国内英语资讯:China Focus: Chinese bid farewell to producer of Monkey King_时事

国内英语资讯:China Focus: Chinese bid farewell to producer of Monkey King

The work was hard and they each played several characters. Zhang Jinlai also acted as a female match-maker. Ma Dehua acted as a foreign ambassador, a monkey, a bandit and an official.

At first they didn't know how to make people "fly in the sky."

"We asked film-makers from Hong Kong, and were told they used wires," Yang once recalled. They soon started learning the technique and almost all the main actors had the experience of falling off.

With only one camera, they spent four years crossing half of China to complete the first season. Yang planned to make 30 episodes, but after the 11th, the money ran out. The team borrowed money from railway authorities to complete another 14 episodes.

"Nothing we did was for fame, or profit," Yang said. "It was art."

REMEMBERED THROUGH GENERATIONS

"Thank you for bringing us our most valuable collective memory," said a web user Longchengbukuaixiaotang on Sina Weibo.

Like him, many Chinese are reminiscing as they mourn Yang.

Actor Wang Bozhao, best known for his role as the white dragon horse in the TV series, said: "Yang Jie, my favorite director and teacher, has passed away. But 'Journey to the West' will accompany us forever. When we watch the TV series, we do and will remember her."

"She was my teacher in art and life. Without 'Journey to the West', audiences would never have seen the Monkey King in the screen. Farewell, my dear director," commented Zhang Jinlai, who played the Monkey King, on his Sina Weibo account.