The AI Issue 

January/February, 2021

From facial recognition to chatbot companions, we examine how AI is changing Chinese lives. We see how mental health rehabilitation centers bring patients back into society; ride with motorcyclists from Beijing to the Tibetan highlands; head up the mountains with the last loggers of China’s northeast; dive under Qiandao Lake to explore submerged villages; and more.

科幻般的人工智能时代似乎已然到来：摄像头可以分析识别人群中每一张脸，智能音箱可以语音控制智能家居，而“虚拟女友”程序甚至可以满足人们的情感需求。然而，应用技术收集的大量个人信息是否得到了妥善保护？人工智能和大数据如何影响人们的生活，又将带来怎样的未来？

 Cover Story | 封面故事 

You and AI

Paying for purchases, turning on one’s phone—in the near future, all will be possible with a simple voice command or scan of one’s face, at least if China’s booming AI sector has its way. But as the technology pervades public security, and consumers embrace its convenience, the speed of innovation has outpaced privacy legislation and people’s awareness of what it means to share their data. We raise the question: Who does AI truly serve?

你爱人工智能吗？

 Features |主题故事 

House of Hope

Mental health has arrived on China’s national agenda, but what happens when patients leave the hospital? In the face of stigma and myriad challenges, a growing network of rehabilitation “clubhouses” seek a humanistic way of bringing mental health patients back into society

希望之屋：精神康复中心

Ride or Die

Start your engines: From the secondhand rides of Tibetan herders and Guizhou workers, to the costly imported wheels of hobbyists in Beijing, we look at three vastly different subcultures in China that embrace the motorbike—as a tool, a source of pride, and a friend

摩托车文化巡礼

 Field Notes | 乡音 

The Last Lumberjacks

 “People, horses, and forest—three lives bound together, struggling for all they’re worth”: Filmmaker Yu Guangyi follows timber workers up the mountain on the eve of a logging ban, and recalls his childhood in the harsh environs of a northeastern Chinese forest farm

东北林场往事

 Kaleidoscope | 镜像中国 

Close to Heaven

A small community in Qiubei county, Yunnan province, claims to be the last descendants of the Bo, a once-powerful ethnic group that was wiped out in the 1500s. Singing songs of their “ancestors on the cliffs,” the Bo people of Qiubei ascend the mountain every tenth lunar month for a special ritual to honor their heritage and remember a violent past

血脉传承：云南僰人的祭祖礼俗

 Dragon’s Digest | 三味书屋 

Starside Economy

It’s the distant future, and Earth is a hub of the galactic economy. In this imaginative world created by writer Wang Nuonuo, a young entrepreneur sets up a street stall, but gets far more than he bargained for when an interplanetary business deal comes his way 

王诺诺短篇小说《银河系摆摊指南》

 Gallery | 水墨丹青  

Mountain Echoes

In the Liangshan region of Sichuan province, the youth collective Echo of Liangshan depicts life beyond poverty-relief headlines through photography, painting, video, and sound. As they put on an exhibition in Beijing, the curators muse on the power and meaning of art against a backdrop of rapid change

来自大凉山的回声

 Memory Lane | 那些年 

Lost in Animation

Founded in 1957, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio was China’s “Disney,” pioneering a “Chinese school” of animation based on traditional tales and media like ink painting. Its cartoons are works of art as well as enjoyable classics—and its success is something today’s animators still envy

国漫的辉煌时代

 On the Road | 在路上 

Diving in the Deep

Zhejiang’s Qiandao (“Thousand Island”) Lake is a serene getaway for urbanites, but some visitors aren’t here for the scenery: Preserved under the water are centuries-old towns flooded during the construction of a local dam, with a tragic history and challenging conditions that prove irresistible for daring divers

千岛湖水下探秘之旅

 Bookmark | 好书有笺  

The Beasts Within

“You can’t be sure that people aren’t just another type of beast,” states Yan Ge’s Strange Beasts of China. The fantastical thriller proceeds as a zoological study in a fictional city, and explores the idea of otherness through the tenuous boundary between beast and human

《异兽志》的奇幻世界

 Zoetrope | 视听空间  

Master’s Return

Arriving in cinemas after nearly two years’ delay and numerous deleted scenes, Zhang Yimou’s self-written character study set in the Cultural Revolution is a throwback to the “Fifth Generation” roots of the renowned director and a love letter to film itself

《一秒钟》：张艺谋与胶片的回归

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