Timothy Richard traveled to China in 1868 as a Baptist missionary. When other missionaries were attempting to stamp out the popular local tales of gods and heroes such as The Monkey King's Amazing Adventures, Thomas Richard championed them for the universal messages of spiritual challenge and growth they contain. He is also the author of Forty-five Years in China.

Daniel Kane is the Head of Chinese from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D. from the Australian National University. He was visiting scholar at the Department of Chinese at Peking University in 1988 and 1993 and Cultural Counselor at the Australian Embassy in Beijing in 1996.