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AI in China; Pu Shu - Babawowo!
Americans seem to be afraid of AI while, like with other new tech that comes along, the Chinese are optimistic. Why? "You either catch this bus towards success or be left out forever." Zilan Qian of the Oxford China Policy Lab discusses changing fortunes since the millennium in Boarding China's Last Bus, Asterisk #14. Or go below the fold if you just want to see a NYC time-lapse video celebrating Windows98.
Great Leaps Forward through the painful xiagang reforms at the turn of the century and beyond, this detail from Zilan Qian's excellent essay stood out, I had to share.In 1998, Microsoft unveiled the mainland China version of Windows 98, and signed musician Pu Shu to endorse it. "New Boy," a track on his 1999 album, name-checks Windows 98 and Pentium computers in its chorus and became a genuine millennium anthem for a generation.
Put on new clothes, get a new haircut
Relax with Windows 98
The road ahead will have no more suffering
How cool our future will be!
But earlier this year Pu Shu's "New Boy" was remade to "New Bot" by the state media, aiming to highlight how AI and robotics, just like Windows 98, can bring hope and the promise of a new and improved life. The song did not become a hit. People continue to listen to the 1999 original.
posted by Rash on Jun 03, 2026 at 9:17 PM
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These people clearly have a very different definition of "success" than I do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:53 PM
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thanks! reminded of this one from the last issue :P
The Institute Behind Taiwan's Chip Dominance - "The vision for transforming Taiwan's economy from low-tech to high-tech came from Sun Yun-suan 孫運璿, the Minister of Economic Affairs. Sun had trained as an engineer in the U.S. at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a New Deal-era project to modernize the Tennessee Valley through large-scale investments in infrastructure and electricity. There, he witnessed the TVA's success in modernizing a poor and agrarian region — proof that economic and technological growth could come from the government taking on ambitious projects normally reserved for industry. When Sun became a government minister in Taiwan, he advocated for a public research institute to advance Taiwan's industrial capabilities. In 1973, under his leadership, three existing research labs were merged to form ITRI."
posted by kliuless at 12:43 AM
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It's almost like the social media fueled Western pushback against data centres gives China a huge strategic advantage. Weird, huh?
posted by CynicalKnight at 12:52 AM
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What a thoroughly depressing article.
Are AI products viewed positively because people really benefit from them, or are they simply thought to be so important, just like how learning English is "beneficial" in the sense that people believe the language means modernization and the future, even though in real life it may have little practical use? Asking "How much do you trust the technology?" is inherently ambiguous: does answering yes mean you trust AI as a technology, trust AI's output, or trust that AI will bring opportunities that you cannot afford to miss? Furthermore, behind the 95% reponse of willingness to accept AI lies the 49% belief that AI will replace jobs. So while AI is viewed as a threat to job security, a possible coping mechanism is to rapidly accept and embrace it, because history has taught the Chinese that the only coping mechanism is to change oneself.
The world is so broken.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:35 AM
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It is a story about how Chinese society has learned, through repeated upheaval, what it believes to be the only permissible response to disruption.
...
But even if you burn the records, you cannot erase the wound. And no matter how much whitewash one applies to that period, the core mentality — seize the last bus or die — has become deeply ingrained. This persistent anxiety continues to intensify and spread whenever new, potentially transformative shifts occur in Chinese society. While not everyone successfully boards every "last bus," the alternative of not trying to board at all is a social stigma. As Xiang Biao observed, there seems to be no way to live outside of competing and striving, even when it is unclear what exactly one is striving toward; quitting the race means facing utter failure.
...
every bus is the last bus
I mean, you can see why American elites are jealous.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:26 AM
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I'm glad I RTFA before posting. I had something ready to go, but this took a much different tack than I was expecting.
I wonder if people in the USA would be more enthusiastic about the AI industry if we had seen two decades of growing public infrastructure and an increased quality of life, or any serious attempt at social welfare. I wonder if I would be more enthusiastic if I knew my health care wasn't tied to my job, if the cost of said care wasn't constantly creeping up. If I could buy a ticket on a high-speed train for $200 and travel a thousand miles in six hours to see the love of my life over the weekend.
But it's obvious why Americans can't adopt the Last Bus Mentality. Public transport's been gutted. We're out of buses to get on.
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 7:33 AM
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People in the US don't have a positive view of AI?! Or anything?! I am shocked. SHOCKED I SAY!
Ok, maybe not that shocked.
posted by evilDoug at 9:54 AM
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This article is a little disappointing in that it doesn't attempt to do a deep dive on what is behind the techno-optimism for AI in China. I mean in the cited source, 99% respond that AI will have benefits. 95% are optimistic and 88% are excited about AI. Instead the author of the FPP is refracting these numbers through the heavier scepticism of the West, wondering if the 95% number is somehow not real. Tellingly, only 11 percent of Chinese disagree that AI will create more jobs than it will eliminate, which is lower than all other countries. The author omits this, instead choosing to interpret the stats as a fear of precarity. Not sure how that follows.
posted by storybored at 9:58 PM
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I've noticed this very frequently from my conversations with Chinese friends and those who have dealings in China. The attitude toward technology as a whole is markedly different, for the better, in part because Chinese citizens have confidence in the ability of their government to regulate the harms of technology much more than people in the US do. This confidence, in my opinion, is warranted. Regulations on companies using AI as an excuse to fire people, regulations on AI in early childhood education. use of personal data, and so on, all have teeth, practical impact, and real meaning. I say this not to boost the CCP, but rather note that a different world is possible and is playing out right now, outside of the US.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 4:52 AM
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