"No one is born with courage. Growth comes through the choices we make, again and again."

With these words on the cover of her latest picture book, In Red Makeup, Dare to Ask the Rivers and Mountains, young artist and picture book author Ye Luying offers a fresh interpretation of one of China's most enduring heroines.

Her acclaimed picture book Nymph of the Luo River, or Luoshenfu, won the best illustration Gold Award at the 13th Golden Dragon Award for Chinese Animation held in 2016.

Six years after publishing her first picture book adaptation of The Ballad of Mulan, Ye returned to the character with a different perspective. Once portraying Mulan as "graceful and ethereal, almost like an immortal," Ye now believes she should be "more like a real person" who "returns to the passage of time and to the soil itself."

Having illustrated the book entirely by hand in watercolor, Ye hopes that readers can feel the warmth and humanity in an age increasingly influenced by AI.

Executive producer: Zhang Jingwen

Producer: Yang Sha

Director: Chen Hongyu

Videographers: Wang Hongjie, Li Yufei

Cover: Li Wenyi, Yu Peng