In a video posted on China’s version of TikTok, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rides a white horse through a snow-covered forest near Mount Paektu. Suddenly, upbeat Chinese pop music bursts in, clashing with the revolutionary myth-making.

The scene jumps again to a military parade, where ordinary Koreans fling their arms into the air in histrionic devotion as the incongruent soundtrack plays. More rapid cuts and heroic imagery follow until they combine to create a single, increasingly surreal loop.

The videois one of hundreds that have circulated widely on Chinese social media in recent years, recasting North Korea’s