The concept of 虚幻 (xūhuàn) has deep roots in Chinese philosophy, particularly Buddhism and Taoism. In Buddhism, a core tenet is that the phenomenal world we experience is a form of illusion (maya), a transient and ultimately empty reality. 虚幻 perfectly captures this idea that life, desires, and worldly attachments are fleeting and insubstantial, like a dream. This can be contrasted with the common Western viewpoint, which tends to draw a harder line between “real” (the physical, verifiable world) and “unreal” (imagination, dreams). While in English we might call a fantasy novel “imaginary,” using 虚幻 can imply a deeper, more philosophical judgment about the nature of that reality. It's less about a simple “real vs. fake” binary and more about a spectrum of substantiality. It’s the difference between saying a story is “fictional” and saying the world depicted feels “ethereal and illusory.”
While it has philosophical weight, 虚幻 is a very practical word in modern Chinese.