Tea or espresso?
This routine question carries extra weight for sci-fi author Chen Qiufan, A local of Chaoshan, southern Guangdong Province, Who’s not anyw based mostly in Shanghai.
Chaoshan, in east of Guangdong Province, and its residents are properly famous for maintaining with many centuries-previous traditions, collectively with the intricate tea etiquette.
Chen’s dehowever novel “Waste Tide,” translated into English by Ken Liu, was set in Chaoshan, on a fictional island that processes digital waste recycling. Chinese language myths and traditions, As properly as to future tech, are intertwined Inside the cautionary story.
Chen, a Peking College graduate, has labored For A lot of tech corporations, collectively with Google and Baidu, Based in Beijing or Shanghai. It wasn’t till “Waste Tide” that many realized that Definitely one of China’s sci-fi rising stars is from The world most well-known for its cuisines and traditions.
“As quickly as I am going again house to Chaoshan, I not often drink espresso. Everyone there has tea mannequins at house, And naturally, The identical is true for my grandparents,” Chen said.
“Then in Shanghai, There are So many espresso retailers the place you meet pals, maintain e-book occasions Or merely go for the espresso. Like many youthful Chinese language, espresso May even be a should for me, however but I furtherly maintain a full tea set in my office.”
It was in between his conventional Chaoshan tea etiquette and The huge trendy Selection of espresso in Shanghai that Chen accomplished “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future,” A combination of scientific evaluation and predictions and fiction.
Co-written with Kai-Fu Lee, a guru of synthetic intelligence and former head of Google in China, Chen was In cost of the fiction …….