On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, The Eternal Lost Lurker wrote:

I'm surprised this thread escaped my notice as long as it did...

The original Dragonball storyline, the quest for the seven magical
balls, is heavily based on the Japanese/Chinese fairy tale, The
Monkey King, which details the adventures of the mischevious Monkey
King, "Son Gokou", as he undertakes a quest. And yes, one of the
Monkey King's companion is a pig who happens to have that same
name... 

Actually, do you know personally if the pig's name is Oolong, or did you
get this from the interview article mentioned in another post?  In the
Chinese tale I've heard (which is properly titled Journey West), the
Monkey King and the Taoist monk meet with the pig who's name in Chinese is
"dzu-ba-jie" (probably not spelled correctly, since I don't know ping-yin. 
I'm just sounding the words out).  This is by no streach of the
imagination close to "Oolong". Granted that Japanese is not the same as
Chinese, but I'd expect a closer correlation than the names given to the
pigs. 

I'd bet money that that the character may be based off the story, but the
name is not.  After all, Oolong is a popular Asian tea, and most of the
other characters have food related names, giving basis that the name is
really just another Dragonball joke.

-Natsume Ranma Ranma
-------
Oyaji-san!  Mallet-san!
I authorize you to take...MALLET ONE!