By Luan Xiang
SHANGHAI, Aug. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- If you are one of those who only know China for being a “world factory”, well, forgive me for looking at you in condescension... -- That was an old wives’ tale and so yesterday.
Here is the update: China at the moment present as you are reading this article is a land of youthful, creative fabulosity.
And a group of the best and most popular amongst China’s creators celebrated a massive party last month in the World Expo pavilion in Shanghai, eastern metropolis at the exit of the Yangtze River to the Pacific.
“Everyone is a creator”, was the slogan of the Taobao Makers’ Festival.
The Taobao Makers’ Festival 2016, -- or in mandarin and literally, the “stuff-making festival” -- organized by the country’s (and the world’s) biggest B2C and C2C e-commerce platform, showcased a world themed in Technology, Art and Originality coming alive from the future.
●T IS FOR TECHNOLOGY
At the Technology section, new inventions applying the fancy Virtual Reality (AR), Augmented Reality (AR) and the combination of both, the next-generation of Mixed Reality (MR), projected in front of an impressed public the possibilities of a future better and more fun.
Using the “Buy+” system created by Alibaba’s Gnome Magic Lab (GM Lab), a shopper could have a thorough review of an item at a virtual store and even try on a pair of delicate lingerie with a few taps on the controller.
What we see: A visitor trying out the VR technology at the BUY+ lab;
Magic Leap, a brand almost mysterious in China, made its debut in the mainland at the Makers’ Festival, where its CMO Brian Wallace explained to a curious youth public what was the MR, and what it means to the human civilization to manage the MR technology.
Magic Leap’s MR technology combines the VR and the AR and apply it into practical uses, such as in medicine, industry, education and many other crucial aspects of our life.
●A IS FOR ART
The artistic realm will never stop being the vanguard of mankind’s creativity.
Yet in the future, not only the homo sapiens like you and I can become musicians, filmmakers, painters, sculptors and poets, but also virtual imagines: Maybe some day in the near future, a human creation, being it a virtual character or an android, will be so close to real that we will have to reconsider our definition of “people”.
One of the already existing and well beloved representative of a virtual being, Japan’s adorable anime idol Miku Hatsune, also showed up at the Makers’ Festival, only this time speaking Chinese.
“Nihao!”, Miku Hatsune’s Chinese version greeted, “I am Chuyin Weilai (according the pronunciation of her names’ kanji in Chinese)”.
