This course traces the transmutation and reinvention of classical Chinese stories from ancient times to present era. What are the stories told once and again in Chinese culture? Is it true that each retelling is different? Or do things stay more or less the same despite changes of time? Are there perennial themes that thread through Chinese civilization? Is this a valid question? In this course, we engage these questions by putting examples in Chinese literature and culture from the past and the present into dialogue. Taking a transmedia approach, this course brings in both textual and visual materials from history, literature, and cinema. By juxtaposing materials of relevance from different times and carried by various media, we explore continuities and discontinuities in Chinese culture as well as the possibilities and limits each historical moment offers for cultural transformation.