| “Want to know what is going to happen next? Please listen to the next chapter.” I heard these words every day during my childhood. Every day at noon, 12 o’clock sharp, everybody would sit around the radio waiting for the upcoming program, a story-telling program featuring just one man. It was a one-man show, in which classical Chinese novels were relayed, one after another. In those days, this was a very popular program for both children and adults as we lived in an era with few resources and a lack of entertainment. This was our greatest amusement before our afternoon nap. | 
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Joey Ho
Joey Ho, Xiu Zheng Guo Zhu Yi, 2007. Mixed media, 123 x 123 cm. Courtesy of Shang Gallery.
“Want to know what is going to happen next? Please listen to the next chapter.” I heard these words every day during my childhood. Every day at noon, 12 o’clock sharp, everybody would sit around the radio waiting for the upcoming program, a story-telling program featuring just one man. It was a one-man show, in which classical Chinese novels were relayed, one after another.
In those days, this was a very popular program for both children and adults as we lived in an era with few resources and a lack of entertainment. This was our greatest amusement before our afternoon nap. Under the scorching sun, the voice of the storyteller would echo onto the street, accompanied by one or two ringing bells from passing bicycles. Among all of the ancient novels, The Journey to the West impressed me the most, as it was the one I could really understand.
At that time, the storyteller was a big star for us, although no one saw him in persona. He was just a voice. Of course, it was not a simple task for him as he had to play many roles, but somehow he managed to put on voices of Monk Tang (Tripitaka), then Sun Wu-K’ung (the monkey king), Chu Pa-Chieh (Pigsy) and Sha Wu-Ching (Friar Sandy). Later, he would become the Buddha, afterward the Bodhisattva (Guanyin), and of course, the numerous sprits, elves, and goblins. Paying attention for a whole hour to so many different voices, the audience could not count the times the storyteller must have gone through schizophrenia. At the end of every program, people were awoken, all of a sudden, by his real voice, asking, “Want to know what’s going to happen next?” And then it would tell us to “please listen to the next chapter.”
We grew up unconsciously with this extraordinary voice—sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes as a man, but later as a lady. As we walk on our own paths, things no longer happen like other people’s stories that we simply listened to as children. During this present journey, we have to experience and appreciate the differences in life by ourselves, regardless of the consequences.
Now I have met The Journey to the West again in written form. It is delightful to encounter these favorable characters again in the ancient novels. We recognize each other as old friends, and it has disclosed its best-kept secrets as well as its more obvious characteristics. Want to know what is going to happen next? Please read On the Road to Tianzhu.
