On 19–20 August 2025, the Department of Communication at Beijing Normal–Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) hosted the Interactive Narratives Conference in Zhuhai, co-sponsored by IAMCR and the Center for Creative Media and Communication Research. Across two keynotes, four themed panels, and an industry visit to Seasun (西山居/Xishanju), presenters examined a central question: how do technology and culture co-author today’s interactive stories?

Conference Committee: Dr Anilesh Kumar

The programme moved well beyond tech novelty, showing how AI, design pipelines, heritage, and player communities now operate as an integrated narrative ecosystem.

Conference Committee: Dr Hao Sun

Conference Committee: Dr Mengqi Li

Professor Lin Zhu spoke at the conference opening ceremony

Keynotes

Prof. Jussi Holopainen explored Remediating the Classics in the Age of Generative AI through Hong Lou Meng, showing how AI can stage new readings of canonical literature without flattening cultural nuance. Takeaway: AI isn’t a black box that replaces interpretation; it’s a design partner that forces clearer interpretive choices.

Professor Jussi Holopainen’s presentation: Remediating the Classics in the Age of Generative AI: Case Hong Lou Meng

Prof. Peter Nelson asked how media walls become game spaces, reframing publics as participants. Takeaway: when the built environment becomes playable, urban storytelling shifts from spectacle to shared authorship.

Professor Peter Nelson asked the BNBU students questions

Together, these talks framed the conference’s through-line: agency moves outward—from designer to system to audience—yet remains tethered to cultural context.

Panels at a Glance

Panel 1 — Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality

A high-level map of how machine assistance and immersive media expand player agency while raising design ethics and cultural specificity. The emphasis: keep local values legible as technical affordances multiply.

Professor Kara Chan and Shing Chi Ho from City University of Hong Kong

Panel 2 — Community & Digital Media

A survey of participatory cultures—from municipal communication to grassroots (草根) art—showing communities as co-authors of meaning. Message: narrative longevity now depends on practice and participation, not just publication.

Dr Jiyu Zhang, and Dr Qingning Wang from Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Panel 3 — Video Games in China

Broad perspectives on how heritage, everyday play, and design choices shape contemporary game worlds. Rather than treating tradition as decoration, the panel cast it as a living system continually revised by players.

Panel 4 — Special Focus: Black Myth: Wukong

A composite reading of myth, technology, and global reception. The discussion positioned Wukong as a site of negotiation—between authenticity and exportability, spectacle and system, local pride and international curiosity.

Jingyan Lin graduated from BNBU

Industry Visit: Seasun (西山居)

The industry visit anchored theory in production reality. In “Game Narrative Design Sharing (游戏叙事设计分享),” Mr. Duoliang Sun—drawing on nearly 20 years of industry experience—outlined how franchises in wuxia, mecha, and ACGN evolve narrative systems over time, how micro-level cultural details (naming, architecture, combat rhythm) scale into world-level authenticity, and how readable mechanics increasingly carry story without heavy exposition.

Participants experienced the AR interactive installation at Seasun

Participants took a group photo at Seasun

Across sessions, a clear picture emerged: interpretation is becoming infrastructural. AI models, community platforms, and studio pipelines now co-shape how stories are made, read, and lived. For researchers, educators, and industry alike, the challenge is to scale innovation without losing cultural signal—and to design for audiences who don’t just consume narratives, but actively complete them.

Written by: Lu Chen

Photography by: Ariana Chen