Chinese
TV Show
Brings Together Country’s
Leading
Writers to Discuss Kafka, AI

中国电视节目邀请国内知名作家共同探讨卡夫卡与人工智能

Set on a picturesque resort island
in southern China, “I Read Books on an Island” is proving a
hit
with viewers
enthralled
by discussions surrounding the love of writing and reading.

《我在岛上读书》以中国南方一个风景如画的度假岛屿为背景，受到围绕热爱写作和阅读展开讨论的观众的热捧。


A Chinese television show
featuring
some of the country’s most
celebrated
writers has
received rave reviews
for its celebration of reading and writing. 

中国的一个电视节目因为庆祝阅读和写作而受到好评，该节目由中国一些最著名的作家主演。
The second season of the weekly show “I Read Books on an Island,”
airing
on Toutiao and Jiangsu Television, sees four
literary figures
— authors Yu Hua and Su Tong,
literary editor
Cheng Yongxin, and
academic
Ye Zi — running a bookstore on a resort island off the coast of the southern city of Zhuhai, where they discuss their favorite literature and the art of writing.

每周一次的节目《我在岛上读书》第二季在今日头条和江苏卫视上播出，节目中有四位文学人物ーー作家余华和苏童、文学编辑程永新和学者叶紫ーー在南方城市珠海海滨的一个度假岛上开了一家书店，讨论他们最喜欢的文学作品和写作艺术。
The show also includes visits from other celebrated Chinese writers. The
major guest
for season two, which
premiered
on June 15, was the Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, a roommate of Yu Hua’s at the Lu Xun School of Literature in the late 1980s.

节目还包括其他中国著名作家的访问。6月15日首播的第二季的主要嘉宾是诺贝尔奖得主莫言，他是余华80年代末在鲁迅文学院的室友。
In one
scene
, the writers gather around a computer and ask an artificial intelligence system to write a poem with the
prompt
“To Live,” the title of Yu Hua’s famous novel. 

在一个场景中，作家们聚集在一台电脑前，要求一个人工智能系统写一首题为《活着》的诗，这是余华著名小说的标题。

The writers agree the resulting poem is disappointing. Cheng Yongxin, the
legendary
editor who has worked on “To Live” and Su Tong’s
novella
“Wives and Concubines,” says it is “average.” 

作者们一致认为最终的诗歌令人失望。曾为《活着》和苏童的中篇小说《妻妾成群》工作过的传奇编辑程永新(音译)说，这首诗“很普通”。
“Human civilization is too
complex
for machines to provide
guidance
, as the destiny of an individual usually goes in different directions and different areas,” Yu said. His student, Ye Xinyun, argues that AI will not replace humans in the field of literature because machines do not have feelings.

“人类文明太过复杂，机器无法提供指导，因为个体的命运通常走向不同的方向和不同的领域,”余说。他的学生叶新云认为，在文学领域，人工智能不会取代人类，因为机器没有感情。
The writers also remember the difficulties of pursuing their passions when they were younger. Discussing his well-known
admiration
of Czech writer Franz Kafka, Yu Hua explains the challenge of finding Kafka’s
works
as a young aspiring writer due to the limited number of copies being sold in China in the 1980s. 

作家们还记得年轻时追求激情的困难。谈到他对捷克作家弗朗茨 · 卡夫卡众所周知的崇拜，余华解释了作为一个有抱负的年轻作家，由于20世纪80年代在中国销售的拷贝数量有限，要找到卡夫卡的作品所面临的挑战。
Determined to
get his hands on
a collection of Kafka novels he found in his hometown of Hangzhou, he managed to convince his friend to
trade
him the collection for Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” 

为了得到他在家乡杭州发现的卡夫卡小说集，他设法说服他的朋友用这些小说来交换托尔斯泰的《战争与和平》。
“Books at that time didn’t have a second edition, and I thought I would never get the book if I don’t get it this time," Yu said. 

余说: “那时候的书没有第二版，我想如果这次我没有得到这本书，我就永远也得不到它了。”
The show has been
a surprise hit
with viewers since its
debut
in November 2022, with 38
hashtags
relating to the show having
trended
on microblogging platform Weibo, the show revealed recently. 

该节目自2022年11月首播以来，一直受到观众的惊喜，微博上出现了38个与该节目相关的标签。
Several state media outlets have published articles praising the show for its intellectual content. The show’s official Weibo account maintains
a list of all the books mentioned in each
episode
.

一些官方媒体发表了文章，称赞该节目的知识内容。该节目的官方微博账号保存了每集中提到的所有书籍的清单。
On review site Douban, users have praised the show for motivating them to read more. Six episodes into season two, the show is one of the best rated reality shows released this year on the site, with a rating of 9.0 out of 10 from more than 1,200 reviews. The first four episodes of this season have been viewed 150 million times on Jiangsu Television, according to official data
.

在评论网站豆瓣上，用户称赞该节目激励他们阅读更多内容。第二季已经播出了六集，这部电视剧是今年在该网站上发布的收视率最高的真人秀节目之一，在1200多条评论中，该节目的收视率为9.0。根据官方数据，本季前四集的江苏卫视观看量达到了1.5亿次。
Yan Xiaoke, the show’s producer, told domestic outlet The Beijing News that the show has successfully appealed to a broad audience
beyond
dedicated
readers, challenging the
conventional
idea in the television industry that “
niche
” cultural shows may fail to capture many viewers.

该节目的制片人严小可告诉国内媒体《新京报》，该节目已经成功地吸引了除了忠实读者之外的广大观众，挑战了电视行业中“小众”文化节目可能无法吸引许多观众的传统观念。
Superficial
content can no longer satisfy the needs of the Chinese audience, she added.

她补充说，肤浅的内容已经不能满足中国观众的需求。
The show is the latest cultural television show to gain popularity among Chinese viewers. Other hits in recent years include state broadcaster CCTV’s “National Treasure,” which explores cultural relics in detail. Meanwhile, an animated film based on ancient Chinese poetry is currently storming the domestic box office
. 

这档节目是最新一档在中国观众中大受欢迎的文化电视节目。近年来的其他热门节目包括中央电视台的《国宝》 ，该节目对文物进行了详细的探索。与此同时，一部基于中国古诗词的动画电影正在席卷国内票房。

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