Zhenzhen in the Painting and Pygmalion: A Comparative Study of Gender Consciousness and AI Ethics in Eastern and Western Creation Myths

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the Greek myth Pygmalion and the Chinese tale Zhenzhen in the Painting, examining how the motif of “artwork transformed into a companion” is interpreted across cultural contexts. In the Western tradition, the Pygmalion narrative is grounded in the materiality of sculpture and the interaction between humans and gods, forming a “creator–creation” structure. Since the Renaissance, it has been closely linked to humanist educational ideals and repeatedly reinterpreted in drama and pedagogy. In contrast, shaped by the aesthetics of Chinese painting and a secularized belief in spirits, Zhenzhen in the Painting is primarily expressed through poetry and opera, reflecting literati aesthetic ideals. In terms of gender, the Greek myth reinforces women’s passive status through divine intervention, whereas the Chinese story, within its surreal framework of a painted figure coming to life, reveals an emerging female subjectivity and resistance to fate. Both traditions reflect a shared human desire to reconstruct intimacy through artistic media, and their imagination of creating an ideal companion resonates with contemporary developments in emotionally customized artificial intelligence.