“Journey to the West” is one of the most famous ancient Chinese long mythological novels written by Wu Cheng‘en (1504-1582). The historical fact of Xuanzang, a monk of Tang Dynasty, going to India to obtain scriptures has been passed down through generations of folklore to form the story of “Journey to the West”. The confidence for faith, which leads the journey towards the west with perseverance, against all odds and bizarre, the mythological imagination walks throughout the whole novel. In the novel, Wu Cheng’en portrayed the characters of the Tang Monk, Monkey King, Monk Pig and Monk Sand, which are well known to the nation and became one of the Four Great Masterpieces of ancient China. It was turned into a TV serial drama in 1986 by CCTV.

Since the opening up in early 1980s, China has been gradually exposed to information from the “West”, a new cultural trend that takes Western modern and contemporary culture as a sample has emerged, with more and more “West goers” studying and settling abroad. “The New Journey to the West” was hatched under this realistic environment, the artist appropriated some image clips from the TV series, reconstructed them and brought them to Vancouver, inviting four artists and curators who had left China and settled in Vancouver, as well as four local artists and intellectual to play different roles and speak their inner words to the “muted video”. This is a reflection of the contextual relationship between the different identities in the context of “Journey to the West”.

This work includes partial clips of TV series “Journey to the West” and is edited with lines read by specifically invited persons based on their own experiences.

Tang Monk ——Sheng Tian Zheng (former professor of China Academy of Art, now living in Canada)
Monkey King——Gu Xiong (former lecturer of Si Chuan Art College of China Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, now living in Canada)
Monk Pig——Lin Jingshan (Canadian artist of Chinese origin)
Monk Sand——Zhang Qiang (former editor of Chinese Art Journal, now living in Canada)
Buddha——Hank Bull (Canadian artist)
Guan Yin——Zainub Verjee (anadian artist of Indian origin)
Emissary——Kate Craig (Canadian artist)
Boatman——Antonia Hirsch (Canadian artist of German origin)

《西遊記》是一部最著名的中國古代長篇神話小說，作者吳承恩（1504年－1582年）。唐代和尚玄奘到印度取經的歷史事實經歷代民間流傳形成《西遊記》的故事。一種為了信仰一路向西堅忍不拔、排除萬難的信心和離奇的神話想象貫穿了整個小說。吳承恩在小說中塑造了唐僧、孫悟空、豬八戒和沙僧等人物在中國婦孺皆知，成為中國古代的四大名著之一。1986年《西遊記》被中央電視台拍成電視劇。

中國自上世紀80年代初開放以來，開始逐漸接觸到了來自“西方”的信息，產生了以西方現、當代文化為樣本的新的文化思潮，有了越來越多的“西行者”前往國外學習和定居，《新西遊記》在這樣的現實環境中誕生。作者挪用了一部分電視劇中的影像片段，重組了這些片段帶往溫哥華，請了四位從中國出去在溫哥華定居的藝術家和策展人以及四位當地的藝術家和知識分子扮演不同的角色，對著“無聲的視頻畫面”說出他們內心的話，在一個側面反映出了在“西遊記”的語境下來自不同身份的上下文關系。

本作品挪用電視劇《西遊記》中的部分視覺資源，由以下特邀人員根據自己經驗配以台詞，編輯而成。

唐僧——鄭勝天 原中國美術學院教授，現居加拿大
孫悟空——顧雄 原四川美術學院教師，現居加拿大
豬八戒——林景山 加拿大藝術家（華裔）
沙悟凈——張薔 原中國美術報編輯， 現居加拿大
如來——漢克-布爾 加拿大藝術家
觀音——澤娜-維姬 加拿大藝術家（印度裔）
使者——凱特-雷 加拿大藝術家
船夫——安東尼奧-赫西 加拿大藝術家（德國裔）

Hu Jie Ming lives and works in Shanghai China. He makes video installation, photo ,media art works and participates in many exhibitions, such as 010101: Art In Technological Times (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art U.S.A 2001 ) ; Live In Time (Nationalglerie Im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum Fur Gegenwart-Berlin Germany 2001) ; The first Guang Zhou Triennial :Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art 1990-2000 ( Guangdong Museum of Art Guangzhou China 2002 ) ; Solo exhibitions special for interactive art works“Connected to You” ( Bizart Shanghai China 2003 ) ; Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China (International Center of Photography New York U.S.A 2004 ) ; “Techniques of the Visible” 5th Shanghai Biennial ( Shanghai Art Museum Shanghai China 2004 ) ; < Zooming into Focus> Chinese Contemporary photo & video exhibition ( China National Art Museum Beijing China 2005 ) ； ( P.S,1 Contemporary Art Center New York U.S.A 2006）； ( Museum at Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam Netherlands 2006）; DEAF07 Interact or Die! ( V2 Institute for the Unstable Media Rotterdam Netherlands 2007 ) ; “Our Future” The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection ( Ullens Foundation Beijing China 2008 ); “Time Lapse” (The National Art Museum of China Beijing China 2009 and traveling to Center PasquArt Biel Switzerland 2010); Speed & Chaos, Into the future of Asian Art (Bryce-Wolkowitz Gallery New York U.S.A.2010); Collectors’ Stage: Asian Contemporary Art from Private Collections (Singapore Art Museum Singapore 2011); “Reactivation” 9th Shanghai Biennale (Power Station of Art, Shanghai China 2012）; Portrait of the Times, 30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art ( Power Station of Art Shanghai China 2013)；Thingworld, International Triennial of New Media Art (National Art Museum of China Beijing China 2014）; Myth/History ||:Shanghai Galaxy (The Yuz Museum Shanghai China 2015); Busan Biennale 2016:Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitude （KISWIRE Factory Busan Korea 2016）; BI_CITY BIENNALE OF URBANISM \ ARCHITECTURE (Ancient city of Nantou Shenzhen China 2017); Art in Motion: 100 Masterpieces with and through Media ( ZKM Karlsruhe Germany 2018 ) ; The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2018 ( Min Sheng Art Museum Beijing China 2019 ) ; “The Return of Guests” Selections from the PSA Collection ( Power Station of Art Shanghai China 2019 ); “Harmo-Power” The First Jinan International Biennale 2020（Shandong Art Museum Jinan China 2020）; Physis: Production of Nature, Human and Technplogy 2020 Wuhan 5th Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts（Hubei Museum of Art Wuhan China 2020）；Solo Exhibition“14 Days”(The Diplomatic Residence Compound No,12 Beijing China 2020 ); City on the Edge: Art and Shanghai at the Turn of the Millennium（ UCCA Edge Shanghai China 2021）; “Boomebang” OCAT Biennale 2021 ( OCAT Shenzhen China 2021); Symphony of All the Changes The 7th Guangzhou Triennial ( Guangdong Museum of Art Guangzhou China 2022)etc.