Residents in Guangzhou reported something unusual at a TANING store: four strangely dressed men. One dignified, holding a tin staff; one mischievous, carrying a golden cudgel; one round-bellied and endearing; one bearded and honest. All four were working the floor — shaking tea, cutting lemons, taking orders, handing over cups — with the ease of people who had done it for years.
You read that correctly.
Four veteran actors arrived as Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing in the versions a whole generation of the Greater Bay Area grew up with, and spent a day as TANING store managers for a shoot. The video passed 50 million views across platforms soon after release.
Guangzhou hit almost 35°C that day. Sun Wukong arrived in full costume and immediately launched into his signature line about the city being hotter than the Flame Mountain. Before the director called action, he walked straight to the counter: one signature lemon tea, plenty of ice, plenty of sugar — need energy to shoot.
Tang Sanzang, calm and refined, fanned himself: a Ya Shi Xiang lemon tea for me, light ice, light sugar.
Zhu Bajie leaned in: full sugar and full ice for me, the sweeter the better.
Sha Wujing smiled: anything fresh and fruity will do.
Four cups in hand before filming started, in chorus: ah — refreshing!
The director, behind the monitor, could not help laughing: the advertising budget was not meant to buy you tea.
The first close-up was Sun Wukong shaking a lemon tea. He pulled out his prop cudgel, spun it for the camera and shouted his signature word — and somehow the staff ended up in the shaker. Five hundred years of shaking tea with this staff, he claimed, and it works better than your shaker. The cameraman muttered that he had shaken it fast enough to leave after-images the lens could not follow. The finished shot looks spectacular: after-images and split-figure effects woven through the few seconds of shaking.
Between takes, an improvised scene was quietly recorded. Tang Sanzang, sweating, asked his disciple to conjure a cooling herbal tea. Sun Wukong turned to the counter and ordered three signature lemon teas — it is cold tea, he grinned, and it cools you better than the bitter stuff. One sip and Tang Sanzang's composed face relaxed: indeed cooling, and far better than that bitter medicine. The director called out: keep it, cut it into the film.
Another scene caught Zhu Bajie stealing a drink. Sun Wukong turned for lids and came back to find him sucking noisily on one of the cups. Not shaken properly yet! Zhu Bajie protested that it tasted too good to wait. Sha Wujing added, in his honest way, that this was the third cup — did master want to count them? Tang Sanzang, eyes closed and composed, asked only whether his own cup was safe.
From eight in the morning to nightfall, the four worked a full shift. When the director finally called cut, they collapsed into chairs. Sun Wukong rubbed his wrist: a day of shaking tea is more tiring than fighting demons. Zhu Bajie patted his stomach. Sha Wujing looked at the pile of lemon peels and said his knife work had improved. Tang Sanzang folded his hands: making an advertisement is harder than fetching the scriptures.
The director brought the wrap perk — one more cup each to take away. Staff murmured that the tea they drank that day could stock a branch store.
The crossover struck a chord far beyond the shoot:
Over 50 million views across platforms (Douyin 30m+, Xiaohongshu 10m+, WeChat Channels 10m+)
Over 580,000 total interactions (comments, likes and shares)
More than a stunt, it was a warm collision around a simple idea: happiness. Seeing the mischief of Sun Wukong, the composure of Tang Sanzang, the good humour of Zhu Bajie and the steadiness of Sha Wujing in a Guangzhou tea store was both a crossover and a tribute to a generation's childhood.
So the next time you walk into a TANING store in Guangzhou and find a Sun Wukong shaking tea fast enough to blur, a master studying the menu with great care, or a Sha Wujing quietly slicing lemons — do not be surprised. They may just be passing through Guangzhou, earning a little travel money before continuing west.
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