Lessons from Journey to the West (TVB)

Yin August 30, 2011

I enjoy watching the show Journey to the West (1996) 西遊記 produced by TVB. There had been many versions made on this story, written slightly more than 100 years ago. But I find the one by TVB is excellent- no doubt, there are various modern elements including rap style inserted into the show- but the show is very profound in scripts and lessons- even though the original story may have been adopted, it is to reflect the life’s lessons- most of which we can relate to our own life.

The comical elements should not be taken as offence- as after a tired day of working, it is so much entertaining at the same time having the lessons sink home if there is an element of lightheartedness injected to it.

So I would like to expand the values as shown on this 1996 version produced by TVB. You would see that each disciple symbolizes hatred, greed and ignorance- and their journey shows that how each seeker who have those attributes were able to overcome them as well. During each encounter with evil spirits and obstacles, the script had been well crafted to show how these obstacles came about and what lessons that was learned after each obstacles.

The situations shown on the drama series very well mimics many life’s daily situation as I would illustrate in writing in which would be covered in subsequent blog posts: