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.

Liam takes a photo with a Monkey King puppet on June 7, 2018. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

The puppet show was well-received at a primary school in New Zealand's Palmerston North as well as Newlands College in Wellington.

Liam (pseudonym), a 12-year-old boy at Newlands College, said the Monkey King has been one of his favorite characters ever since reading the English version Journey to the West. But it was his first time watching a Chinese puppet show.