Christine Duan

One more adversity

Disciplines/Subjects: Chinese language Arts Key Themes: Chinese classical novels, whole-book reading, textual analysis, creative writing Journey to the West, a famous work of Chinese classical literature, has a wide spread. It has been adapted into movies, TV series, video games and even theme parks on many occasions. This is a very interesting book. Mr. Lu Xun called it a "god - demon novel", and Mr. Lin Geng regarded it as a "work of childlike innocence". It is one of the most imaginative works in Chinese classical literature. The novel revolves around the main plot of Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng, a master-discipline team, going on a pilgrimage to Western Heaven to obtain Buddhist scriptures. It tells many stories of subduing demons and monsters, with twists and turns, exciting and fascinating plots. The whole book is excellent at character - building. Whether it is the main characters of the pilgrimage team or the secondary characters such as various gods, Buddhas, demons and monsters, they are all vividly portrayed, with distinct personalities and unforgettable images. The ideology of the novel is rather complex, involving Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Later generations have diverse interpretations of its theme. Putting aside the religious cloak of the novel, for today's students, this novel may be more like an inspiring story of forging ahead through difficulties for an ideal. In society, some people regard it as a dark fairytale about workplace struggles, some see it as a cultivation guidebook, and some take it as a source of materials for remaking the IP... There are many secondary or even multiple creations that deviate from the original text, resulting in a thousand different pilgrimage stories in the eyes of a thousand readers. In this task, learners will first act as readers, closely and intensively read the original story of Journey to the West. Find their favorite episode from the novel and analyze its plot structure pattern, including how it starts, how it ends, the origin of the monster, and how the team overcomes difficulties. Using the text analysis methods learned in class, analyze this story from five dimensions: theme, structure, word choice, the author's point of view, and the development of the story. Then, as a sequel - writing or rewriting author, give full play to their imagination and create a new story on the pilgrimage journey. Based on understanding the "story routines" of the original work, create one more adversity for the pilgrimage team besides the eighty-one difficulties, achieving the effect of "being almost indistinguishable from the original". Invite readers who are acquaintances of Journey to the West to read it and see if they can sporify whether it is written by you or if it's the original work written by Mr. Wu Chengen. In addition, learners with spare capacity can, on the basis of completing the rewriting or sequel - writing, work further as screenwriters, adapt it into a script, then recruit and form a drama crew, and stage the "one - more - adversity" drama story they created on the stage of the New Year's Gala.

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One more adversity

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