ABSTRACT
In 2007, there were widespread expressions of anger in China about Japanese adaptations of the classic Chinese novel The Journey to the West, in which the monk goes to India in search of the Buddhist scriptures and is turned into a woman. Through their parodies—which translation theorists have seen as a form of "radical translation"—Japanese manga artists have played with the mythical quest tale involving the religious figure and his three companions. While Japanese theatrical, literary, and folk traditions show transgendering to be very much a "fact" of Japanese culture, they can be said to have only paved the way for sex and gender reassignment of the major characters in The Journey, especially Tripitaka. Before exploring the incidents of transgenderism, the chapter provides a brief synopsis of the sixteenth-century Chinese folk novel. A story in the Boys' Love genre, Patariro Journey to the West makes repeated reference to homosexual desire.
