AI bridges past and present in Hainan film

A century after French linguist Francois-Marie Savina chronicled Hainan's Li ethnic culture, artificial intelligence now enables a groundbreaking cross-cultural dialogue, illustrating how technology is transforming cultural preservation.

The short film A Voyage Through Time: Savina's Hainan Island Monograph premiered online Friday, merging rigorous archival research with artistic storytelling to redefine digital humanities, its creators said.

"The video stages a fictional encounter between Savina and a contemporary Li brocade designer who weaves traditional Li motifs into futuristic fashion," the film's scriptwriter explained.

Using historic photographs of Hainan, the Chinese production team reconstructed authentic 1920s landscapes of the island. A Mixture-of-Experts AI model served as a key technical and artistic tool, allowing the film to adopt the visual style of an oil painting while preserving the accuracy of historical scenes and figures.

"As Hainan is bidding for the Hainan Tropical Rainforest and Traditional Settlements of the Li Ethnic Group to be included on UNESCO's World Heritage List, we wanted to 'paint' every stroke to honor both Savina's legacy and Li ethnic cultural creativity," the film's director said.

In 2022, the Hainan Tropical Rainforest and Traditional Settlements of the Li Ethnic Group were added to UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list. Appearing on the tentative list is the first formal step toward full nomination. A legal framework to protect traditional Li settlements took effect the following year, granting legal safeguards to the centuries-old villages.