It is our pleasure to bring the story to you! We hope you continue to enjoy the story as much as we do!

Glad the explanation helped you out! It is our pleasure to make the story more accessible to English readers so you can enjoy it just as much as native Chinese readers like ourselves.

Thank you so much for your kind words!

Thank you for the kind comment. We certainly hope to keep them up if we have enough funding.

Lin is the voice of this series. This is a team of amateurs with a passion so we don't expect anyone to know us! Certainly no Kelly Hu on the team! :D

@@5th_Monkey well tell Lin she has a very pleasant voice.

We'll let her know! Thank you very much.

Yes, it's ongoing. Eight years to produce a series like this is fairly standard. It's not a big production company with a dozen or so translators, editors and actors. If you compare it to other podcasts with larger budgets and crew, that have been ongoing for 12+ years, it's a pretty short time frame to complete such a large project that involves translation, editing, audio production and voice acting. This is what it means to have a "passion project".

As our team member Brookelynn already pointed out, this project will take some time to complete. It simply isn't the type of project that can wrap itself up in a couple of years due to its sheer scope. And on the practical side of things, our team also isn't paid enough to work any faster. It would be different if we are all paid a living wage for this, but we simply aren't and you can't live on love alone. With regard to its eventual ending, I guess the upside is that you can always restart the story from its very beginning. Those of us who grew up with the story have done this all our lives.

Glad you are having fun with our work. It is our pleasure to bring the story to you so you can share the same experience as any Chinese kid growing up with the story of Journey to the West.

That's a very interesting observation. We never read the Waley version so this does come across as quite odd to us. Neither Yu or Jenner took a similar position despite being influenced by Waley which shows they both had a more accurate reading of the story. For native Chinese readers like us, the Patriarch was a strict but loving teacher who was more than happy to have a talented student like Wu Kong under his wings (this type of teacher-student bond is also quite cliche in classic literature as well as contemporary wuxia stories). Him hinting secret lessons at Wu Kong and pushing him away after Wu Kong had learned everything he needed in life can all be interpreted as gestures of love. The concept of kong/emptiness in Chinese culture is heavily influenced by Buddhist beliefs and considered an extremely high and difficult tier of being. Achieving the stage of "emptiness" is almost god-like so in no plausible way the name Wu Kong was meant as an insult. It is quite surprising how subjectivity can flip the narrative around just like that. Do let us know when you have new observations.

Thank you for the compliment! Glad you enjoy our work.

Glad it was helpful!

It is our pleasure. Glad you are having fun!

Let's not generalize this as "Asian customs" since this is just a Chinese story. While it is true that in our traditional social etiquette, what Wu Kong did would be considered rude. This is likely the purpose of the scene anyway. Because Dragon Kings by default are considered superior compared to a monkey who has not yet made his name. But their interaction brings out the question of whether they really deserve such superiority. Wu Kong had to visit them first, because the other way around would be considered beneath the office of the Dragon King. And the Dragons kept underestimating him by offering mediocre weapons, only to realize that Wu Kong is so much more powerful than any of them could ever be. Remember that this story was the creation of grassroot artists and Wu Kong is their prime channel to express ideas of living outside the box, to break rules and defy conventions. Wu Kong made gods uncomfortable, impatient and even afraid - but they were supposed to be the GODS! Wu Kong was there to disrupt the status quo, to challenge the establishment in place of the people who made him a folk hero. The "rude" part was just the discomfort that comes with breaking social hierarchy and boundaries that made very little sense in the first place. Hope that clears things up for you! You are of course free to interpret it however you prefer.

@@5th_Monkey Thanks for clarification that makes more sense now XD.

Me

same. that game was really a cinematic experience

Our own. This is an original translation.

@@5th_Monkey ohhhh really?? This is amazing are you guys are translating the entire thing? I might just listen to you guys and experience the story that way nice

That's certainly the plan if we have enough funding to keep us going to the end.

Do you mind send us an email about the spotify situation so we can look into it? We do want to help our listeners access the audio drama in their preferred platform. Thank you!

@@DavidWiehls No, we do not have a WeChat account. Please feel free to contact us via email or any social media platform listed in our info page.

Thank you for the warm comment. It's our pleasure to bring the story to you.

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoy our work!

Glad you enjoy it!

They don't really do anything though. They act more like overseers of the journey, making sure the monk doesn't actually die from anything. Other than that, they are just there.

I've elected to view them as a kind of audience more than anything. Whether or not there will be audience participation remains to be seen

They are audience if the audience has to take regular scolding from the performers lol

Thank you for the compliment! Glad to take part in bringing your Wu Kong to page!

Thank you for the question! I think you have to take this into context. Ancient Chinese men rarely not work on their hair at all, they either always wear something on their heads (hats, or just a piece of cloth around their man-bun) or at least tie their long hair up in some way. Meanwhile, Wu Kong never styles his body hair (since he's a monkey and has different hair from humans) and the hair on his head don't actually grow long like humans do. So this impression of "bald head" could also be interpreted as "he's got no headwear" or "he doesn't have long hair like humans do", basically pointing out how unconventional his hairstyle was, and does not necessarily mean his head was shaven clean like a monk. Like a buzz cut or jarhead style still has hair, but when everyone else has long hair, those styles would be considered "bald". This also applies to future chapters when Wu Kong meets strangers who don't always know from the get-go that he is a monkey. On another note, do also pay attention to Chapters 8 and 14 when Wu Kong was converted to Buddhism by Guan Yin and later became the Tang Monk's disciple. Neither occation mentioned his head being shaved at all, even though this was done to Zhu Ba Jie and Sha He Shang. So in the actual process, Wu Kong's hair was never shaved. When he talks about having his hair shaven to signify his convertion to Buddhism, he only meant it symbolically. Hair is one of his most powerful weapons in the novel, they were never shaved. I hope this clears things up for you!

You are so welcome. Thank you for supporting our work!

Not sure if I understand your question right but we update one chapter per month. Paid subscribers on Patreon and Spotify have advanced access to the next chapter.

Thank you!!!!! We enjoyed working on this episode too!

You are very welcome! Glad you enjoy our work!

You are very welcome! We are thrilled to be able to bring you this wonderful experience!

Yaaay!!!! He won't be gone for this long again, thankfully.

Yep, you can really see how most adaptations toned down the gory.