272 Beijing Opera Performers - Gibbon - Number 54

Gibbon

Beijing Opera - "Birth of the Stone Monkey"

Gibbon with a red symbolic has a role in the list-opera "Birth of the Stone Monkey," adapted from an episode in "Pilgrimage to the West," that tells how Monkey Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, was born. Gibbon is a wise old ape. He advises Monkey Sun Wukong to learn Taoism. Monkey goes to the Kunlun Mountains and there meets a supernatural being who teaches him the 72 metamorphoses and how to somersault through the clouds. He returns and strangles the Devil King who occupied his home in Flower-and-Fruit Mountain during his absence.