Wenjun

Wenjun Fang (wf646)

Smart Cities in the AI Era

In 2018, the first “China’s AI City Perception Index Report” was published by Sense Time and iResearch. From the perspective of citizens’ sensibility, this report aimed to better understand the ideas of the AI city and discover new opportunities and directions on the development of AI urbanism. In fact, intelligent networking led by artificial intelligence is the next step in smart city construction. Introduce artificial intelligence into the urban planning process will have significant influences on “mitigates the operational and social vulnerabilities of an urban system” (Synced, 2020), as well as improve the public’s life satisfaction level.

From the sensibility index report, we can see that AI has already been used in different application scenarios such as governance, education, medical, public transportation, and retails. The research focuses on six main cities in China, which include Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Most of these cities’ populations have characteristics that include younger (under 35), better educated, and higher income. They are more familiar with smart city products, also willing to accept new technologies. Therefore, those cities have a high demand for AI-related services under different contexts of use. 

 

The report using Pearson’s correlation analysis to illustrate the results of their research, which showed that the AI use index of citizens in the six cities, which are the typical urban area in China, is positively correlated with the citizens’ happiness in urban life. In other words, the AI index can positively affect residents’ urban life to a certain extent. More frequently, the citizens using AI related services in different scenarios will increase their satisfaction level with the city. AI has penetrated into all aspects of urban residents’ lives, helping residents getting a more convenient and higher quality of life. Enhancing the popularization of AI will also be an important way to improve the happiness of urban residents.

 

As the importance of ‘people’ in cities is being paid more attention, in addition to providing more systematic and intelligent applications and services, AI city is paying more attention to the ‘user experience’ of these applications and services. At the same time, as the government, industry, and citizens continue to increase the demand for AI, artificial intelligence city planning has more ‘big picture’ thinking. The developing model has changed from top-down to bottom-up. More vendors appeared, offering more detailed and comprehensive solutions to solve the market demand and create or update new contexts of use.

 

Citation

China’s AI City Perception Index Report, by Sense Time & iResaerch, http://www.iresearchchina.com/content/details8_50083.html

Unknown author, Aug 28^th, 2020, Can AI reimagine city configuration and and automate urban planning? Published by SYNCED, https://syncedreview.com/2020/08/28/can-ai-reimagine-city-configuration-and-automate-urban-planning/

Fang Wenjun (wf646)

The Blockchain and Smart City

As a core part of Bitcoin, the blockchain is a new technology that plays an important role in establishing a smart city. Blockchain is a shared database with main functions as data storage and data encryption. Blockchain is no longer using only on financial related area. Within characteristics such as transparency, unforgeability, and traceability, blockchain supports solving the problem of information security while building the smart city.

“Data” has become a resource under the flourishing development of information technology. Especially with the development of cities, a large amount of data has been accumulated. Data collection is a critical step of establishing the smart city; however, during the process of using and exchanging those data, data breaches happened often. Therefore, the use of blockchain became more important than ever before. In 2018, Shenzhen issued the first electronic invoice based on the technology of blockchain. Relying on Tencent’s blockchain platform, companies can implement invoice applications and tax declaration on the blockchain. After the transaction is completed, the system automatically generates the invoice’s content and the amount and issue the invoice in real-time. The technology of blockchain can make sure that the whole process of issuing an invoice is traceable and transparent.
On the other hand, different government departments can participate in bookkeeping together, which improves the effect of regulation. It will be hard to change the invoice information or make a fake one. All the information will be exchanged only on the blockchain platform, which required correct passcodes and signature to access. Another important factor of blockchain is decentration, which means data will not collect in a central platform, but send directly to every single management unit. Therefore, there is no way to access all the information by one step, which increases the difficulty of stealing information from the platform.

