PHOENIX—Although “Journey to the West” seems like a story of a monk and his three strange disciples on a journey to find Buddhist scriptures, it is also a story of the three characters bettering themselves while overcoming countless obstacles. Shen Yun Performing Arts is putting this classic novel from the Ming Dynasty on stages across the globe.
“I’ve really enjoyed the various different stories being told, the celestial stories and then the ones that everyone remembers, like a ‘Journey to the West.’ A lot of Western people know that story,” said Moe McWhirter, who was a judge. Indeed, one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, “Journey to the West” is also one of the best known tales across the East, and popular even in the West….