ memes are about on par with how often every demon on the road (which they pass like gas stations) are kidnapping and trying to eat Tripitaka, whcih is framed as despite Tripitaka being powerful he isnt as powerful as his allies but never framed as useless, especially as even goku has to seek help frequently, often from non-martial sources instead of the ‘kung fu solves everything’ mindset im unsure if anyone will want to start a fight about my statements regarding daballz but im okay with an intelectual argument about its writing .... how do i tag this? i forgot replies dont let me do that but i need to learn how to tag my rants one of theese days in hopes they actually get feedback

[the-monkey-ruler]

would you say macaque is something like a necessary evil in the novel?

I would say you are talking about the Six Eared Macaque right? There are a few Macaques in the story. I mean I wouldn't really say he is "necessary" as that isn't really the role he plays within the novel.

When I think "necessary evil" I think more like a force in society that is kept in order to keep the peace or to preserve other social forces that are considered more important to keep than to lose. A necessary evil is an evil that someone believes must be done or accepted because it is necessary to achieve a better outcome—especially because possible alternative courses of action or inaction are expected to be worse.

Which I do not believe the Six-Eared Macaque plays at all.

He is to play the role of the mirror to Sun Wukong. He is supposed to represent the absolute worse of what Wukong is capable of, not really being the opposite of Wukong but rather more of a foil to show Wukong what he could have been (I actually think another great foil character is Erlang Shen for different reasons). A version of Wukong that if he continued to be a warlord, continued to kill without regard for the value of life or consequences that the would turn into him.

The Six-Eared Macaque is not given a backstory so it's hard to say if they have similar backgrounds but rather it is that they are the same species and have the same drive that Wukong had at the start of the novel. Both being of immense power and, like Wukong, The Six Earred Macaque's greatest desire was to get fame and glory and to be recognized for it, despite the consequences.

Personally I believe that the Six-Eared Macaque was inspired by the Buddist saing “The dharma is not to be transmitted to the sixth ear" which means that there isn't a third person around to easdrop, usually between student and teacher. This is only used once when Wukong was speaking with Master Puti and this is where I think that the Six Earred Macaque learned the same skill that Wukong did.

Of course, this also means that he doesn't have a complete understanding. He would always be slightly off with his own teachings, always a step behind, and only be able to imitate what they were eavesdropping on as they were never told directly.

Kind of like how Wukong is supposed to be a master of transformation when he fought Erlang Shen and still lost the SIx Earred Macaque is supposed to discern and have knowledge but he is still just eavesdropping. He is never going to have the real thing.

Wukong is meant to represent Nothingness or emptiness, literally in his name meaning "Monkey Awakened to Emptiness" and how he and the Six Earred Macaque are meant to be of one mind but they are "two mind" that are fighting each other. One being one's natural impulsive thoughts and the other is the self-control people practice to think ahead. They are both inside a person's mind but only one can have full control of the body so to speak. I think a good western example of this would be like Ego vs ID but please don't take that as a one-to-one, it's not!

It is connected to how Wukong is the mind monkey and in order for him to reach his namesake that state of overcoming uncontrollable thought he needs to fight the worst version of himself, which is what I think the Six-Eared Macaque is supposed to represent. This actually goes with how I think Wukong and his connection with Bailong being the Horse of Will show how Wukong has gradually started to overcome his own thoughts and practice self-control though his dedicated willpower. (Bailong is an important allegory yet again.)

Long story short I think that the Six-Eared Macaque is to more represents Wukong's character growth. Rather than be a "necessary evil" he is another milestone to show that Wukong is about to look at the worst traits of himself and through fighting himself and wrestling with who he is, he is able to come to accept himself as well... and by defeating his doppelganger he shows that after battling himself he comes out the victor. Him moving on and changing throughout the journey shows him to be stronger and more sure of himself both mentally and spiritually.

[templesinindia]

Buddha Temples in India

Born to a royal couple from Kapilavastu, Siddhartha who is popularly known as Gautama Buddha grew up in an environment that hid the fundamental realities of life. His father never wanted his son to be touched by human sufferings and raised him luxuriously. But Siddhartha was destined to detach himself from materialistic life. He chose to lead a life that would inspire the world. In this photo-feature, we will take a look at the four main places that are associated with the life of Gautama Buddha. Thousands of devotees from across the world visit these Buddhism pilgrimage sites. There are five places that are considered to be the main place for the followers of Lord Buddha worldwide.