The city is a sophisticated system with a dense population and all kinds of scenes. As a system engineering, it is required to use different sorts of technologies for smart city construction. Blockchain is not a disruptive technology, but a mechanism that developed based on existing Internet technology, big data, and cloud computing technology. Blockchain is a solution to the issue of trust in information networks. It is a supportive technology, like the WI-FI in 2000, making the internet realize the dissemination of information and the transfer of value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9KAnkZUjU&feature=emb_logo

Big Data and Modern mass media

Wenjun Fang (wf646)

The changes brought by big data have appeared in all areas, such as the media. No matter the traditional media or social media, they all had more connections with the big data. In the 2019 China International Big Data Industry Expo, editor Xu from the People’s Daily used a practical example to illustrate how the traditional newspaper connects with the big data. “One of our journalists,” he said, “used the People’s Daily database to write her article ‘Who are the Chinese people’s old friends.’ She used relevant word frequencies to sort out the international friends who have been called ‘old friends’ since the founding of New China, and analyze the changes in the global environment as well as the adjustment of foreign policy.” Using data to capture new facts and discover connections between different news pieces became a new trend.

On the other hand, big data also helps on the news’s immediacy and improve news production efficiency. With the help of artificial intelligence, readers are able to ‘listen’ to the newspaper rather than read it. The product named Guoguo is a little robot that able to read newspapers in seven different languages. Moreover, journalists can also use this product to transfer a one to two-hour interview with a manuscript in five minutes. What supported behind is the database containing a huge number of news articles that were released before, so the little robot knows the structure and a journalist. The journalists then have more time to think, which improves the new production efficiency and quality. At the same time, Guoguo can also help the journalist to analyze a news event faster and offer more numbers to support it.

For users and readers, big data can help the platform better understand their interests and recommend more personalized content. Though this is still a controversial topic today, we cannot deny that personalized recommendation makes more people enjoy reading since reading something interesting. People who disagree with the personalized recommendation technique believe that such a system will narrow a person’s interest. People will lose the chance to learn about the world in another way and finally formed information cocoons. They never communicate with other communities or people who are having different interests from them. However, I believe that big data or personalized recommendation is the only reason for the formation of information cocoons. People will only take the initiative to contact or choose to believe in content that conforms to their previous ideas in most cases. People will ignore the part that they are not interested in a book and has no connection with the algorithm. It is necessary to be careful when using new technology, but we should also believe that new communication technologies are making better, not worse.

Wenjun Fang (wf646)

Social media and modern stall culture in China

It became a new trend to discover different night markets for the young generation in China. When you search ‘Night Market’ on a Chinese social media platform, you can easily find a lot of information with great images about the night markets that happened all over the nation. It became a stylish entertaining way for young people and a part of the new and fashionable lifestyle that is popular among the young generation.

 

The night market that is popular today looks different than the traditional night market in our memories. It always has a theme and usually unified on colors. Everything there looks tidy and neat, with wonderful decorations and furniture. Signboards are designed by the stall vendors themselves, which are full of creative ideas. Sophisticated handicrafts are the most common stuff in modern night markets. Within the popularity of ‘Chinese Style’ in recent years, traditional Chinese handicrafts like embroidery, paper cutting, and traditional hand-made jewelry all became the ‘must-go’ part of a modern night market.

Half of the vendors sell different kinds of elegant and fancy little goods, while the other half offers drinks and food. Unlike the traditional night market, people can easily find exotic ethnic cuisine here. Italian crepes, Mexico taco, yogurt cup with fruit and oat, as well as coffee with alternative oat milk…There are also stalls selling food and snacks that are common in China. Still, the vendors will pack the food in a fancy package, or the stall will have a modern concept on stall designing.

Such modern night markets are usually located in the midst of the city. Convenient transportation and modern design can easily attract many young people to visit, shop, take photos, and share on social media. Those posts will soon attract the second round of visitors who read those posts online. The trend happened when we are not recognizing. ‘Pop-up market’ is also the marketing concept that is usually used by those nigh markets. The organizer trying to attract as many visitors as possible quickly will get the highest return rate since they usually need to pay high rent and hire extra staff on site. It is more like an event that people can be shopping, socializing, and exploring something new, while the traditional night market is more an open-air shopping mall for people to solve the need for daily life. They are offering cheap and hot food as well as affordable clothes and daily supplies. Among the goods sold in the traditional night market, it’s a more realistic perspective on the world we live in.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDG0ZwVXsXMhttp://

This video showing one of the most famous night market in Shanghai right now, which located at the Jingan Temple, called the Anyi Night Market.

