Cross-Media Communication of Chinese Mythical Animals in the Fantastic Beasts Series Films



Author Information

Yingying Han, City University of Macau, Macau

Abstract

Compared to Mulan (Bancroft & Cook, 1998), Kung Fu Panda (Osborne & Stevenson, 2008), and other Hollywood films featuring Chinese elements that still largely follow Western narrative structures, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Yates, 2018) marked a notable shift by introducing the Chinese mythical creature Zouyu into the cinematic universe. Later, in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Yates, 2022), the third installment in the series, another Chinese mythical animal, Kylin, appeared—further continuing the Western magical narrative style while incorporating Eastern cultural symbolism. The appearance of Chinese mythical animals in Hollywood films reflects not only a process of deconstruction and reconstruction within the framework of globalized cinematic language, but also demonstrates how Chinese cultural symbols are disseminated worldwide through audiovisual media. Taking the Fantastic Beasts series as a case study, this paper explores the cross-media communication of Chinese mythical animals, offering insight into the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese culture in a transnational context.


Paper Information

Conference: ACAH2025
Stream: Media

This paper is part of the ACAH2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Han Y. (2025) Cross-Media Communication of Chinese Mythical Animals in the Fantastic Beasts Series Films ISSN: 2186-229X – The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 53-61) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-229X.2025.5
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-229X.2025.5


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