Photographer captures 'real' living legends

"I have heard my family's elders, including my grandmother, recount the legends and tell these kind of stories all the time. They always caught my attention," recalls Chen, adding that the idea to develop a series of photographs based on the theme came naturally.

She began the project in July last year and carefully studied each of the mythical animals' descriptions in the book, before drafting her ideas and composing the picture before starting the work.

She started with the mythical animal, Chenghuang, which is described as "fox-like", but has horns on its back. She made a fox's tail with material she bought online and used 3D printing to create the horns, while the model's skin was painted white to resemble the color of the creature's fur as described in the book.

Chen went to painstaking levels of detail to ensure her subjects appeared vivid and lifelike. For instance, to make the outfit for a phoenix, she bought 7,000 differently colored peacock feathers at a price of 1 yuan for each pair.