An actor playing the Monkey King from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West interacts with students at a primary school in Palmerston North, New Zealand, June 11, 2018. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

The puppet show Three Times Beating Baigujing, an excerpt from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, enthralled students in New Zealand during a recent tour showcasing Chinese cultural heritage.

Baigujing is a shape-shifting demon from Journey to the West, one of the four great classic novels of Chinese literature. In her true form, she is a skeleton. She planned to eat the flesh of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, so she disguised herself as a village girl and offered Xuanzang and his disciples some poisonous fruits. The Monkey King realized that she was a demon and hit her with his golden cudgel in order to kill her.