Shiwen Li

  I recently read an article about “the seemingly smart city to the disabled people”. On the surface, those newly-appeared apps that aim to provide users with information on whether a restaurant, a cafe, or a shop has those features signaling that disability is welcome there. For example, a parking sign with the International Symbol of Access, a wheelchair ramp, an automatic front door, a wide bathroom stall with grab bars and so on. People use these apps to document these features and all the information will be gathered in a database to later help others find accessible locations. Through collective efforts, these apps that have digital-accessibility maps are assumed to serve the purpose that “user-contributed data can provide information quickly while simultaneously educating the public about accessibility best practices.”

  However, despite the good intentions, these apps that feature accessibility maps sometimes presume a binary kind of accessibility. Many people are simply asking the question if a place is accessible. Some only ask for wheelchair access, thus ignoring other kinds of disabilities such as those related to sight, hearing, cognition, chronic illness or chemical sensitivity. For example, people who move by walking would not notice how hard it is for a wheelchair to turn around inside a small space like a bathroom, or  people who are not sensitive to certain lightings are likely to ignore that some flickering lights could cause seizures. Similarly, whether staff are fluent in sign language or whether menus and signs appear in braille are all information that is not included in the data for those digital accessibility apps. 

  Also, most the data of smartphone accessibility apps are primarily visual and textual, which creates potential barriers for users who are visually impaired or have sensory-processing disabilities. 

  There is a long way for these apps to go. They can collect and present information in multiple sensory formats instead of relying entirely on visual representations of data. Deeper digital-accessibility apps should be able to offer both audio and visual description of a place, real-time information about maintenance or temporary barriers, street views, and even video recordings. These features are not yet present in most digital accessibility apps partly because “they built upon digital-mapping tools that assume that a view of streets and storefronts is sufficient.”

  One final threat to disability advocacy in smart city environments is that although these apps can make cities more navigable, they do not change the material features of that environment. They are recording current conditions rather than advocate for better ones. Making new environments in which accessibility becomes the norm but not the few exceptions is what digital mapping apps should do, not juts recording the world as it is today. A smart city is smart in real sense only when it is smarter and better for all.

 

Read more here about how smart cities can help people with disabilities.

  When talking about cameras used in city, we used to think about those cameras for capturing drivers who break traffic rules. But now, artificial intelligence-enabled cameras and sensors can keep an eye on the surroundings to monitor and police the city, and in turn enhance the security level in the city. Actually, Chinese are now living in a world that is built with the largest and most sophisticated camera surveillance system. Artificial intelligence cameras are in widespread use across the whole country.

  One example of the use of AI camera is when it is applied to detect a traffic junction about its real-time conditions like crowd density, vehicle density and even the walking speed of pedestrians. These real-time data can be accessed accurately. If a junction is too crowded, policeman would come to that spot to maintain order to avoid incidents like stampede happen. This technology is based on deep learning and techniques for computer visions. The real-time monitor and statistical data of the place makes “smart judgements” about whether the place is overly crowded or if it has abnormal gathering of crowds.

  Another situation where ai cameras are used is when someone sneak into a “sensitive” or “prohibitive” area and think he or she will not be found because no one is there. In a circumstance like this, the ai camera “knows” you and recognizes you and there is no need for a living person to be there, because on the other side of the camera, every move of yours and even the look in your eyes are clearly seen on the screen by policeman. Through deep learning in the characteristics and movements of human body, this recognition system can automatically detect and mark the spot of someone. When someone abnormally enters a prohibitive area or has some abnormal actions, the system can automatically release warning. A very similar example is when someone is acting abnormally,  the warning system can smartly detect whether people are conducting some fast activities or fighting with each other and give off alert to the background.

  These are just a few examples of how ai cameras are now applied in real life situations to build a safer, smarter and more efficient city. AI in smart cities development can play a crucial role in urban planning, development and management with things like advanced security systems and traffic monitoring. The implementation of AI in real life is actually more ubiquitous than ordinary people can imagine. The life we are now living in which crimes or illegal events are rarely seen perhaps is not the result of “no dangers for real”,  but rather it is the result of the fact that we are now living in the full surveillance of all kinds of lens and cameras whose duty is to provide for us that kind of safe environment. But at the same time, all of our information, whether personal or not, can be fully grasped and kept by the city to be used in ways we are never able to think of. It is true that we are living in a safer environment thanks to technology, yet this camera surveillance network, will it become something that we will never ever be able to escape from either in the near or far future?

