China Exclusive: New Year TV gala "Monkey King" exclusion triggers backlash

Millions of Chinese are expressing outrage over the fact that beloved "Monkey King" actor Zhang Jinlai has been left out of the national TV gala celebrating the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Many have threatened to boycott the most-watched variety show in China, which usually airs on the Lunar New Year's eve. This year it is scheduled for Feb. 7.

With 2016 marking the Year of the Monkey according to the Chinese zodiac, many assumed the character would greet the audience during the show. But media reports said Zhang had not even been invited to the show, sparking an overwhelming outcry on Chinese social media in the past week.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) was under attack by Internet users soon after Zhang posted a photo of himself rehearsing as the Monkey King for CCTV's opera show, instead of the gala show, on his Weibo account.

The photo gained more than a million likes within three days, while the Weibo account for the CCTV gala show was flooded with millions of comments and retweets demanding the Monkey King. Many were offensive, sarcastic or rude.

"The show belongs to the Chinese people, and the people want him in the show! Our Monkey King is already 56. If he misses this show, we will have to wait 12 years for another Year of the Monkey," one of the most popular comments read.

The monkey is the 9th of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the lunar calendar.

Early on Friday, CCTV turned off the comment function, deleting the previous posts and triggering another round of online protests through retweets, which cannot be turned off at CCTV's wish.

CCTV has not responded to Xinhua's interview requests by phone or via social media platforms. It has yet to address the issue on its Weibo account.

CCTV's gala show has been a staple of Lunar New Year celebrations since the 1980s. In recent years, however, younger generations have found alternatives as the show is criticized for not capturing the interest of ordinary people.

But it still manages to attract hundreds of millions of viewers every year, making the advertising opportunity before and during the show very attractive to large brands despite hefty prices.

Zhang, better known by his stage name "Liu Xiao Ling Tong". He performed during the 2004 gala show during the last Year of the Monkey, but it was a last-minute decision and he had not been invited at the beginning.

"I have made no other work plans for the New Year's eve. I can be ready for the show at any minute," Zhang told Xinhua in an exclusive interview, adding that he had received no invitation from CCTV yet.

It remains unclear why CCTV did not invite Zhang to the show. Some wonder whether it is because Zhang recently became a Pepsi spokesperson and Pepsi did not sponsor the event. However, such speculation cannot be verified.

There are also suspicions that the online outcry was partly a marketing hype that would benefit Zhang and Pepsi, which cannot be confirmed either.

But a majority of people interviewed by Xinhua said they would like to see Zhang on stage, because the actor reminds them of their good old days watching the TV series "Journey to the West".

The TV series, adapted from a 16th-century novel, first hit the small screen three decades ago, starring Zhang as the "Monkey King". It has been aired more than 3,000 times and is a cornerstone of the nation's pop culture.

As one of the four classics of Chinese literature, the novel is a greatly embellished recounting of a real pilgrimage made during the Tang Dynasty (618--907) by Buddhist monk Xuanzang, as he traveled to the "West", which is in fact India, in search of sacred scriptures.

With a dragon-prince in the form of a white horse as his steed, Xuanzang is accompanied on his quest by three disciples, Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), Zhu Wuneng (Pigsy) and Sha Wujing (water buffalo).

According to the novel, the Monkey King is a hero with many superpowers. Incredibly strong and fast, he is a shape-shifter capable of taking on 72 different forms. He is a great fighter and each of his hairs can be transformed into weapons, animals or other objects.

For many Westerners, the TV series was their first encounter with Chinese culture. For many Chinese, Zhang's portrayal of the simian swashbuckler will never be surpassed.

Apart from CCTV's opera show, Zhang has been invited to perform at several gala shows hosted by local televisions, but not on New Year's eve. Endi