Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Week 5 Reading Diary: The Monkey King Unit

For this week’s reading I read the “Monkey King Unit” from the “Chinese Fairy Book.” The stories I read came from the “Ape Sun Wu Kung” section by R. Wilhelm.

After reading the first section of the Ape Sun Wu Kung stories, I was surprised on how much I enjoyed reading ancient Chinese fairy tales. I found that these stories have a deeper meaning than they might appear. I think that these stories be about certain creation theories or a distinct religion in China.

My favorite part about these stories was the main character, the magical ape. When I was a young girl, monkeys and their human-like characteristics always fascinated me. In these stories, the ape learned secret magical powers that would let him live forever.

One of my favorite parts of these stories was when the ape learned how to fly across the clouds. The ape had to fly home in order to save his town. In the story “Su Wu Kung Departs,” the ape flies home and saves the small ape children from an evil devil.

The magical ape was described as small but mighty. He wore yellow and red clothing with big black boots. He had every magical power that you could imagine! 


I also enjoyed how the stories also had unique descriptions when describing the different towns. For example, the magical ape lived on the “Mountain of flowers and fruits” and the devil lived on the “Cave of kidneys.” These small details made the story much more pleasurable to read.

For my story this week, I want to incorporate a character learning magical powers and/or becoming immortal. I also want my main character to be small but mighty and have the opportunity to save his homeland. I plan to use descriptive detail regarding his magical powers and have an "underlying message" for my readers. Overall, I really enjoyed this weeks reading so far!

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