They gained 3.5 million new followers in a single month, with an average of over 100,000 online viewers per session, and adapted *Journey to the West* into a "team building activity for office workers".

Who could have imagined that by 2026, the Journey to the West pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures would have turned into "a team-building activity for office workers".

While resting in the shade, Tang Sanzang did not stop teasing Sun Wukong, who was starting a fire to cook: "If I had known this would happen, I would never have rescued him from under the Five Elements Mountain back then."

Sha Wujing, the perennial straight man for comedic effect, immediately chimed in: "Master is right." In the background, Zhu Bajie was also grumbling to fan the flames of the argument.

Everything around became a catalyst that directly ignited the fury of Sun Wukong, who was buried in work, he looked up and roared: "Did I ask you to save me?"

This scene is exactly like the moment a colleague in the workplace breaks down after being dumped with all the blame.

"Look, you're getting angry again"

This up-to-date adaptation comes from the Douyin live stream of "Heroes of the Journey to the West", this segment about "Did I ask you to save me?" has become one of its most widely spread clips.

The thatched huts and tree shadows in the wild, as well as the highly recognizable costumes and props, made many netizens exclaim that they "traveled back to the 1986 version of *Journey to the West*". Someone couldn't help but ask: "Is this plot real or fake?" Someone immediately replied in the comment section: "Footage suspected to be from the White Dragon Horse's dash cam has leaked."

Discussions in the comment section about the "Heroes of the Journey to the West" live stream

Similar dramatic and funny scenes are staged almost every day in the live stream of "Heroes of the Journey to the West", bringing it huge traffic and public attention.

Data from NewRank shows that in the past 30 days, "Heroes of the Journey to the West" has broadcast 63 live sessions in total, with a total of 218 million cumulative viewers and an average of 140,000 online viewers per session.

The remarkable live streaming effect also helped "Heroes of the Journey to the West" gain 3.5 million new followers on Douyin in the past 30 days, a 70% increase, bringing its total number of fans to 5.01 million.

So why do current netizens love this kind of "Journey to the West Vlog for office workers"? What exactly did "Heroes of the Journey to the West" do right? As a classic IP created 400 years ago, why can *Journey to the West* repeatedly become popular on the Internet and always feel fresh to audiences?

Gained 3.5 million followers in a single month, office workers have their own version of "Journey to the West"

Dubbed by netizens as the 2026 version of *Journey to the West*, "Heroes of the Journey to the West" may be the version with the highest frequency of bickering among the four master and disciples.

There are even plots where Tang Sanzang holds a stone painted with a smiling face and says to Sun Wukong seriously "Your mom is smiling", teasing Sun Wukong for being born out of a crack in a stone.

There are also scenes where Sun Wukong grumbles at Tang Sanzang: "We are the ones doing all the work, slaying all the demons, and doing all the cooking."

Tang Sanzang retorts unconvinced: "Aren't I the one planning the route?"

Sun Wukong immediately fires back: "All the monsters are on the route you planned."

Tang Sanzang uses his ultimate move, singing the song *Only You* performed by Law Kar-ying in *A Chinese Odyssey*, trying to tame Sun Wukong with the golden headband spell.

Sun Wukong simply spreads out both hands, takes off the golden hoop on his head, and throws it on the ground freely, showing his unruly personality.

Such high-density mutual banter also makes netizens sigh "There are not that many monsters to fight on the pilgrimage road, and all the rest of the time is spent arguing."

Many netizens project their own workplace experience into the plot: work is piling up, leaders are still assigning more tasks, and colleagues are just watching the fun. The whole chaotic situation is just like the moment Sun Wukong is on the verge of giving up completely when facing the other three teammates.

Laughter keeps coming from the "Heroes of the Journey to the West" live stream room, which is supported by the real dedication of the four creators.

According to public interviews, the live stream of "Heroes of the Journey to the West" started on April 15, by the side of a ditch in Linhai Ecological Expo Park in Shouguang, Shandong Province. At the very beginning, there was only one mobile phone and one stand, no scripts, and everything was improvised.