Mahabodhi Temple Complex-Bodhgaya, Gaya, Bihar, India

Bodh Gaya is the location where, under the sacred pipal tree, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment and became the Buddha. Gautama Buddha meditated, preached and attained enlightenment under this tree. A simple shrine was built by the emperor Ashoka to mark the spot, and this was later enclosed by a stone railing. To know more click below link

Mahabodhi Temple Complex

Sarnath Buddhist Temple-Sarnath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Lord Buddha gave his first sermon here after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. During his reign, Emperor Ashoka came to Sarnath to spread the message of love and peace of Lord Buddha and built a stupa here in 249 BCE. To know more click below link

Sarnath Buddhist Temple

Mahaparinirvana Stupa-Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

Kushinagar is this place that the Buddha had chosen to free himself from the cycles of death and life and, therefore, it occupies a very special space in the heart of every Buddhist. This houses a 6.10 meter long statue of the Buddha in a reclining position represents the dying Buddha reclining on his right side. To know more click below link

Mahaparinirvana Stupa

Mukutbandhan Chaitya(Ramabhar Stupa)-Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

This is where Buddha’s body is said to have been cremated. Architecturally, this half-ruined 15m-high stupa is little more than a large, dome-shaped clump of red bricks. The excavations led by General Cunningham have revealed structures and artifacts related to all sects of Buddhism. To know more click below link

Mukutbandhan Chaitya – Ramabhar Stupa

Jetavana Sahet Mahavihara Monastery-Jetavana, Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh, India

Lord Buddha performed the greatest of his miracles to confound the Tirthika heretics. These miracles include Buddha creating multiple images of himself, which has been a favorite theme of Buddhist art. Shravasti is a huge complex full of Buddhist stupas, viharas, and temples. To know more click below link

Jetavana Sahet Mahavihara Monastery

Sankassa Buddhist Site-Sankassa, Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Buddha went up to the Tusita Heaven, spent three months there teaching the Abhidhamma to his mother and then descended back to earth at the village of Sankassya. King Asoka erected one of his pillars here. To know more click below link

Sankassa Buddhist Site

Vishwa Shanti Stupa-Rajgir, Nalanda, Bihar, India

Buddha often visited this place, seeking the solitude and tranquillity of the Jivkamaravana monastery and preaching and meditating at the Griddhakuta hill. At this hill, he converted one of the celebrated followers, the Mauryan King Bimbisara, to Buddhism. When Buddha arrived at ‘Parinirvana’ his devotees held the first Buddhist council at the Saptaparni cave. It was here, that his teachings were penned down for the very first time. To know more click below link

Vishwa Shanti Stupa

Vaishali Buddist Sanctuary-Kolhua, Vaishali, Bihar, India

Buddha announced the approaching of his Mahaparinirvana here. During one of his visits there, Buddha was offered a bowl of honey by a monkey; this incident is mentioned as one of the eight great events in his life. It was at Vaishali that several people embraced after Buddha had displayed divine presentations of his spirituality. Vaishali is also very important for the fact that it was here that women were made part of Sangha for the first time in the history of Buddhism. Mahaprajapati Gautami, who was Gautam Buddha’s foster mother, had also joined the order at Vaishali with 500 Shakya-women. To know more click below link

Vaishali Buddhist Sanctuary

[japanbio]

Structure

Freytag’s Pyramid is the Western style of storytelling. Built off the development and leadup to a central conflict, which is negated on the protagonist, before finding a last-bid solution, and ending with a calm final scene.

It again ties back into the Catholic concept of struggling against a great foe or evil, and finding yourself better off for it.

Example of Freytag’s Pyramid in Jack and The Beanstalk:

Exposition - Jack and his Mother live in poverty with their cow, Daisy, who no longer gives milk.

Inciting Incident - Jack is sent to town by his Mother to sell Daisy for as much as they can get.

Rising Action - Jack sells his cow for beans which he is told are Magic Beans.

Complication - Jack’s Mother is furious and thinks the beans are falsehood, tossing them into the garden.

Climax - The beans grow into a beanstalk up into the clouds by the next morning. Jack climbs the beanstalk to find the Giant’s Castle in the sky. He is taken in by the Giant and lives in luxury.

