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When a Chinese mythic world travels without translation_我的网站

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China's naval ship Honghe Photo: China's Ministry of National DefenseChina's Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday that Chinese and Indonesian naval vessels will conduct a navigation exercise in waters east of Taiwan island in mid-August. It will be the first time the Chinese and a foreign navy have conducted an exercise in the waters, as a Chinese military affairs expert told the Global Times on Tuesday that the exercise carries great significance, demonstrating China's sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone east of Taiwan island.
In mid-August, China's naval ship Honghe will conduct a navigation exercise with an Indonesian Navy ship east of Taiwan island. The drill will focus on subjects including communication drills and underway replenishment. It aims to boost the two navies' capacity for joint operations, deepen practical bilateral cooperation and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, according to China's Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday.
China and Indonesia have held joint exercises on several occasions. From late November to early December, the two countries held a joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise, involving forces from the Chinese and Indonesian armed forces' land, naval and air services.
The upcoming exercise by the Chinese and Indonesian navies in waters east of Taiwan Island will be the first naval exercise between China and a foreign country in those waters, making it "highly significant," military affairs expert Zhang Junshe told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Zhang said the move is intended to clearly convey China's position to the outside world: "China has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone east of Taiwan Island."
"Inviting foreign naval vessels to conduct training in waters under China's own jurisdiction is normal and reasonable. The act also demonstrates that China has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over these waters. The relevant scope of China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests includes the territorial waters east of Taiwan island, as well as the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," Zhang said.
Previously, the PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted joint exercises codenamed "Justice Mission 2025" in the Taiwan Straits, and in waters to the north, southwest, southeast, and east of the island. The exercises highlight the PLA's sacred mission to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, protect the fundamental interests, security and well-being of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, and oppose interference by external forces.
Since June this year, China Coast Guard vessels have conducted regular law-enforcement patrols in waters east of Taiwan island, with the aim of exercising jurisdiction in accordance with the law and safeguarding China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.
These actions were necessary in response to the unilateral decision by Japan and the Philippines to announce the launch of boundary negotiations concerning waters east of Taiwan island, which seriously infringes upon China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.
Zhang said the joint naval exercise by China and Indonesia in these waters will further expand China's "toolbox" for safeguarding national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests. "It fully demonstrates that China has both the capability and firm resolve to uphold its maritime rights and interests through routine practical maritime actions, and to demonstrate its sovereign rights and jurisdiction in relevant waters east of Taiwan island."
This will be the second instance of maritime cooperation between China and Indonesia this month and another example of the increasingly substantive military-to-military relationship between the two countries.
A Chinese PLA Navy's task group, comprising the training ship Qijiguang (Hull 83) and amphibious dock landing ship Kunlunshan (Hull 998), which is carrying out the far seas internship training and visit mission, arrived at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, Indonesia, on August 2, for a four-day goodwill visit, according to China Military Online.
"In recent years, the navies of China and Indonesia have continuously expanded cooperation including joint drills and reciprocal ship visits, advancing bilateral military to military ties in breadth and depth," Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, stated at the regular press conference on July 30.
Zhang said the series of maritime exchanges between China and Indonesia not only represents a concrete implementation of the consensus on building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future, but also further strengthens strategic mutual trust between the two militaries.
Such cooperation, he said, will help enhance the two sides' ability to jointly respond to maritime risks and challenges, inject positive momentum into maintaining order in surrounding waters and promoting regional maritime security and stability, and set a useful example for equal and mutually beneficial maritime defense exchanges among countries in the region.
。 Chen Aijun works in an optical shop in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Lu Youyi)

Chen Aijun works in an optical shop in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Lu Youyi)The video came with almost no instructions.
There was no narration explaining the mythology behind palaces rising above an ocean of clouds in the video, nor subtitles identifying the heavenly gates, cranes or tiny figures moving beneath them.
Yet viewers outside China quickly began naming the world for themselves.
Some called it "paradise." Others saw a "Celestial Palace" or an "Immortal Realm" familiar from Chinese fantasy games and television dramas. One user wrote, "Waiting on Wukong to show up," invoking the Monkey King from the Chinese literary classic "Journey to the West," or the hit game "Black Myth: Wukong."
