Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

  It's really an oddity when some older Chinese never knew that Buddhism came from India. Some people have even mistaken the Laughing Buddha for Siddharta Gautama. It might have even shocked some Chinese Buddhists when they were told that Buddha was an INDIAN man. Now, another character often represented as Chinese is actually also too obviously INDIAN. That's the goddess Guan Yin whose full name and title is Guan Shi Yin Pusa. The name means "She who hears the cries the cries of the world." Avalokitesvara means "one who looks from above". Another Sanskrit name is Gayatri meaning "she who hears the cries of the world". Guan Yin in the Hindu context Guan Yin's equivalent would be the goddess Gayatri. Gayatri is seldom seen as an incarnation of Saraswati or a totally different character. The name Gayatri is more synonymous with Guan Shi Yin than the name Avalokitesvara. Gayatri is called the Goddess of Mercy herself. One of Gayatri's temples ...

Today is the ninth day of the Chinese lunar calendar. The birthday of the Jade Emperor would fall on that day. It would be time to analyze the role of the Jade Emperor in the novel Journey to the West . The story would have the journey from China to India to gain the Buddhist sutras. An earlier portion of the novel took place 500 years before the legendary journey. Yes, 500 years which is the amount of time needed to win ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments from the Mortal Kombat game. In Mortal Kombat, the Jade Emperor would be the highest-ranking Elder God, the one who'd call the shots, and have the Mandate of Heaven.  However, Journey to the West presents a curious case of the Jade Emperor's defeat. The defeat was so bad that they needed the help of the Amitabha Buddha to defeat Sun Wukong . How could Sun Wukong defeat the Elder Gods? Was it because Sun Wukong ate the peaches of the Queen Mother of Heaven, the wife of the Jade Emperor? Lao Tzu tried to burn Sun Wukon b...

I remembered watching Monkey Magic which lasted for only 13 episodes. It could've been good if a second season came after that. Which Buddha is which? Some may assume that it was Gautama Buddha who subdued Sun Wukong. Yet, the divine power of this Buddha has been rather immense. This Buddha made Wukong a bet. Wukong could rule the Heavens IF he could escape the Buddha's hand. Sun Wukong infamously peed on the hand of Buddha without knowing it. The five pillars were Buddha's fingers. After losing the bet, Wukong was locked up for 500 years. Later, Sun Wukong was released by the monk Xuanzang. Sun Wukong was to take part in the Journey to the West. Wishbone (RIP to the dog) later had this Buddha of Western Paradise. This would be the Amitabha Buddha. In Indian legends, we also have Vishnu as the one who oversees the Vaikuntha. Vishu is said to have ten legendary avatars. Vishnu took many forms to defend humanity. Later, Vishnu was said to have become Sakyamuni who was also Si...

It's nice to enjoy the incarnations of Journey to the West in both TV and film. I was thinking of a couple of times that Hong Kong and Taiwanese films and series end up hiring foreign actors to play in their scripts. I could remember having Korean actors and half-Chinese, half-something actors play the parts. One particular character comes to mind namely Mother Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit name) or Gayatri (Hindi name) in the Journey to the West. In Chinese, she is known as Guan Shi Yin Pusa or Guan Yin Pusa for short.  I could talk of some actresses I wish played the said character. The Singaporean actress Michelle Zheng Saram is half-Indian and half-Chinese. I remembered her appearance in Meteor Garden as a runaway princess from Bhutan known as Yesha. Speaking of which some legends say that Guan Yin Ma was actually an Indian princess who became a Boddhisatva. If she could play as a runaway princess in Meteor Garden then I don't see any problem with her playing as a runa...