Reversal of Fortune - Jack finds the Giant wants to eat him and must escape.

Falling Action - He therefore steals the Golden Goose and the Harp and makes his way down the beanstalk.

Resolution - Jack cuts down the beanstalk as the Giant chases him, sending the Giant plummeting to his death.

Denouement - Jack and his Mother live in luxury with the Harp and the Golden Goose that lays golden eggs.

Kishotenketsu is the Eastern structure of story writing. Conflict is built in as an unexpected twist with a focus on the inital development of world and characters.

This structure style ties back into Buddist belief of self-improvement with the focus on development, and the twist simply being a distraction from that conquest.

Example of Kishotenketsu in Momotaro:

Introduction - An old woman finds a large Peach floating in the river as she goes to wash clothes. She takes the peach back to her husband who cuts it open to find a baby boy inside.

Development - The boy is named Momotaro, he grows into a bigger and stronger young man after living with his adoptive parents, helping them with chores and housework in the meantime.

Twist - Evil Oni devils harass the local villagers and Momotaro decides to stop them. He trades 3 special dumplings which give you the power of 100 men to a Dog, a Monkey and a Bird.

Conclusion - Momotaro and the party fight off the Oni King on Devil Island together. The King agrees to never harass the villagers again.

[sabbatical51]

Day #3 - Kathmandu is somehow a fascinating place

Nach einer einigermassen erholsamen Nacht in unserem fensterlosen Hotelzimmer, haben wir heute Teile von Kathmandu erkundet. Per Taxi ging es zum Monkey Temple und danach in den Garden of Dreams. Beide Ziele sind willkommene Oasen in einer staubigen und verkehrshektischen Stadt. Die buddistischen Bauwerke, Symbole und auch die musikalischen Mantras  sind sehr beeindruckend, jedoch schwer zu verstehen. Ich bin fasziniert! Dank des Lichtfestestes hier hat sich der Verkehr auch etwas beruhigt. Susi trägt trotzdem eine Atemmaske, wie viele andere hier auch. Die Abendszene in Kathmandu sucht ihresgleichen. Es gibt viele tolle Restaurants mit guter Livemusik und tollem Essen. Wir waren im O2RK auf Empfehlung von Sophie. Hat sich gelohnt.

After a good nights sleep in our hotel room without a window, we explored parts of this exotic and crazy city. We took a taxi to the Monkey Temple and went to the Garden of Dreams afterwards. Both destinations are welcome oases in a dusty and traffic jammed city. I am fascinated by all those Buddist temples, shrines, prayer belts, prayer flags and the musical mantra. I cannot comprehend most of what I have seen, but I am optimistic that the coming weeks will enlighten me somewhat. Thanks to the festival of lights the city has calmed down somewhat, but air pollution is still bad enough for many people to wear face masks - including Susi. Kathmandu is hard to beat at night. So many fascinating restaurants to choose from. We went to the O2RK based on a recommendation from Sophie. No regrets! 

[krotiation]

Buddist monkey.

Always bald~

[flyingthesky]

kubo and the two strings: cultural appropriation and orientalism

(CW for discussion of death. Major spoilers for Kubo and the Two Strings follow.)

Here is the thing about me: I’m Japanese-American. My family has been here, in America, since before World War II but I am by no means American, in the sense that I know anything about American culture. I had to have the Macy’s Day Parade explained to me when I was twenty, but I know my culture. I was raised with it. It’s who I am.

Here is the thing about Kubo and the Two Strings: I wanted to like it. I wanted to enjoy that there was a mainstream movie about my culture being made. I love Laika’s other films. In the end, as purely a film, it’s a serviceable movie. The pacing is fine, the animation is unbelievably gorgeous, and the voice acting is solid.

That’s where the nice things I can say about Kubo end.

I’ve been trying to write this post since October because it’s always tough to write a post like this. I don’t want to tell people they’re wrong for liking the movie. I liked Pocahontas when I was younger, before I knew about how scrubbed and whitewashed it was. I liked Mulan too, before I realized how Western it really felt in terms of values and culture. Actually, I still like those movies. It’s just now I know what’s wrong with them.

So: if you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see, no matter how unusual it may seem.

