Background

The year of 2004, according to the Chinese lunar calendar, is the Year of Jiashen, or the Year of Monkey. The monkey, a close relative of the mankind, has no direct connection with human life in the way that domestic animals do, but has nonetheless caught people's special attention with their alertness, nimbleness, and intelligence. In the Chinese mythology, the monkey was the ancestor of mankind, and had the mystical power of communicating with deities. For this reason, the figure of monkey was often carved in masts of ferries to ward off evil spirits. Sun Wukong, the fictional Monkey king, has been well known across the country for centuries. The Chinese character "monkey" pronounces the same as the character for "marquis", so "monkey" is regarded as auspicious, and there are a lot of idioms and allusions about monkeys.

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