Look closely at the misty mountains. That’s Yoda, cross-legged in a pavilion, meditating like a Song dynasty recluse. Down by the river, Meowth is slurping noodles with a scholar. And a battle droid? It’s politely preparing tea for its master.

These are the works of RedNote artist 跳跳虫一号, who paints in the classical Chinese style, then slips in characters from Pokémon, Star Wars, and World of Warcraft like they’d been there the whole time.

The juxtaposition lands because of the genre. Shan shui (山水, “mountain-water”) painting took off in the Tang dynasty and hit its golden age between the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song (907–1127), when landscape was considered the highest form of Chinese painting. The humans were tiny on purpose: scholars and Daoist hermits who’d quit official life to sip tea, write poetry, and contemplate the cosmos. Which, if you think about it, is peak Jedi Master energy.

跳跳虫一号 isn’t the first to mix fandom with ink. In the mid-2010s, Hong Kong artist Tik Ka (廸嘉) reimagined the Star Wars saga as Chinese ink paintings, describing it as growing “foreign culture into the Chinese style.”

But there’s something extra satisfying about this quieter approach: no mashup poster, no remix, just a thousand-year-old aesthetic with a nerdy Easter egg tucked into the scenery. Turns out a mountain retreat has room for everyone. Droids included.

All images via 跳跳虫一号 on RedNote / Xiaohongshu.