The first red flag to me, when Kubo was announced, was that there didn’t seem to be any Japanese people involved. I know for a fact, having watched many of the special features on Laika films, that the crew and creative team are predominantly white. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’re working with another culture it’s very necessary to be extra fucking sure you’re not being offensive. And Kubo is extremely offensive.

Watching Kubo, you'd be forgiven for thinking it’s based on Japanese mythology. After all, it’s set in Japan and has a superficially Japanese feel. Surely it is, in part, based on some old Japanese legends, drawing upon them to create something fresh and interesting?

Yeah, no. Not really.

Like. It bears a very loose resemblance to Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (you might know this story as Princess Kaguya) and I suppose the fact that it uses a monkey and a beetle rings true, although there would have been a much better choice in it being a monkey and a dog.

(Fun sidenote: where in America and other places you might say “fighting like dogs and cats,” in Japanese we say 犬猿の仲 or “a dog and monkey relationship.” So I think it would have been funnier and made more sense, Japanese culture-wise, if the Beetle was a dog.)

There’s also a part where Monkey tells a story about how golden herons take spirits back to the afterlife that I’ve never heard in my entire life and that seems to be made up wholesale for the movie. Normally I wouldn’t have a huge problem with this, since you can make things up that aren’t strictly true in fiction, but here’s the thing: what they made up is very much based in a Western belief of death and what happens after you die. 

Surely you’ve seen Spirited Away, so this should be easy to understand: in Shinto beliefs there are other worlds, practically identical to ours, where spirits live. This isn’t like the Heaven and Hell of Christianity, it’s just a different life from the one you were previously living. Buddist beliefs are a little different, but the concept is essentially the same. Japanese Buddists don’t believe in reincarnation, like other Buddists, if you were wondering. We believe that once you die you start on a journey to another world where, free from human distraction, you can attain nirvana.

You’ve also likely seen Mulan, so you’ll be familiar with the Eastern idea of our ancestors being a constant presence. They become something like gods once they die. You might pray to God for help with you math test. I ask my grandfather, who was quite good at math, to give me the answers and knowledge I need. In anime it’s quite common for characters with dead parents to have a small shrine to the dead parent and I’ve talked to quite a few Westerners who think it’s morbid or that keeping that sort of thing around keeps you from moving on but here’s the thing: I’m never sad my grandfather passed away. I cried at his funeral, but I’m not sad he’s gone because he isn’t gone. He always watches over me, much like how in Mulan her ancestors watched over her.

This belief is obviously partially reflected in Kubo. It takes place in the summer, right around Obon, and it gets that festival right for the most part. I don’t know that it explains the extent to which ancestor worship is a daily part of my life - Kubo really makes Obon seem more like Day of the Dead rather than one of several holidays about our ancestors and neglects to mention that, as I said, I treat my dead ancestors similarly to how some people treat God.

(If you’re wondering, I was raised dually religious. While we were superficially Christian and celebrated many Christian holidays, fundamentally we did it with a lot of Japanese Buddist flavor. I’m very familiar with both as a result and identify as somewhere inbetween. A faith of my own choosing, if you will, although that’s a topic for another post entirely.)

Kubo fails to show the full range of how death is perceived in Japan, at any rate, and I really feel like even though it shows some of my culture’s customs, it doesn’t really understand the philosophy and values behind them. The idea that a golden heron would take you to the afterlife is, for example, patently absurd to me. The journey to the afterlife is personal. You have to walk it alone. We have whole holidays to check with how our ancestors are doing on their journies, but we cannot go with them and we cannot help them. 

More importantly, herons represent elegance and grace. They are famously represented in Sagi Musume (The Heron Maiden), which is a kabuki piece composed for shamisen that involves a lot of really great technical stuff. You can view a performance of Sagi Musume here. Basically, I don’t think the general depiction of herons in Japanese culture is compatible with the idea that they ferry the dead and I find it vaguely offensive that the dead are ferried at all in this movie because that’s not how death works in Japanese culture. The part about not disappearing when you die is accurate but also doesn’t really tie Monkey’s explanation together with the earlier depiction of Obon to form the full picture.

