Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 374

New Journeys to the West
Kowloon Tong School (Primary Section), Lui, Yan Wai - 11
T
he Journey to the West is indeed a very captivating story but little do your know what happened
long before the tale was born.
As you readers all know, there is a monkey named Sun Wukong who went on a trip to India with
Xuanzang, a monk with a pure heart, but have you ever thought about the story before they went on the
trip? Here is what really did happen that you might not know.
A long long time before, every family had its own tradition and so did Wukong’s family. Before Sun
Wukong became a monkey, he was a small, young kid who never got a chance to leave the place he grew
up, an underground cave in the very tip of India. Sun Wukong, Sun Wukong, you call him Sun Wukong
now, but that’s not his name when he was a kid, his name was Ying Xiong, which means hero in English,
so he can always be a hero in his own journey. But you might ask, he cannot even go out a cave and
explore the world, how can he be a hero? This is my answer to this question, keep reading. As I said, Ying
Xiong’s childhood was surrounded by darkness and the only thing that he did to entertain him is playing
with a wooden stick that can shrink and grow to suit his needs, which his father gave him, and which
became his weapon to fight in the Journey to the West.
Now back to his story. Years passed by very fast as Ying Xiong soon turned twenty and as their family
tradition he was forced to leave the cave. Ying Xiong stepped out of the underground cave and began to
wander around, but Ying Xiong soon realized he had no home to live in and no food to eat. He was very
worried and started stealing things from other humans to earn himself a living, this annoyed the other
humans and they told the fairies of the sky the terrible things Ying Xiong had done. All of the fairies were
furious except Vallery, the fairy of peace and hope. Vallery flew to the ground and brought Ying Xiong up
to the Castle of the Sky and talked patiently to him, after that Vallery made Ying Xiong promise not to steal
again and sent him home.
However, Ying Xiong definitely could not keep a promise, he soon began to steal things from a monk
who lived near him, his name is Xuanzang. Xuanzang came from a family of monks, everyone in his family
was a monk. Xuanzang was a very hard-working kid and he never disobeyed his parents. After fifteen years
of studying, Xuanzang began to have a desperate feeling of going to the west of India to get the famous
bible. He tried again and again to reach the west of India but the only thing he got was failure. On the other
hand, Ying Xiong was turned in to a monkey as punishment for breaking the promise to Vallery as Ying
Xiong stole from Xuanzang. Vallery knew Xuanzang was desperate and willing to do anything to get the
famous bible, so Vallery sent Ying Xiong to help him. Before they started the journey, Vallery taught Ying
Xiong the seventy-two methods of transformation in case of danger, she also threw Ying Xiong down the
magical fire pit in order for him to get a pair of magical eves that can spot dangers. The last thing Vallery did
was give Ying Xiong a monk name, I think every readers know this name, Sun Wukong and Vallery sent
them off on the journey.
This is the story that you might not know about. The Journey to the West, Let’s Go!