The Monkey King
World Premiere at San Francisco Opera
Dates: Nov 14–30, 2025
Based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, The Monkey King makes its much-anticipated world premiere at the War Memorial Opera House. This new, action-packed opera combines high-energy music and text with puppetry, dance, Peking opera, and Buddhist sutras to tell the tale of the Monkey King’s beginnings.
Award-winning director Diane Paulus and puppeteer Basil Twist conjure up a whimsical world of gods, tricksters, superheroes, and rebels. Huang Ruo’s soaringly beautiful, energized score and David Henry Hwang’s incisive libretto blend traditional Chinese and contemporary Western styles into an extraordinary work that gives new voice to this enduring story. Carolyn Kuan makes her Company debut on the podium.
Monkey King Art Installation
Art Builds Community, with co-curator Caitlin Pambid will present a series of artworks from Bay Area artists inspired by The Monkey King. The Monkey King Exhibition will feature artworks from Bay Area artists whose visual depictions of him will allow audiences to feel a connection to his multi-faceted character, expanding their initial beliefs of who he is.
The installation will be on display in the War Memorial Opera House from 11/14 – 12/01, and available only to ticket holders.
Our Journey with Monkey King
This mandala, framed in the reflective story of our journey with Monkey King, depicts Sun Wukong’s carefree moment of delight upon finding the Emperor’s Garden of Immortal Peaches.
Through this collaborative work of art, we share our mutual fondness for the immortal Monkey King, whose story has sweetened our journey—as friends, artists, and Chinese American women seeking to uncover, understand, and breathe new life into long-buried history. Channeling Sun Wukong’s curiosity, cleverness and indomitable fighting spirit, we honor our ancestors with our art and poetry, in both the physical and virtual realms.
Nellie Wong & Andi Wong
Our Journey with Monkey King, 2025
Mixed medium collage: paper, rice sack, ink, solar dye, embroidery thread, sewing needle, wire and glass tile, 11” x 14” framed.
CLICK on the photos to learn about our history & journey with Monkey King!
Our collaborative art project began with a lunchtime chat about Nellie’s love of The Monkey King over bowls of ramen in Japantown. We talk about his resilience and fighting spirit, his playfulness and commitment to community.
“There is something about his mischievousness, his power, his searching for the scriptures and doing it with others.”
After lunch, we picked out papers for our piece at Paper Tree in Japantown. Of course, we had to take a break for Nellie’s favorite — matcha ice cream.
We scheduled regular work sessions to discuss what our piece might become. Nellie began sketching out her ideas for a poetic addition to the collage.
We delivered our collage to the Opera for installation in the Art Builds Community Monkey King art exhibition. Then Nellie and I were able to enjoy our art on display at the final performance of 2025 world premiere of The Monkey King at San Francisco Opera on Sunday, November 30, 2025.
Nellie picked the perfect spot for watching the Lion Dance, and so we had the good luck to run into Huang Ruo before the opera which gave us the chance to offer our congratulations on this stunning production!
“Journeying with Sun Wu Kong
peaches, light, freedom
For All our Kin”
— NELLIE WONG
(September 12, 1934 – January 2, 2026)