This failure to understand how the concept of death differs in Eastern culture is most exemplified by the last scene of the movie. Kubo says “and then we could end this story together,” but as I’ve said: the dead are not gone. His parents still exist, and their stories haven’t ended. They’ve just begun a new chapter in their story, one that Kubo isn’t present for. It’s these sort of subtle, easily fixable mistakes that honestly infuriate me the most because Laika is located in Oregon. It’s right above California (where I live) and an extremely large Japanese population. They could have talked to actual Japanese people about the sorts of themes and concepts that they wanted to include. They could have had a cultural advisor to help them work out the kinks that I’m describing right now. It didn’t have to be this way.

The idea that Kubo’s grandfather wants to take his other eye so that Kubo can ascend to “Heaven” and not be stuck in an earthly “Hell,” for example, is mildly offensive to me because that’s not really a concept that exists in Japanese culture. Sure, as in Spirited Away, the spirit world can be “better” than ours but that comes at a price. It’s not accurate to say it’s “Heaven” and “Hell” in the Western and Christian sense of those concepts. 黄泉 (Yomi), which is often translated as the underworld, isn’t “Heaven” but it isn’t “Hell” either. It’s more like the Christian concept of Purgatory, so a more accurate to Japanese culture way to describe the conflict would be that Kubo’s grandfather wants Kubo to ascend the earthly plain and Kubo realizing he is both of the Earth and Kami. This is the kind of thing a cultural advisor could have easily fixed without much change to the story.

Similarly, I don’t really understand why Kubo’s grandfather, if he’s king of the moon, would be named Raiden. We have a Moon God in Japanese mythology, which takes like two seconds to google, but his name is Tsukiyomi. We also have a Raiden, but he’s the god of thunder and storms. A cultural advisor could have suggested a different name, if they thought Tsukiyomi was “too ethnic/hard” (a topic for another post, because I don’t have time to touch it here). To be clear, I don’t mind him having a made up name for the movie, I mind him blatantly having the name of a different god who has nothing to do with the moon. Think of it like this: let’s say I’m making a movie about Hades and Persephone and everything else about Hades was pretty much like Hades should be but, for some reason, he was named Zeus. That’s what watching this movie is like for me, although I guess the larger problem is that Tsukiyomi doesn’t have children.

If you wanted to go with this storyline, it might have been better to base Kubo’s grandfather on Izanagi rather than Tsukiyomi. Or, better yet, have the grandfather be based on Izanagi and have his grandmother be Izanami. Then the whole conflict could be that when Izanagi escaped from Yomi and begat Amaterasu, Amaterasu could have fallen in love with a human samurai and had Kubo. Then, because Kubo is both of Gods and Humans, he could have been the one to fight Izanami and make her stop her senseless slaughter of humans. That would have been a really interesting and relatively faithful Japanese plot that hits many of the same notes Kubo tries to. It would have even been relatively easy to understand for Westerners who are more familiar with the Greco-Roman gods.

But that’s not the plot of Kubo, obviously.

Here’s where my criticism of Kubo becomes difficult to explain to Westerners, because what I dislike about the plot of Kubo, aside from the fact that it isn’t based on any known Japanese mythology or legend that I can recognize, is something very subtle that I don’t think a Westerner would notice. It begins like this: Western culture is very individualistic. I’m not saying on a person to person level, I’m saying in terms of the cultural mindset. It might be easiest to explain what I see with examples.

Take, for example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While it is, essentially, a show about a group of people working together to get things done, it’s named after a single character. She is the main character, regardless of the fact that the Scoobie gang are all very relevant. Power Rangers is also a show about a group of people working together to get things done, but it’s named after the entire group rather than one character. There is no “main” character in the same way, and that’s because Japanese culture frames individuality very differently. When someone works at a company, as anything from the CEO to a receptionist, they’re all equally important. What you accomplish is not framed by what you accomplished, but by what you accomplished for the company.

This difference is incredibly subtle, and I don’t blame Kubo for not quite getting it right but I do blame Kubo for framing certain things in a Western light. When Monkey tells Hanzo her magic is fading and this will be a fine way to end her story, it’s framed in terms of her. The correct way to do this, with the same type of metaphor, would be “I think my role in this story is ending soon.” Even when something has a main character in Japanese media, I feel like it’s treated quite differently than it would be in Western media. There are exceptions, of course, as Japanese culture becomes more Westernized and their storytelling blends together Japanese tropes with Western ones, but overall we treat the cast as a whole before we treat them as individuals, if that makes sense.

