An animated performance

'I haven't left my house in five years. Now, here I am, on the stage of the Beijing Music Festival and I am a little bit nervous," says Liu Sola, a renowned Chinese composer, whose symphonic dance, titled The Legend of Monkey King, was performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Liu Sola and Friends Band, under the baton of conductor Zhang Jiemin, on Oct 5 in Beijing.

As part of the program of the ongoing, combined 25th and 26th Beijing Music Festival, the capital's largest annual music event which falls every October, the music was presented along with the screening of videos of the classic Chinese animation, The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven.

"This piece was like a surprise to me, because the theme is very special and the animation itself inspired me," says Liu. "The music featured in the animation was mostly Chinese folk music and traditional Chinese opera — Peking Opera. I tried to write music that will make people want to dance by using traditional Chinese percussion, pipa, as well as elements of jazz music."

"It is true that traditional Chinese music is a big inspiration for contemporary music composition," she adds.

The Monkey King, or Sun Wukong, is a character from the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West, by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) writer Wu Cheng'en. The story follows the adventures of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) monk and his three disciples during their journey to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

Produced and released by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio during the 1960s, the animated film The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven has become one of the best-known "superhero" animations in China, and is still enjoyed by both children and adults today.