Retired Chinese cultural planner produces global acclaimed documentaries on Chinese railroad workers in U.S. using AI

(ECNS) -- A retired cultural event planner in China has turned to artificial intelligence to animate 71 historical oil paintings of Chinese railroad workers, producing two short documentaries that have drawn widespread attention on YouTube and rekindled public interest in a long-overlooked chapter of U.S. immigration history.

Chen Huiping, who spent more than two decades organizing community cultural activities before taking up video editing as a retirement hobby, used AI-powered animation tools and archival photographs to recreate the perilous conditions faced by Chinese laborers during the Gold Rush era and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The two films, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Bittersweet History of Chinese Railroad Workers, have earned widespread global acclaim. Adapting 71 detailed paintings by Chinese-American artist Mian Situ, Chen utilized AI animation and historical photos to recreate the scenes of Gold Rush migrants and the perilous construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The films shed light on the often-overlooked contributions of early Chinese pioneers to U.S. nation-building. For Chen, who embraced video editing as a retirement hobby, the goal was to rescue these collective memories from obscurity. As she dynamically demonstrates: “Exploration and new beginnings never have an age limit; you just have to take that first step.”