据《镜报》5月12日报道，近日，63岁的美国网红奶奶谢丽尔·麦格雷戈(Cheryl McGregor)向粉丝宣布了一个喜讯，她与26岁的丈夫古兰·麦凯恩(Quran McCain)终于迎来了他们的孩子，但与此同时，也引起了巨大的争议。
Livestreaming team of Journey to the West: Heroes' Gathering, featuring the four master-disciples Photo: Courtesy of the cast team of
Journey to the West: Heroes' GatheringAt dusk, in an unassuming grove in Shouguang, East China's Shandong Province, performers dressed as Tang Sanzang (Monk Xuanzang), Sun Wukong (Monkey King) and other characters from the renowned Chinese classic Journey to the West set up a thatched hut and cooked around a bonfire while livestreaming. They were not fighting demons or embarking on a pilgrimage, but chatting, joking and improvising in response to comments from live viewers.
This seemingly makeshift
Journey to the West: Heroes' Gathering livestream has gone viral lately, with related videos garnering more than 140 million views and more than 400,000 viewers tuning in simultaneously at its peak on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Netizens gave it a distinctly contemporary nickname — the "2026 version of
Journey to the West."
Behind the viral success is a format far removed from traditional film and television productions: The livestream does not rely on tightly scripted dialogue.
Gao Guancheng, director of the team, told the Global Times that the team usually prepares only a basic outline before each livestream, leaving about 80 percent of each livestream to improvisation.
"Comments from viewers, trending internet memes, and even unexpected incidents on site can all become the starting point for the next scene," he said. This seemingly spontaneous approach, however, is far from unprepared.
Into daily lifeThe performers playing the "four pilgrims" all have years of experience portraying characters from
Journey to the West. That experience has given them the chemistry needed to pick up and build on one another's cues during livestreams.
"The actor playing Tang Sanzang has years of rich experience imitating the character, the actor playing Sun Wukong has studied monkey opera since childhood, and the actor playing Zhu Bajie has been portraying the character for nearly 20 years," Gao said.
"One look, one movement, or one punchline, we all know who should pick it up and who shouldn't," he added.
That chemistry may be the foundation for bringing the characters to life, but what truly connects this new
Journey to the West with contemporary life is the seemingly ordinary daily routine.
Peng Tao, a young viewer in his 20s who works in the internet industry, told the Global Times that when he first came across Journey to the West: Heroes' Gathering, he felt as if he were watching a spin-off of Journey to the West, one in which familiar characters were simply going about their daily lives.
"In the past, we saw them on the pilgrimage and fighting the demons. Now we see them eating together, chatting and working. That contrast really draws me in," he said.
In his view, the relationships among Tang Sanzang and his disciples remain familiar, but placing them in everyday situations gives those relationships a new resonance.
"For example, at work, there may be a relatively domineering boss, someone who always rushes to take responsibility, someone who keeps the atmosphere lively, and someone who doesn't say much but always gets things done in the end. You start to feel that they're no longer mythical figures, but people around you," he said.
That sense of familiarity may be one way for classics to reconnect with younger audiences.
"I don't think they are doing
Journey to the West a disservice," Peng said. "The basic personalities of the characters are still there; they've simply been placed in a new setting. If a classic can only be told in the same way it was decades ago, it may actually become increasingly distant from young people."
Finding the right balance between the old and the new is also something the creators of
Journey to the West: Heroes' Gathering have been thinking about.
"We are not remaking
Journey to the West. By preserving the basic characteristics of the characters while placing them in new everyday settings, we are bringing Journey to the West into the lives of ordinary people," Gao said.
Stories reimagined
The modern revival of classic traditional classics is by no means limited to Journey to the West.
Classic Chinese texts taught in schools, including
Letter to Wife,
Pipa Song and
The Golden Fishhook, have also been turned into vivid and engaging short videos. One video based on
The Golden Fishhook has garnered more than 100 million views. Such adaptations have attracted widespread attention online, according to the Beijing Daily.
These time-honored texts have become part of a generation's collective memory and naturally come with an established audience. Yet with countless classics to draw from, there is no shortage of adaptations that simply capitalize on established IPs or recycle old memes, and not every adaptation wins over audiences. What truly resonates is finding a thoughtful way to bring classics back down to earth, according to the Beijing Daily.
Beijing-based cultural scholar Wang Deyan told the Global Times that the vitality of a classic does not lie simply in repeating it word for word, but in its ability to continually forge new connections with contemporary life, emotions and aesthetics.
"Classics can continue to resonate in new eras because the relationships between their characters, their emotional structures and the values they convey can still connect with people today," he said.
In Wang's view, the popularity of
Journey to the West: Heroes' Gathering is essentially a way for young audiences to rediscover a classic through new forms of media: The characters remain the same, but the way audiences view them has changed.
"Short videos, livestreams and online fan creations have lowered the threshold for creative expression, giving classics opportunities to enter more tangible settings of everyday life," he said.
Perhaps classics truly come "alive" in moments like these, when they are no longer simply "old stories" preserved in textbooks and on screens, but enter livestreams, short videos and the everyday lives of young people, gaining new vitality in a new era through each retelling and each new way of being seen.
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这对年龄相差37岁的夫妇在视频中兴奋地跳着舞，并炫耀他们的验孕结果。第一次当父亲，古兰笑得合不拢嘴，他激动地说道，“我等不及了，我们终于要组建我们的小家庭了。”“我太高兴了，我要当爸爸了。”“我们终于拥有自己的家庭了。”
不过，据报道，谢丽尔并非自己孕育生命，而是利用靠科技手段让别人代为孕育。纵然如此，依然有很多网友对谢丽尔“怀孕”之事表示困惑，他们不敢相信她和古兰会有孩子，其中一人就反问道，“你们是怎么做到的？”
还有人鼓励谢丽尔和古兰不要在意别人的看法，并评论道，“真为你们感到高兴，忘记那些讨厌你的人吧。对于两个成年人来说，年龄并不算什么。”“这是多么美好的时刻啊！不要听他们的话，他们只是嫉妒而已。”
2021年7月，古兰在橄榄花园向谢丽尔求婚，并送给她一枚价值3000美元的戒指。回忆起那一刻，这位小伙子坦言当时非常紧张，并尽了最大的努力保持镇静，但一进入停车场，他就哭了。
