The expression shìwaì taòyuán in Chinese; the Peach Spring beyond this world, has become a popular Chinese idiom, meaning an unexpectedly fantastic place off the beaten path, usually an unspoiled wilderness of great beauty. It has become a standard Chinese term for ‘utopia’. The painting of the tale on the Long Corridor, Summer Palace is a resemblance to the Garden of Eden. The artwork shows a group of people with young kids and adults, a symbol of family, with a diversity of life stocks.  The scene is set in countryside with blossoming trees and a river. The display looks identical to the one in the Garden of Eden. They have an extension of similarities. When compared side-by-side, they both show trees at the background and the river on the right hand side. It appears like the continuation of the investigation of our paradise and utopia.

In the development in the exploration of paradise, wonderland has never been stopped. I am interested in the way people enter the imaginary world – a portal. In most of the stories in western culture, characters usually fall into the place accidentally through a portal. Thus, the prevailing question is, can we ever go back to the Garden of Eden? It is always believed that there is no ‘Utopia’ paradise or any imaginary place in the existing world. Those are not real. But in many films and stories, there is a connection between the two worlds, and a portal usually joins the two worlds together.

C.S. Lewis depicted his experience with Christianity. Linked to his Prince Caspian (1951), which is sub-titled “ A Return to Narnia”, he explores the concept of returning to paradise, pertaining to memory and imagination. They are crucial for the evolution of human consciousness from original to final participation. This evolution signifies for Lewis a deepening relationship with God. (Shezra, K. 2014) In the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis creates and rewrites many text, most famously Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante’s Divine Comedy, etc. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first high fantasy film I have came across. The plot is set during World War II. The main characters are the Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, with the youngest Lucy’s discovery of the wardrobe to enter the fantasy world called Narnia. The wardrobe acts as a portal to connect the real world and Narnia.

The Kingdom of Narnia is a high fantasy land full of mythical creatures like talking animals –

‘Narnia, the happy land of Narnia – Narnia of the heathery mountains and the thymy downs, Narnia of the many rivers, the plashing glens, the mossy caverns and the deep forest ringing with the hammer of the dwarfs. Oh the sweet air of Narnia! An hour’s life there is better than a thousand years in Calormen,’ said Bree, the Narnia Talking Horse. The land is described as an ultimate, wondrous land.  

Another thing I would like to investigate in the research is the action in the fantasy world in movies comparing to the one in the Garden of Eden. One characteristic of a paradise is that it contains something addictive. The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden symbolizes the original sin. It is then referring to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immortal as a metaphor. The mushroom in Alice in Wonderland is the same concept to that in the Garden of Eden. In the movie, Alice in Wonderland, one of the scenes is having advice from the Caterpillar, who is resting on top of the giant mushroom and smoking a hookah pipe.