 

Watch more in this video about China’s camera surveillance network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=pNf4-d6fDoY&feature=emb_title

  A few months ago in March, when I came back to China from the U.S, I quarantined in Shanghai for 14 days. Since I came back from “the center of the pandemic”, my health code was red as soon as I got off the plane. The health code system was first launched in late February in mainland China. It uses the colors of red, yellow and green to differentiate the “health states” of different users and aims to monitor and keep track of people currently residing or staying in mainland China during this special “covid-19” period. However, this system is still rather new and some problems caused by this system do exist, the one I encountered could be a telling example.

  When I finished my quarantine in mid April, I initially planned to stay in Shanghai for a few more days to visit the city. I was really looking forward to it since I finally did not have to be confined in that hotel room and could go around freely in the city. I booked a new hotel for my stay in Shanghai and also the flight ticket to my home Shenzhen. However, to my surprise, the day when my quarantine ended and I received “official document” which proves that I finished the required quarantine, my health code still remained red the time when I left my quarantine hotel. I was really worried about the red health code and asked the staff at my quarantine hotel if this red code would affect my upcoming trip in Shanghai. For example, will I be able to take public transportation in the city? They told me that as long as I have my quarantine certificate and my nucleic acid test’s negative result, there would not be any big problems. And then, I arrived at the hotel that I was supposed to live in, and I was rejected by the hotel just because my health code was red. I showed them my quarantine document and my nucleic acid test result, but they just did not help at all. The staff at the hotel told me that “We don’t dare to let you stay in our hotel because of the color of the code. If any accident happens, we need to be responsible for letting a red code person stay in the hotel.” They also added that it is very unlikely that other hotels in the city would allow me to stay, because my health code was red. Apparently, everything depends on the health code and my quarantine document and nucleic acid test just would not help at all. I called relative governmental department to ask why the color of my code remained red after the quarantine, they just told me there might be a lag in the process of updating the code, and all I could do was to wait till it changes. I was afraid the color would not turn green before night and in that case, I would be “homeless” and wandering on the streets of Shanghai without a place to sleep at night, so I bought another flight ticket and flew home that day. My whole trip was affected because of the health code, but there was nothing I could do about it at that time. When I got home at night, the code did turn green, but it was just too late since I was already in Shenzhen.

  My example proved that this health code system is just not that omnipotent. There are little bugs or loopholes that may later on have greater impact on its users. For me, it was not a big one since it is not a big deal that I could not start my planned trip in Shanghai, but if in other’s case, the lag of updating the color of the code causes much greater impact, to the extent that the system strictly hinders or controls travel of ordinary people with no flexibility, will it be questioned and discredited by its users?

  In Signal Traffic, it is pointed out that “large scale infrastructure are core to the experience of modernity”, and “to be modern is to live within and by means of infrastructures.” I think this point is very well demonstrated by the ubiquitous application of 4G technology in our daily life. When it first came into being, many people thought that it was not really necessary for thins new thing to become a part of our daily life, few of us could really imagine the huge changes it later on brought to almost every aspect of our life.

  All those changes brought by 4G technology can be generalized into one thing: things that I could not do on my cell phone can now be done very conveniently on my phone. For example, 4G enables me to watch any videos that I see on social media anytime when I want, as long as I am at somewhere where the signal is good enough. If I want to call someone, I can choose to use the voice call function WeChat, or I can facetime with someone and all I need is my iPhone, while in the past, video chat is better done on computers because the network speed is faster to ensure that the image on screen would not freeze a lot. Many things that we need to do are no longer confined by the place we are in. No more “save it for later” or “wait till I get to somewhere with network”. The technology makes people’s life much more convenient and provides people a more modern way of life that has fewer limits and confines.

  In China, the widespread use of online payment methods like WeChat pay and Alipay also are the products of 4G technology. I remember when I was in senior high school about 6 years ago, online payment was not that ubiquitous in China but beginning from the time when I was in college, I gradually saw the QR code for online payment literally everywhere, even at wet markets or from street vendors who I suppose were not familiar with this newly-appeared technology. The development of online payment is so wild that today, it is very possible that people may find that they have not been using paper money or swiping a credit card for a very long time. They just suddenly disappeared in our life one day without us noticing their leaving because we have become so used to the convenience brought by online payment methods. The maturely-developed 4G technology in China as a kind of infrastructure makes online payment a universal phenomenon. Going out without taking one’s wallet releases some worries or burdens one may have and it also represents a more modern way of life : one can go anywhere as long as a cell phone is with him or her.

  We are now deeply connected with various kinds of infrastructures in our life in a way that perhaps we may not notice enough, but if one day those infrastructures fail or break down, they become all too “visible” when they take away all the conveniences in our present modern life.

