Nearly nine billion trips are expected to be made during the annual Spring Festival holiday which begins this Friday, February 9. A family reunion which can be a test for young people, harassed by questions from those around them. To prepare for this, an online game has just been released in which artificial intelligence plays the role of relatives who are a little too insistent.
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With the RFI office in Beijing, Stéphane Lagarde And Chi Xiangyuan
“ Decisive summit battle over Lunar New Year greetings ” : in thisfree game released a week ago, theartificial intelligence pretends to be your aunt, your uncle, your parents and grandparents, big fans of uncomfortable questions. “ I find this game quite fun, it feels like you’re celebrating the new year by fighting with everyone », confides Zimu, 23, a doctoral student in biology in Wuhan in central China. “ At my age, especially for us women, you can’t escape questions like, “edo you have a boyfriend? Are you going to get married soon ?'” And then in the game, in addition to the pressure on marriage, there is also the pressure to find a job “.
Podcasts to discuss taboo subjects
THE unemployment of young graduates is at its highest level in China, so much so that it has been deleted from statistics official. Faced with the bombardment of Lunar New Year questions, podcasts like Yan Wai Zhi Yi ask young people, and particularly young women, how they respond to uncomfortable conversations with elders. “Players send New Year greetings to AI relatives such as seventh aunt, eighth aunt, second uncle and their mother,” specifies the daily Pangpai which has recorded more than a million users for this online game based on the ChatGPT bot. “ Afterwards, there are people who are more or less open than others in families. For my part, I am still young and I am studying, so they leave me alone. But sometimes, some cling to feudal thinking, when others like an aunt or uncle understand the times in which we live, it is with them that we must discuss”continues Zimu.
TR In the island province of Hainan, in the south of China, a girl crosses the street with a banner: “Mom! I really don’t want to get married!” On the networks, the cry from the heart becomes a slogan for young people. #China #WeddingNoThanks https://t.co/TQSbxPwXN1
— Stéphane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) June 8, 2023
Also listen:China: on the eve of the Lunar New Year holidays, train drivers are depressed
The number of marriages plummeting in China
The question of marriage and children is all the more complicated as the number of unions is declining in China. “ For the most stubborn, the best is to try to answer them directlyexplains Zimu. I remember a comment on the networks stating that women aged 20, or even teenagers, were suitable for marriage. I responded to the person saying that in the past the average lifespan was 40 years and if we followed that logic he should die immediately “. The other parade is to “ respond to magic with magic ”, as Jacky Chan would say, that is to say, answer with another uncomfortable question.
“ We can also exploit this cultural taboo of not talking openly about sex. When asked if you are going to have children, you might say something like: “II don’t know how children are made, can you explain it to me in detail?” Usually the conversation stops! »
Players express themselves freely. Each of their responses causes emotional changes in their virtual loved ones. It is only by ending the conversation with all the members of the family and therefore this “torture of the soul” that these interrogations during the Spring Festival holidays can represent, that the game ends.
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