The four characters in *Journey to the West* who go on the pilgrimage have different backgrounds and experiences, and the four actors playing the master and disciples in "Heroes of the Journey to the West" also come from all over the country:

The actor playing Tang Sanzang, Jia Hui, used to be a TV host and performed stage skits, he has been playing Tang Sanzang ever since he started live streaming 6 years ago;

The actor playing Sun Wukong, Wang Wei, was born in 1997, he started learning monkey opera at the age of 12, and learned Errenzhuan at the age of 16, he performed all over the country before he started doing live streams;

The actor playing Zhu Bajie, Sun Yu, is the fourth-generation inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of vocal mimicry, who majors in imitating sounds, he has been imitating Zhu Bajie for 19 years;

The actor playing Sha Wujing, Da Xiang, is a veteran who used to be a firefighter and later worked in e-commerce, in real life he is just like Sha Wujing, a man of few words.

By a coincidence, the actor playing Tang Sanzang, Jia Hui, gathered the other three people together, and the live stream IP "Heroes of the Journey to the West" was born. This scene is exactly like the process of Tang Sanzang meeting his three disciples on the pilgrimage road.

All four creators of "Heroes of the Journey to the West" have opened their own Douyin accounts. The actor playing Sun Wukong has the highest number of new followers on his individual account, gaining 150,000 new fans in the past 30 days

Since the live stream started in mid-April, the scorching summer has arrived in Shandong.

"Heroes of the Journey to the West" usually starts broadcasting at around 11:20 noon, the hottest time of the whole day. The crisp yet noisy cicada chirps in the live stream can be heard almost from the beginning to the end. Even with the shade of trees, the summer heat is still overwhelming.

But for better performance effect, the creators of "Heroes of the Journey to the West" still wear thick long robes, and Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie also need to wear masks in addition. Some netizens suggested that they change to "cooler outfits", but the creators said "this is our profession".

Under the background of this inspiring story, "Heroes of the Journey to the West" has also put a lot of effort into content operation.

The editorial team of NewRank observed that the team has opened multiple matrix accounts, covering the main IP account, the four actors' personal accounts, the official scenic spot account, the highlight clip account, the photography derivative account, etc., forming a complete traffic closed loop.

In addition, there are also some individual bloggers who opened their own accounts to get a share of the traffic.

No matter who owns the account, the content they post is similar, the most frequent content is live stream clips that record the dramatic scenes of the master and disciples bickering with each other, many of the clips get hundreds of thousands of likes.

In turn, these clips bring traffic back to the live stream room, forming a closed loop of "live stream generates content, clips amplify content, and traffic feeds back to the live stream".

During the live stream of "Heroes of the Journey to the West", these accounts also synchronously turn on multi-camera perspectives.

Audiences can not only see the main perspective of the four master and disciples messing around in the main content, but also switch to the side camera to see the behind-the-scenes footage outside the lens, such as Tang Sanzang collapsing under the shade of trees and not wanting to say a word after the live stream ends, and Sun Wukong being all sweaty after taking off his mask.

This kind of multi-perspective live stream that covers both on-stage and behind-the-scenes content accurately satisfies fans' curiosity about the behind-the-scenes stories of "Heroes of the Journey to the West", and makes the originally thin live stream content have more depth.

At noon on July 30 at the same time, the live stream screens of "Heroes of the Journey to the West" and other accounts

The popularity of the "Heroes of the Journey to the West" live stream room has also attracted many other bloggers to come to the scene to shoot content.

According to the report of Jimu News, some bloggers traveled all the way from Chongqing to Shandong specifically to live stream the four master and disciples, and some bloggers said frankly that "I have been doing live streams for three years, and my live stream is the most popular when I shoot them." Facing these behaviors of "leeching on traffic", the actor playing Tang Sanzang, Jia Hui, is very open-minded: "Traffic does not belong to us alone, everyone can share it together."

Always creating new content, what is the classic charm of the Journey to the West IP

"Heroes of the Journey to the West" is not the first team that brings the Journey to the West IP into the live stream room.

"Shangli Journey to the West" based in Guangxi started reenacting the pilgrimage road in the live stream room even earlier, and gained more than 300,000 followers in 8 months.

They also do not have formal scripts and complex special effects, most of their props are improvised modified items: the nine-toothed rake of Zhu Bajie is a plastic product, the shoulder pole of Sha Wujing is a hollow stainless steel tube, and the pilgrimage road to the West is made up of ridges and mountain paths behind the village houses.

These two Journey to the West live streams with completely different styles have entered the public view in the past two years. The root cause lies in the unique national IP advantage of *Journey to the West*, as long as the four master and disciples appear in their classic costumes and the classic soundtrack plays, all audiences can wake up their childhood memories in one second without extra preparation