ABSTRACT
The 1970s Japanese television show Saiyūki, known as Monkey to its English-language viewers, became the unlikely hero of Australian children’s television programming during the 1980s with a cult following whose popularity endures even today. This chapter argues that Monkey’s magic lies not only through viewers’ nostalgia for the series’ iconic imagery and catchy theme song, but through the series’ ability to encapsulate the transcultural linkages between ancient India and China, with contemporary Japan and England. The metamorphosis of this story over cultures, space, and time has made Monkey a unique and utterly appealing television series that has stayed relevant and topical in an ever-changing global environment.
