Illustration:
ill. 6.54 (set: 6.50)
Author:
Author: Yi Fu Artist: Deng Ke 改编: 艺夫 绘画：邓柯
Date:
1977
Genre:
comic, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, black-and-white; original source: print on paper, black-and-white
Source:
LHHB 1977.3:14-17. “Sun Wukong san da baigujing” 孙悟空三打白骨精 (Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned demon).
Inscription:
8 唐僧正要念紧箍咒惩罚悟空，只见来了个老头子。悟空认 出他仍是白骨精，举棒就打，妖精慌忙躲到唐僧身旁。9 悟空抡棒便打，唐僧拦住道: 『佛门弟子，慈悲为本，就是妖怪，也要感化它。』悟空一心除妖，一棒把妖精化身打了个稀巴烂。
Keywords:
Sun Wukong, Journey to the West, hero, heroism, villain, demon, visualisation, symbolism, revolutionary masses, santuchu, Three Prominences, after Cultural Revolution, victory, fight, comic

Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned Demon 1977 (Sun Wukong san da baigujing 孙悟空三打白骨精)

Thus, Monkey King becomes the true hero of the comic, while the white-boned demon in all her incarnations becomes a clearly marked negative character with fierce and crooked features both in her real shape and in her different disguises as seen here. Although the demon appears in an equal number of images as the hero (15/22), her position is clearly inferior. Indeed, faced with Monkey King, the demon always loses out. She receives three full images while Sun has four; more importantly, Sun is always depicted in dominant position, above or central to the image, much different from the demon.
The fact that Tang Seng is at first not to be convinced that it was righteous to kill, that he even believes in the false message sent off by none other than the demon (not Buddha) and, accordingly, sends Sun away only to be attacked again, becomes even more striking in its short-sightedness, as Sun Wukong is now being depicted as such an unmistakably superior hero. Only at the very end, when Sun comes to his rescue, is Tang Seng finally brought to his senses.