  In Rethinking Street Vending, Krishnendu Ray talks about the relationship between street vendors and cities. It is pointed out that “street vendors bring life to dull streets, yet urban planners often describe street vending as a manifestation of both poverty and underdevelopment, so that its disappearance is viewed a progress toward the brave new developed world of universal prosperity.”  Also, “urban self-employment is essential to the mix of economic opportunities for the poor”, and “one of the most ubiquitous occupations people have when they move from the country to the city, small town to large city, or even across nations, is street vending because it requires relatively little money or credit or social or cultural capital to get into the business of selling food.” These remind me of a piece of news I saw recently that a wet market in Wuhan is now undergoing an upgrading process. One of the new regulations that is going to take effect along with the upgrading process is that female vendors who are over 45 and male vendors who are over 50 will not be allowed to do street vending in this market. This particular new regulation makes a lot of vendors confused: they think this regulation is too high and unreasonable; at the age of around 50, they depend on selling fresh vegetables to make a living, and if they are not allowed to do so anymore, what else can they do?

  Many people have expressed their views on social media about this news. “Why is it that even doing street vending and selling vegetables can have an age limit?” ” What can those over 45 and unemployed people do now?” “So does this mean that those aged 30-40 should become street vendors selling vegetables?”  “Those street vendors are typically elder people who are jobless and want to make a living by doing street vending, do the guys who make this rule ever go to a wet market?”  Most people think this new regulation is not fair and lack enough consideration of the situation. There has been a heated discussion toward this news since its was exposed on the Internet, and this has pressured the related government department to give a response. Luckily the market was required by the government department to rescind this regulation so those elder street vendors do not have to worry about thins anymore. 

  In fact, the new set of regulations aims to make the overall environment of the market better, to have standard management so that it can have good order. In doing so, previous stereotype like wet markets are messy and dirty  could be changed. It is not wrong to have the market upgraded to become a better place, but this does not mean that any regulations considered too rigorous can be implemented without any opposing voices. Under the present circumstance where everything in China is starting to recover from Covid-19, it is even more important to give more tolerance and understanding to street vendors to help them get through this hard period of time.

read more here

 

  The first day when I arrived in Shanghai at where I live now, I was totally amazed by a long line in front of a Benbangcai restaurant named Guangmingcun. The line was so long that it extended even to the front door of another popular restaurant-the only Popeyes in China that opened not long before-which actually made me think the line was for Popeyes but not for Guangmingcun. The restaurant is on Middle Huaihai Road, where stores and restaurants with high popularity (or “Wanghongdian” in Chinese) gather, so it is not that normal that the longest line is for a Benbangcai restaurant that does not have very fancy look from the outside and even looks a little bit old. I remembered it was a weekday, but the line was still very long. There were many senior people in the line, but I could also see some young people in the line, busy with the stuffs on their phones to kill the long waiting time.

  Every day, the line is long. There are always people queueing up in front of the restaurant. But what made me become really curious about what on earth makes this restaurant so attractive was on another cold rainy day, I still saw the line. Those elder people wearing raincoats, and holding umbrellas on hands, were bearing with the bad and cold weather just for a meal when they could have stayed at home, which seems to be a better choice considering their ages. I have seen many popular restaurants that require a very long waiting time, but I have never seen one that has so many loyal customers who are determined to eat even when the weather condition is so bad. This is strange and makes me wonder how delicious could Benbangcai served in this restaurant be? (I have heard that people from outside Shanghai barely find Benbangcai delicious) 

  After searching on Internet, I learnt that Guangmingcun is a classic “Laozihao” restaurant specialized in Benbangcai, probably the favorite “Laozihao” restaurant to local Shanghai people. It has a history of over 80 years. For many Shanghai people, the taste of the food in this restaurant is the taste from their childhood and it stays the same over so many years. This restaurant has become the pride of Shanghai people, especially elder people.

  Actually, what is attractive about this restaurant is not anything magical. Instead, the unadorned but honest attitude, the consistent quality and taste of classic Benbangcai, and the affordable price that seems to be much lower than prices of those Wanghongdian, are what make it an evergreen must-go restaurant of the city. I couldn’t help but wonder: is it true that if a restaurant can always meet these requirements, then it is able to remain popular over a long time? (although it is also not easy to meet these requirements at least in terms of price) And for those “Laozihao” restaurants, when older generations become a past and when more and more young people do not consider these restaurants to be the memory of their childhood, will its glory still remain the same to those tourists who are merely curious about the taste of local food? To me, I may try it for once, but going there frequently may never become a thing to me since I have almost no interest in Benbangcai as a “Waidiren”.

read more about Guangmingcun here