Feature: Vietnamese revel in Chinese TV classics

On a mid-September evening in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, an elderly woman and her teen niece and nephew have their eyes glued to a large TV screen, and are immersed in a fantasy world full of gods and demons.

On the LCD screen are the images of a Buddhist monk with a merciful face and fair complexion, surrounded by a hairy monkey holding a long staff, a fat pig carrying a nine-tooth iron rake and a bearded man with a threatening appearance.

They are the four main characters in the Chinese television series Xi You Ji (Journey to the West), adapted from the classic novel of the same name, one of the four great classic novels of Chinese literature.

The series, whose genre is Chinese mythology, fantasy and adventure, was first broadcast on CCTV (China Central Television) in October 1986, becoming an instant classic in China and then in many other Asian countries.

Its first season has 25 episodes and covers 74 chapters of the novel, and second season has 16 episodes.

Today, the series is still being heralded as the best and most authentic interpretation of the novel published in the 16th century in the Chinese Ming Dynasty. Since its debut, it has been rebroadcast almost every year, not only in China but also in Vietnam.

"I still remember I watched "Journey to the West" the first time in the late 1980s. At that time, like many other villagers, I had to pay some money to the owner of a video player who had somehow managed to procure video tapes of the series," the elderly woman named Nguyen Thi Hue, a retired garment worker in Ho Chi Minh City, told Xinhua.

Since then, the 60-year-old woman has watched "Journey to the West" many times, but she no longer has had to pay, because the Chinese series was first broadcast by VTV (Vietnam Central Television) and has since been rebroadcast by VTV and many other local channels for nearly three decades.

"Watching Journey to the West for the first time, we were very much impressed by its new special effects, lively makeup and the marvelous acting of the likes of Liu Xiao Ling Tong and Ma Dehua. But what makes us keep on watching it over and over are the useful Buddhist teachings and human behavior the series conveys," Hue recalled.

The woman said her children and then her grandchildren have also watched Journey to the West. VTV often rebroadcasts the Chinese series in summer, when young students have long holidays, so it is very convenient for them to enjoy it, she said.

In August 2015, VTV announced, "After many times of being broadcast, Journey to the West is still welcomed by Vietnamese audience of all ages. To meet demand of many viewers, Journey to the West will be rebroadcast again everyday on VTV2 channel, starting on August 28."

The series' main characters, including Xuanzang or Tang Sanzang (the Buddhist monk), Sun Wukong (Monkey King), Zhu Bajie (Pig) and Sha Wujing (the bearded man called Sandy in English) have become popular with Vietnamese people, VTV said, adding that mythological factors and cultural values subtly conveyed in each episodes also attract viewers.

"Besides Buddhist teachings, especially those about the good and the evil, mercy and tolerance, Journey to the West also mentions many social issues which are still common nowadays, such as competition and corruption," said Nguyen Thi Be, a 75-year-old retired teacher in Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi.

Be said she and her children and grandchildren have watched Journey to the West so many times that they can remember and pronounce the names of its characters and some common phrases in Chinese.

"One of my nephews is very active, running, jumping, climbing all the time, so I call him Sun Wukong. I call another nephew Zhu Bajie because he eats too much," Be said, smiling.

Sitting near Be is her 6-year-old nephew named Phuc. She told the vivacious little boy to sing a song. He immediately sung the theme song of Journey to the West called Ganwen Lu Zai Hefang ( Dare to ask where the road is).

Surprisingly, the little boy sang the well-known song in Chinese quite well, "Ni tiao zhe dan, wo qian zhe ma. Ying lai ri chu, song zou wan xia."

The theme song, performed by Chinese folk singer Jiang Dawei, has helped him become more well-known. He has held concerts in many foreign countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Canada and the United States.

"The theme song of Journey to the West is so popular and so revered that many people record it for different purposes. Years ago, when coming to our apartment blocks, garbage truck drivers turned on their cassette players and played the song. Hearing that, we rushed to them to empty out the rubbish," Be said.

She noted that many toys such as masks and weapons relating to Xuanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing have sold like hot cakes.

In addition to Journey to the West, many other Chinese television series and feature films, with backgrounds ranging from old dynasties,including Song, Ming and Qing, to modern-day society, have been broadcast by Vietnamese TV channels, both central and local, for years, attracting numerous viewers of both sexes at different ages.

Screening Chinese series and films are intended to satisfy the public's taste as a survey shows that local people spend more time watching them than other programs because the psychology of characters and issues raised in Chinese films are similar to those in Vietnam, Nguyen Kim Trach, former director of the VTV's Center for TV Program Exchange and Copyright Exploitation, told Xinhua.

"I adore Chinese films, especially modern ones, because they bring up useful philosophies of life and convincing lessons," Trach stated.

His statement is echoed by many Vietnamese viewers. One of them remarked that many modern Chinese films go directly to hot issues in the market economy such as the increasingly competitive nature of the business world and long-lasting struggles against social evils and corruption.

"I like the 1986 series Journey to the West and other recent adaptations of classic novels such as the 2014 feature film The Monkey King with action star Donnie Yen playing Sun Wukong. Such Chinese series and films bring me not only relaxation, but also optimism, because they often glorify devotion to family, love and lofty ideals," said Bui Quang, a 33-year-old employee of the Ho Chi Minh City National University. Endi