Overall I’m not sure if a Western viewer would notice, but Kubo depicts an extremely Western ideal of Ancient Japan. If you removed the (barely) Japanese window dressing, Kubo could be set anywhere. It’s not a Japanese story, it’s a Western one told with what I like to call “Japanese flavor.”

Which leads us into my biggest criticism of Kubo: it falls directly into the long, long history of Orientalism. That history is another post too (many things I’m talking about here are too complex to try and explain simply) but it can be boiled down to this: Western media has always used Eastern culture as a shorthand for exoticism. Think of Firefly: in order not to be a “Western,” Firefly incorporates the shorthand of Eastern culture without ever truly engaging with it. Firefly takes place in a world where America and China have merged and become one superpower. Now take a look at the cast of Firefly:

Riddle me this: if China and America have become a superpower, how does this show get away with not having a single goddamn Chinese character? Even in supporting roles, there are exactly two Asian characters with speaking roles in all of Firefly. One is an unnamed narrator of a shadow puppet show and the other is a whore named Emma who (I believe) is played by a Vietnamese woman. No, I didn’t misspeak. The only named character played by an Asian who could feasibly pass for Chinese is a whore.

Instead of meaningfully interacting with Chinese culture, Firefly chooses to merely show a lot of Chinese on signs and have some characters swear in Chinese so you know (without having to be explicitly told) that it takes place in A World Not Like Ours. Kubo uses Japanese culture in a similar way. The main character carries around a shamisen and does origami magic. He has a suitably “Oriental” name. Beetle is supposedly a samurai, although (much like everything else in the movie) I don’t think anyone at Laika has the faintest idea what a samurai actually is. Even I know their portrayal of samurai is fucking awful and I’m in no way qualified to speak about samurai culture. Literally just from the seven samurai movies I’ve seen and what I know about Japanese history, I can tell you that Beetle is about as much of a samurai as I am.

Kubo sincerely wants to be set in Japan. It sincerely wants you to know that this story? It’s not like all those other stories! It’s set in Japan! Yet, what does the cast of Kubo look like?

Well, they look like this in the movie but they’re voiced by three white people. The official statement from Laika on the matter is this:

“For Kubo, most of our characters are not even human,” [Travis Knight] continued, pointing to the wise monkey Theron gives voice to. “For those that are humans, it was important for us to have authenticity in terms of the characters. Most of the characters that are human characters are [voiced by actors] of Asian descent.” (x)

However, what Knight fails to realize is that this isn’t true at fucking all. Monkey and Beetle aren’t animals: they’re human. I don’t mean this in the sense that Hello Kitty isn’t a cat and Micky Mouse isn’t a mouse, I literally mean that Monkey and Beetle are humans. Monkey is Kubo’s mother (who is, super technically, a god and not a human but the point is she’s definitely not an animal) and Beetle is Kubo’s father. Kubo’s family, the only characters onscreen for most of the goddamn movie, are voiced by goddamn white people. 

If nothing else in this post has made sense to you, this should be perfectly clear: Kubo is inherently white-washed and Laika doesn’t give a damn about it. They could have chosen to have George Takei, who is in this movie, voice the character of Beetle. Instead, quite possibly the most iconic Japanese actor known in the West voices a villager who has a handful of lines and one of his lines is “Oh my!” so you know it’s George Takei.

With the way they promoted the fact that George Takei was in this movie aggressively, showing him in all the trailers, it seems incredibly disingenuous to have him actually be voicing a fucking tertiary character who could be completely cut from the movie without any consequences. Don’t give Laika any goddamn passes for “actually casting Japanese actors” because they didn’t where it mattered. They pulled the same shit they did with the Boxtrolls promos swapping in same-sex couples, and you all fell for it again: hook, line, and sinker.

I’m sure, at some point, there were good and genuine intentions behind this movie. I’m even sure that, at some point, Knight’s platitude about authenticity was true. Laika really did care about making a movie that didn’t fill me with an indescribable rage at the appropriation of my culture to tell a story that I’ve heard a thousand times before set in a thousand places.

That is not what Kubo is. I could tell you more about all the little things I hated, like how Kubo’s shamisen has three strings so the movie’s title doesn’t make any sense. I could write an entire book on how Kubo has failed me, both as a movie about my culture and a movie that falls into the trappings of Orientalism.

I don’t want to. 