The interpretations differed, but viewers did not seem to need the same cultural knowledge to enter the conversation.
Earlier this month, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning shared the 33-second AI-generated video on social media with a question: "What does the Chinese heaven look like?"
It opened up a hermeneutic discussion, with responses overseas suggesting a cultural image does not necessarily need to elicit exactly the same interpretation for everyone in order for it to be viewed meaningfully.
"The right to interpret ultimately lies with the audience," said Zhang Zheng, deputy dean of Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication.
People encountering unfamiliar cultures inevitably draw on what they already know, Zhang said. Rather than fully grasping every cultural reference, what matters is whether audiences can encounter the work, understand it and respond to it emotionally.
Before strangers abroad could interpret this particular world, however, it first had to get out of one man's head.
Chen Aijun, 34, is an optometrist in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
By day, Chen leads a quiet, down-to-earth life in a neighborhood optical shop. Inside, he worked among eyeglass frames and optometry equipment. On his computer was another landscape entirely: cloud seas, immense palaces, flying cranes and figures in ancient robes.
Chen's heaven did not come from any single ancient text.
Growing up in the 1990s, he watched "Journey to the West" and later encountered "The Investiture of the Gods," xianxia (immortal heroes) novels and fantasy games. Those stories mixed over time with images of Chinese architecture and landscapes he saw online.
He has never visited nearby Mount Emei, and most of what he knows of Mount Huangshan's famous sea of clouds comes from videos.
What appeared on his screen was therefore not a reconstruction of one fixed mythological scene, but a world shaped by traditional stories already filtered through television, novels, games, the internet and his own memory.
For years, Chen had no way to make that world visible.
He never studied painting, design, photography or 3D modeling. After high school, he joined his parents' optical business and eventually took over the shop.
Generative AI changed the gap between imagining an image and possessing the technical skills to show it to someone else.
More than a year ago, Chen began teaching himself through free online tutorials. In September 2025, he started regularly posting AI videos, and a month later began experimenting with palaces floating above clouds. He has since published more than 200 videos.
The process, however, involves far more than entering a few prompts. The technology lowered the technical threshold, but it did not make the choices for him.
When creating Nantianmen, the mythical heavenly gate, Chen first defines the spatial rhythm and tonal hierarchy, pairing towering architecture and cloud seas with deliberately miniature figures to amplify the celestial realm's grand scale.
If the result does not match the picture in his mind, he tries again. He often generates over 1,000 images a day, revising a single scene repeatedly before moving on to animation, editing, color grading and music.
The machine can generate a thousand possible heavens. Chen still has to decide which one is his.
"AI-produced images can be soulless, and it takes human inspiration and aesthetic sensibility to endow works with warmth and vitality," he said.
Zhang believes Chen's experience reflects a broader shift brought about by generative AI. He said AI is giving people without conventional artistic training access to forms of expression that once required specialized skills. But what they create still depends on what they bring to the tool.
"A person's existing knowledge inevitably shapes how they use AI," Zhang said.
Chen brought his memories to the machine. Viewers abroad, in turn, brought theirs to the image.
"Everyone brings their own associations to these scenes," he said.
If his imagined world had to be reduced to three elements, he would keep clouds, architecture and people. The first two should feel immense, he said, while the last should remain small.
The details are culturally specific, but the visual effect is more immediate: tiny human figures dwarfed by vast clouds and monumental architecture. The responses suggest that viewers did not need to understand every cultural reference to find a way into the image.
Chen has no overseas social media accounts and learned that the video was attracting attention abroad only when friends sent him screenshots.
His life at the optical shop has changed little. He still checks eyesight and fits glasses when customers come in, then returns to his computer when the shop grows quiet.
He now hopes to make longer AI videos with fuller stories. He also wants to visit Mount Emei and, one day, Mount Huangshan.
For years, images of distant mountains and clouds reached Chen through screens. His imagined landscapes later traveled through screens to people he had never met.
Now he wants to see the real mountains and clouds for himself.
Chen Aijun makes AI videos in an optical shop in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Lu Youyi)