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When a Chinese mythic world travels without translation_我的网站

回家的诱惑

一 | Spectre标志着迈向完全电气化的劳斯莱斯阵容的第一步，该公司已表示将在2030年实现这一目标。

二 |

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)

Chen Aijun makes AI videos in an optical shop in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 14, 2026. (Xinhua/Lu Youyi)
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三 | 这跟该公司的母公司宝马形成鲜明对比，后者尚未宣布它预计何时过渡到100%的电动车销售。宝马旗下的另一个品牌Mini也表示将在本世纪末实现全电动化。在某些方面，Spectre跟劳斯莱斯的其他豪华轿跑车并无不同：长长的引擎盖、光滑的车顶线条、无柱门--这些都是熟悉的设计。但在表面之下的快速一瞥显示，由于其锂离子电池供电的架构，Spectre在这个传奇的英国汽车制造商的阵容中是独一无二的。这次的公布更像是一个设计公告，而不是对Spectre的基本动力系统的全面说明。劳斯莱斯表示，大多数相关规格--包括续航能力、加速度和电池容量仍在完善中，更多细节将在以后出现。劳斯莱斯也没有透露Spectre的价格，但确认它将介于Cullinan SUV（起售价327,750美元）和Phantom（458,000美元）之间。鉴于电池材料的价格不断上涨及跟制造一辆全新汽车相关的整体成本，Spectre可能会更接近Phantom而非Cullinan。这家汽车制造商表示，Spectre预计将获得 260英里的续航里程，从其577马力的动力系统中提供664磅-英尺的扭矩峰值，并在4.4秒内完成百公里加速。这使得它在动力和加速度方面介于奥迪E-tron S和Polestar 2之间--而远远落后于其他超快的EV如特斯拉Model S Plaid、保时捷Taycan和Lucid Air。

四 |
这款双门四座轿跑车将有214.6英寸长，轴距为126-4英寸--比Spectre所基于的劳斯莱斯Phantom略显紧凑。但它在长度上的不足则在腰围上得到了弥补：81.8英寸宽的Spectre将是劳斯莱斯阵容中最宽阔的车型之一。事实上，Spectre将跟Phantom和Cullinan采用相同的平台，但其快背式后端更像Wraith。Spectre的特点是，它是劳斯莱斯100多年来首款采用23英寸车轮的双门轿跑车。

五 | 为了适当地强调腰线，车头被这家公司有史以来最宽的格栅所覆盖。车辆周围还有许多有意思的照明特征，包括格栅中的22个LED及嵌在车门和顶棚上的一系列星光式阵列。
跟所有的劳斯莱斯一样，客户应该期待在Spectre中获得特别舒适和高度调整的驾驶体验。这款电动汽车将是该汽车制造商阵容中最新配备被劳斯莱斯称之为Planar Suspension的一套功能。