Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones

Since time immemorial, immortal ones, or Shenxians in Chinese, have been an integral part of the Chinese civilization, reflecting the ancient and everlasting pursuit of immortality, both physically and spiritually. In particular, the epic novel Journey to the West offers a panoramic view of their h...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Xinzuo Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press 2024-12-01
Series:Linguaculture
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.linguaculture.ro/index.php/home/article/view/361
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841544094080303104
author Xinzuo Li
author_facet Xinzuo Li
author_sort Xinzuo Li
collection DOAJ
description Since time immemorial, immortal ones, or Shenxians in Chinese, have been an integral part of the Chinese civilization, reflecting the ancient and everlasting pursuit of immortality, both physically and spiritually. In particular, the epic novel Journey to the West offers a panoramic view of their hierarchy, personality, and ways of life. For this reason, the novel has been adapted into different multimedia versions. The animated comedy Monkey King (2023), produced by Netflix, is one of the recent but less satisfactory examples, in which the images of immortals are reconstructed in a multimodal manner suffering from adaptational deviation. Based on previous studies on translation, adaptation, and multimodality, this article puts forward a model of multimodal adaptation and uses that framework to evaluate Monkey King’s major reconstructions of immortals in a transnational context. Focusing on explicit and implicit adaptations, the article discusses how the new presentations of these immortals deviate from those in Chinese culture, and how a world that would appear to be turned upside down, in the eyes of a Chinese audience, comes into being. The article also sheds some light on the effect of transnational adaptations on the culture of origin for the source text.
format Article
id doaj-art-c9ad1261866f46e9a2b470d8463211d3
institution Kabale University
issn 2067-9696
2285-9403
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press
record_format Article
series Linguaculture
spelling doaj-art-c9ad1261866f46e9a2b470d8463211d32025-01-13T02:40:14ZengAlexandru Ioan Cuza University PressLinguaculture2067-96962285-94032024-12-01152Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal OnesXinzuo Li0Nanjing Normal University, China Since time immemorial, immortal ones, or Shenxians in Chinese, have been an integral part of the Chinese civilization, reflecting the ancient and everlasting pursuit of immortality, both physically and spiritually. In particular, the epic novel Journey to the West offers a panoramic view of their hierarchy, personality, and ways of life. For this reason, the novel has been adapted into different multimedia versions. The animated comedy Monkey King (2023), produced by Netflix, is one of the recent but less satisfactory examples, in which the images of immortals are reconstructed in a multimodal manner suffering from adaptational deviation. Based on previous studies on translation, adaptation, and multimodality, this article puts forward a model of multimodal adaptation and uses that framework to evaluate Monkey King’s major reconstructions of immortals in a transnational context. Focusing on explicit and implicit adaptations, the article discusses how the new presentations of these immortals deviate from those in Chinese culture, and how a world that would appear to be turned upside down, in the eyes of a Chinese audience, comes into being. The article also sheds some light on the effect of transnational adaptations on the culture of origin for the source text. https://journal.linguaculture.ro/index.php/home/article/view/361Immortal Onesmultimodal adaptationcharacter reconstructiontransnational deviationMonkey King (2023)
spellingShingle Xinzuo Li
Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
Linguaculture
Immortal Ones
multimodal adaptation
character reconstruction
transnational deviation
Monkey King (2023)
title Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
title_full Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
title_fullStr Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
title_full_unstemmed Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
title_short Multimodal Adaptation, Reconstruction, and Deviation of Immortal Ones
title_sort multimodal adaptation reconstruction and deviation of immortal ones
topic Immortal Ones
multimodal adaptation
character reconstruction
transnational deviation
Monkey King (2023)
url https://journal.linguaculture.ro/index.php/home/article/view/361
work_keys_str_mv AT xinzuoli multimodaladaptationreconstructionanddeviationofimmortalones