I’m tired.

Not physically, but mentally. I’m tired of nobody being Asian in the movies and nobody being Asian on TV. I’m tired of Hollywood taking inherently Japanese stories, like Ghost in the Shell, and casting Scarlett Johanson to play the main character. I’m tired of having to explain, over and over and over, why things are racist or culturally appropriative.

Kubo is a movie that couldn’t even be bothered to wikipedia Japanese culture and I’m just so fucking tired of this garbage being held up like it’s some kind of goddamn triumph for people of color. It’s not.

Here’s a tip for white people wanting to consume Western-made media about people of color: if the main character if played or voiced by a white person? It’s garbage, don’t watch it. If a piece of media can’t meet the bare fucking minimum of telling a story about people of color with people of color? It’s not worth your time, I don’t care how good it looks.

It’s 2017, for fuck’s sake. Demand more from your media than lazily using “exotic” cultures to make basic-ass stories you’ve heard a thousand times interesting.

[zedcm]

A sweet story... In my local Tesco Lotus, I was surprised to see two monks in the pet food isle. I was buying cat food for my little monkey cat. They were at the dog treat section. They appeared to be buying some treats for the temple dogs. The elder monk turns to the younger monk and asks in Thai, "Which one do you think is more delicious?" I found this quite lovely.....carefully discussing which one might be the most delicious, for the temple dogs. ❤ #buddism #buddist #thailand #tescolotus #tesco #dogfood #temple #templedogs #dogs #goodheart (at Thailand)

[ycjourney]

China (12/27-12/30): Chengdu(成都)

12/27

After 14 hours on the overnight train, we finally arrived in Chengdu at 11:30 am.

經過14小時的夜間火車，在早上11:30抵達成都。 

We chose hard beds instead of soft beds to save money. The beds were small but actually comfortable. We both slept very well in the train and 14 hours went by fast. 

為了省錢，我們選擇了硬臥而不是軟臥。雖然床很小，卻很舒適。我們睡得很好，14小時很快就過去了。

The Chinese people who slept next to our bunks were very nice. They insisted on giving us their instant noodles since Austin and I were talking about them, and they seemed to misunderstand that we wanted it. 

在火車內，我和Austin討論在我們對面阿伯的泡麵，他們誤會我們想要吃泡麵，堅持要送我們。

We were recommended to try the local Sichan food “Xie Wang”. It was too spicy to eat it alone. We had to mix it with rice to eat it. Xie Wang is a kind of food containing pig blood, pepper, unknown organ pieces, etc. Austin was brave enough to try this dish which I believe most foreigners are afraid of. 

當地人推荐我們吃四川「血旺」。超級辣，裡面有辣椒、豬血、腸子等。很多外國人可能看了就怕，Austin很勇敢的把它配飯嚥下肚。

Kuanzai Ancient Street  寬窄巷子 

This place is a tourist area filled with souvenir shops, restaurants, and local performances.  

這裡有紀念品店、餐館、當地的表演。

2016 is the year of the monkey. Maybe that’s why we saw a monkey walking on the road. lol

也許因為2016是猴年，所以我們在路上看到猴子。

This place was easy to access. It’s right next to a metro station. 

這裡交通方便，就在地鐵站旁邊。

Chengdu Museum 成都博物館

We accidentally found this free museum while walking around Tianfu Square. The museum displayed art, people’s life styles, etc from ancient times to modern times. 

意外的發現這個免費的博物館 (天府廣場附近)。裡面展示著從古到今的藝術和人類的生活。

This is the period right after the Qing Dynasty, and people call it Republic of China . This was a form of entertainment at that time, going to tea houses with friends and watching performances.  

清朝後期，民國之初，人們喜歡聚在小茶館聊天，看表演。

After the museum, we went to a store with lots of electronic games. Austin was really good at playing drums by hitting the right notes in rhythm and on beat. 

去完博物館後，我們去了電動店。Austin對打鼓很上手。

12/28

Leshan 樂山

This day, we were excited to see the Leshan Giant Buddha, the largest stone Buddha in the world. 

我們這天很興奮，終於要見到世界上最高的石佛像。

There are two ways for you to approach this Buddha, one is by boat, and the other one is by climbing up to it. 

有兩條觀光路線: 1. 山路 2. 水路

We decided to choose the boat since it provided us a good view of this giant buddha. 

