I recently saw the movie the Forbidden Kingdom that starts martial arts masters Jackie Chan and Jet Lee. The reason I went to see this movie was to see the two master in a movie together. After seeing the movie what I found most interesting was the mythological character the Monkey King. As an artist I try to do my best learning various myths and lore from around the world. Much of my art, if it is not tropical in nature, covers myths. I had never heard of the Monkey King before, except maybe the Monkey King from the Jungle Book.

As I dove in to find out more about this Monkey King, I found out that he was a classic figure in Chinese culture. So here I was thinking to myself, hey I know a lot about myths, but here I was not knowing a thing about this Monkey King. I was extremely humbling to find out that such a popular character exists and to not know anything about him.

I researched about the Monkey King and found him to be a fascinating character. There is much to tell about the Monkey King, he is at heart a trickster character, kind of like Loki in Norse culture, except maybe a little less devilish of a figure. You can find out about the Monkey King at this great site. Monkey King I enjoyed this character so much I will try to work out a work of art revolving around the story of the Monkey King. It just goes to show you, you can learn something new everyday, even without trying.