Rewriting the Myth in Times of Permacrisis: Discourse and Ideology in Chinese Animation from Princess Iron Fan to Havoc in Heaven

This paper explores how classical mythology is reconfigured through Chinese animated media to construct ideological discourse in times of prolonged national crisis. It focuses on Princess Iron Fan (1941) and Havoc in Heaven (1961-1964), two foundational works that adapt episodes from the Ming dynasty novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji 西游记), a text itself rooted in centuries of reinterpretation of the Tang monk Xuanzang’s pilgrimage. Drawing on a multimodal discourse approach, the study examines how visual, narrative, and symbolic elements are orchestrated to produce politically charged messages during periods of structural instability, or “permacrisis”. These films are analyzed not merely as cultural artefacts, but as discursive devices that manipulate myth to foster national identity and political legitimacy. While grounded in mid-20th-century case studies, the paper also considers how these ideological patterns persist in contemporary Chinese media, particularly through the digital reappropriation of myth and heritage narratives. In doing so, it highlights the continuity between historical animation and present-day discursive strategies employed by the state to manage crisis, construct meaning, and mobilize collective sentiment across changing technological and political landscapes.