我們決定走水路，這樣才能看見樂山大佛的全貌。 

This project started in the Tang Dynasty and was finally completed after 90 years. 

樂山大佛是唐朝開始興建的，歷經90年後才完工。

Our bus to Mount Emei refused to leave until enough people got on. 

去峨眉山的巴士要等到人夠多才出發。

We ate some local food while we waited. Surprisingly, We seemed to be their only customers. 

等待中，先來吃個午餐。

Finally, we arrived at Mount Emei.  We did not have enough time to get to the top of the mountain. So, we only walked around the bottom of the mountain. 

終於到了峨眉山，沒有足夠的時間登頂，只能在山腳下繞一繞。

Mount Emei is one of the most famous Buddist mountains in China. The words carved on the rock mean “The son of the budda” and “Emei people, the leaders of the mountain”.  

峨眉山是中國佛教聖地之一。「峨眉者，山之領袖」

We took a train back to Chengdu. 

搭火車回成都。

12/29

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding  成都大熊貓基地

Pandas are my favorite animal. Since we missed our train to Qing Cheng Shan, we decided to see those cute pandas, which were also on our bucket list. 

熊貓是我最喜歡的動物。我們錯過了要去青城山的火車，就決定先來這個必去的景點。

A thirsty panda. 

口渴的熊貓。

Peacocks get along very well with pandas and humans. 

孔雀很隨和，與熊貓和人類相處的很好。

Pandas are just SO cute!!!

熊貓真的好可愛。

Austin’s friend recommended us to visit a Tibetan street close to Southwest university for nationalities.

Austin的朋友推薦我們去西南民族大學附近的西藏街。

Yak butter tea is one of the most popular drinks in Tibet. We ordered one from this local store. 

酥油茶是用牦牛的牛奶做成的，是西藏很受歡迎的飲料。我們在當地的店點了一杯。

We found a very authentic Tibetan food restaurant. We tried yak rice and yak porridge. Tibetan potato bead was our favorite food on this entire trip. We craved to find more after having this one. 

這是一間道地的西藏餐廳。我們點了牦牛蓋飯，牦牛粥。西藏馬鈴薯餅是我們最喜歡的一道點心。

So delicious!!

超好吃!!

We were the only foreigners in this restaurant. Most of the costumers were local Tibetan people, we could easily tell by their language and appearance. 

我們是餐廳唯一的外國人。大部分都是藏人，很明顯的從外表就可以看出來。

12/30    Mount Qingcheng 青城山

This was our last day in Sichuan. We went to Mount Qingcheng, which is one of the most important Taoist areas. Instead of entering from the front gate, we went in from the the back gate since the entry fee is four times cheaper. 

在四川的最後一天。我們去了青城山，是道教發源地之一。我們從後山進去，因為比從前山進省1/3的門票費。

The weather was slightly drizzling. 

這天下了點毛毛雨。

Tai An Ancient Town

泰安古鎮

We took a cable car to a higher part of the mountain, and walked down by foot.

坐纜車上山，走路下山。 

We saw people use horses to carry stuff and it made me wonder if I was back in ancient times. 

我們看到有人用馬載貨，感覺好像回到了古代。

We walked for a while, though it was slightly exhausting, the views were incredible. 

走了好一陣子，雖然很累，但風景很美。

There were not so many tourists that day. It was a good time for photo opportunities. 

沒有很多遊客，正是拍照的好機會。

We were half way through our trip at that point. Everyday was too good to let go, too fun to forget. We were a little bit sad about how time passed by so fast. But, we kept positive, we still had Lijiang, Shangri-la, and Thailand!. 

至此，我們的旅程已過了一半。因為每天都過得很充實，時光飛逝讓我們有點難過。但往好處想，還有麗江，香格里拉和泰國在等著我們!!

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Read More

China 中國

12/16-12/20 Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nanjing 上海、蘇州、南京

12/21-12/26 Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang, and Tongren 張家界、鳳凰、銅仁

12/27-12/30 Chengdu 成都

12/31-1/4 Lijiang and Shangri-la 麗江、香格里拉

Thailand 泰國

1/5-1/9 Chiang Mai 清邁

1/9-1/13 Bangkok 曼谷

U.S. 美國

1/13-1/16 Back to the U.S.