News Analysis: How China's animated blockbusters reimagine ancient myths for modern audiences

by Xinhua writer Zhang Yunlong

BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- As China's mythical heroes come to life on screen, modern audiences are seeing themselves in these time-honored stories.

In China's biggest animated hits of the year -- "Ne Zha 2" and "Nobody" -- folklore isn't merely being retold. It's being reimagined for a generation navigating personal identity, societal expectations, and the quest for self-realization in the modern world.

Both films draw on the country's timeless mythology canon, but their power comes from how they render these tales relevant and relatable, turning distant heroes into mirrors for contemporary viewers.

"What matters is not the era in which a story takes place, but the era in which it is told," Liu Jia, the screenwriter of "Nobody" and an associate professor at Beijing Normal University, told Xinhua on the sidelines of an animation forum at the Conference on Creation of High-Quality-Product in Radio and Television of China in Beijing. For Liu, that means observing the emotions of the times and embedding them into stories.

Released in August, "Nobody" flips the "Journey to the West" myth on its head. Its protagonists are not powerful monks or mighty gods but four lowly yaoguai (Chinese monsters) who fake their way through a sacred quest, only to discover moral courage and ultimately sacrifice themselves for the sake of justice. In one poignant moment, the pig monster declares, "I want to live the way I like." The line encapsulates the film's core message -- a belief that, even in the face of adversity, life is about striving to live authentically. The film's bittersweet humor and working-class ethos resonated widely with viewers, with many seeing in its flawed monsters a reflection of their own perseverance.

"Ne Zha 2," a record-breaking global blockbuster released in January, deepens the fiery child-god's defiance of fate. "If there's no path ahead, I'll carve one myself. If heaven and earth reject me, I'll overturn the cosmos," Nezha declares. The sequel moves beyond the first film's fight against prejudice to explore injustice in a wider world, carrying forward the spirit of the signature line from the series' first installment in 2019: "My fate is mine to decide."

Both films are grounded more in emotional connection than in mythic grandeur.

For Liu, that connection is crucial to filmmaking. In an era marked by a surge of short-form entertainment, she believes cinema must offer deeper, longer-lasting emotional value. With "Nobody," she said, her goal was to craft "a family-friendly, all-age story" that resonates across generations.

"Traditional myths provide the raw material, but only through modern expression and emotional resonance can they come alive for the audiences of today," Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association, told Xinhua in an earlier interview. "Nobody," Rao added, "strikes a chord with ordinary workers trapped between accepting reality and breaking free from it, who still hope to live life their own way."

Moviegoers and observers have drawn parallels between the two blockbusters. Each reframes myth as a vessel for contemporary sentiment: "Ne Zha 2" rages against destiny, and "Nobody" stumbles toward meaning.

Shi Anbin, director of the Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communication at Tsinghua University, noted that these works fuse traditional stories with the concerns of young people today.

Lines like "My fate is mine to decide" aren't just resonating with young Chinese people, he said. "They reflect a broader, global Gen Z mindset, as these myths evolve for a new generation."

Analysts say Chinese animators, by blending ancient folklore with the emotional textures of modern life, are redefining what mythology means -- not only an echo of the past, but also a mirror of the present, and more importantly, a living reinvention of tradition in the modern world. ■