Niu Mowang is the primary antagonist of season 1 of American Born Chinese and he is also known as the Bull Demon. The character is played by Leonard Wu.
Niu Mowang is the one responsible for the uprising against the Jade Emperor in heaven and the only way to keep him at bay is with the help of the magical staff held by Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
When Sun Wei-Chen travels to Earth with the staff, Niu Mowang sees his opportunity and catches Wei-Chen off guard to grab the staff for himself.
With control of the staff, Mowang continues searching for the Fourth Scroll and defeats Sun Wukong with it. When Wei-Chen tells him that he doesn’t think the Scroll actually exists, Niu Mowang goes ahead with his plan leaving Jin, Anuj, and Wei-Chen to figure out what it is.
The battle on the field
When Jin gets a dream warning him of Niu Mowang’s plan, he goes to Anuj and Wei-Chen for help finding out what it might be. After learning that the characters from all the manga they read are real, Anuj suggests that the plan might be in there too.
They go over different comics and eventually learn that he plans to place the staff into the earth and uses the power of the core to destroy heaven during the Autumn Equinox when the gate between both worlds is open.
However, his plan doesn’t succeed as Jin jumps in the way just as the power is released and Sun Wukong returns to take Niu Mowang down.
Overtaken by envy
Sun Wukong and Niu Mowang used to be close friends when they were young and they attend a party for the gods where Miu Mowang hopes to meet the Great Sage to propose his ideas and hopefully stake his claim to become the next great sage.
He is shy and soft-spoken, unlike Wukong who isn’t afraid of sharing his opinion. Despite Wukong’s efforts, Mowang is not able to make an impression on the crowd so Wukong goes up on stage and ridicules everyone.
Seeing his brutal honesty, the Great Sage goes up to Wukong and tells him that he will be the next great sage. This drives a wedge between him and Mowang who spends the party becoming friends with Princess Iron Fan.
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