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director Hu Mei, whose works have won numerous domestic and international awards, engaged in a dialogue with students from Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) about her new film A Dream of Red Mansions: The Gold and Jade Marriage recently. Centered on the theme "How Can Chinese Films Be Understood Globally," Hu shared practical insights on adapting classics and promoting international communication, outlining a clear path for Chinese culture to reach the world through cinema.

（Hu Mei Exchanges Ideas on International Film Communication with SISU Students）

What Do International Audiences Love? Visuals Speak Louder Than Dialogue

The film sold out two screenings during the Tokyo International Film Festival. Japanese university students expressed excitement after watching the film, holding a signed copy: "From Confucius to A Dream of Red Mansions, Director Hu's works let me feel the pulse of Chinese culture." In French cinemas, Western audiences grasped the emotional entanglements of these main characters through the narrative theme of "conspiracy and love". Hu positioned this movie as "Chinese Romeo and Juliet," playing a significant role in cross-cultural understanding.

Hu believes film is a universal language that needs no translation, with visuals serving as the bridge across cultures. Taking A Dream of Red Mansions as an example, she explained how to make abstract Oriental aesthetics more tangible through shots. To showcase the novel's beauty globally, her crew traveled to stunning Chinese landscapes. In Tibet, they used drones to film peach blossoms falling on snow for the "Daiyu Burying Flowers" scene. A French viewer commented that it was more moving than reading poetry—it’s like watching a living Chinese painting!" In order to recreate the original scene, she used real Ming and Qing antiques and costumes hand-stitched to ancient patterns, leaving foreign audiences amazed: "So this is how exquisite ancient China was!" During the Tokyo screening, a funny moment occurred. When the scene of chasing butterflies played, the entire audience laughed, though they couldn’t understand the lines, the form in the film reminded everyone of childhood memories. "That’s the power of visuals," Hu said. "Happiness and sadness look the same worldwide."

How to Film Classics? Translating Classical Beauty with Modern Technology

Adapting A Dream of Red Mansions, one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels, Hu adopted a strategy of "focusing on main plots and prioritizing visuals." Technologically, she had a bold idea: using modern tech to bring ancient beauty to life. For the "Daiyu Burning Manuscripts" scene, she asked the special effects team to use AI to calculate the trajectory of each paper ash, making it look like Daiyu’s tears flying. The mist in a special part was a collaboration between Chinese ink painters and Hollywood visual effects(VFX) artists. A German critic praised it as "telling a Peony Pavilion dream with Blade Runner technology."

Wei Lingzhi, Vice President of the Beijing Cao Xueqin Society, added from a cultural perspective. Those scenes of tea-making and flower arrangement in the film subtly showcase Chinese lifestyle aesthetics, allowing foreign audiences to feel the healing power of China’s "slow life" without explanation. Despite controversies over casting and thematic adaptation, Hu stated frankly that classics can be challenged, but artistic innovation shouldn’t kneel before predecessors. We need to use modern cinematic language to break barriers with younger generations.

Q&A session: How to Cultivate "Cross-Border" Talent for Multilingual Films?

During the Q&A, a data science student asked that in the era of short-video media, how can art films survive? Hu cited the Indian film Dangal as an example, and demonstrated that it succeeded globally not by relying on celebrity stars, but on the universal theme of "father-daughter dreams." Chinese films should learn to package local stories in global language. For instance, extracting "female growth" and "family change" from A Dream of Red Mansions, which are emotional cores foreigners can relate to."

Fan Juan, Secretary of the Party Committee of SISU’s School of Journalism and Communication, stated the college’s goal clearly: to cultivate talent who can both appreciate the "Flower Burial Song" in A Dream of Red Mansions and also explain its beauty to the world. People who learn foreign languages know films, and filmmakers who know foreign languages, and only in this way is the ace combination for Chinese cinema to go global."

From Tibet’s snow mountains to French film festivals, Hu’s A Dream of Red Mansions proves that Chinese stories touch the world not by forcibly transplanting traditional culture, but by using universally understandable visuals and emotions. SISU students are learning to translate Chinese stories in multiple languages. As Hu said at the event, when we master the world’s grammar to tell China’s stories, the day when "foreigners queue up for Chinese films" won’t be far off.