Wenjun Fang(wf646)

Stall economy during the pandemic time in China

The stall economy has a long history in China. When I was young, there are lots of different kinds of food trucks around the campus. It is the most exciting thing for me to enjoy snack time with my friends after school. Besides food trucks, there are also street vendors selling comic books, funny little toys, or other interesting stuff for young school kids. Those street vendors are part of my generation’s communal childhood memory. However, street vending has then been controlled strictly by the government because the government believes they negatively influence the city’s appearance. The vendors always gathering together around the place where the flow of people is high, include campus, hospital, office buildings, and subway stations, which increased the risk of public safety. They do not have a fixed store, so it is hard to track all those vendors, making food safety issues or other commodity quality problems hard to solve. However, the stall economy has once again conquered the Chinese cities due to its unique economic ecology and strong vitality during the pandemic time.

A few months ago, the stall economy became the hottest topic on social media in China. At the end of this May, street vending has been officially removed from the state council’s city appearance assessment criteria. After being strictly managed for a long time, street vending has been allowed and encouraged by urban planners. The prime minister mentioned at the state council meeting that there are 600 million people in China with a monthly income of 1,000 RMB. Especially during the pandemic time, this large, low-income population losing jobs has become a serious social issue. Those people are usually at lower education levels, and most of them are manual workers. The decrease in lower threshold jobs on the market makes their life even harder. Therefore, street vending became the political expedient during the pandemic time.

Street vending has characteristics of low cost and high flexibility. When there was no job, street vending became the way to create more jobs, especially for low-income people. It doesn’t need high education level or particular skills, even does not need that much investment to start the business. It does not require street vendors to be creative or innovative; it is still a traditional business model. For long-term economic development, the stall economy is not a good idea since it will make the economic system lose its competitiveness and cause a bigger problem. But for the short term, such a low-cost way of starting a new business is an urgent solution to increase job opportunities.

On the other hand, social media also played an important role in encouraging street vending. I found it interesting that most people discussing the street vending and stall economy online are not the vendors but the customers. They are not coming from the low-income group, but their interests in street vending make the business happened. The street vending awakens their childhood memories, which makes them willing to shop at such places. It is also a critical reason why street vending can be so popular during the time.

Wenjun Fang (wf646)

Intangible cultural heritage tag on Food

Generally, when we talked about intangible cultural heritage, the most familiar ideas are different kinds of performance and traditional handicrafts. All those performing styles or handcraft techniques have a long history. They have been handed down from generation to generation and influenced history in a way. The idea of respecting the ancient wisdom and human history is the most critical reason we must protect those intangible cultural heritages. Ancient culinary techniques could be one of the most special ones during all kinds of intangible cultural heritage. It has a much more profound impact than any other type of heritage on modern human life.
Recently, intangible cultural heritage has become a popular title of dishes and attracts a lot of attention both online and offline. Dishes within such a label are usually the most famous regional specialties and very common in local restaurants. Such a recommendation term will easily attract tourists and foreigners who are not familiar with local food. However, for most restaurants, it is just a marketing method. The dish with the title of intangible cultural heritage is always selling at a higher price than the same dish without such identification. Of course, it has a more sophisticated table setting and a better dining environment. Such experience will make people feel like they are tasting something different. The restaurant is selling such expertise to the customers, trying to let them believe that the dish is different, and enjoying the traditional delicacy represents the higher social classes.

Other than restaurants, food bloggers are also willing to use intangible cultural heritage food as the topic of their videos. Attached was the video from my followed food blogger, who is doing funny cooking videos about surprise cuisines or food that are usually hard to cook at home. In this video, she is cooking a court dish that was reputedly one of the most favorite empress dowager Cixi dishes. To cook this dish, the chef has to fill every single bean sprout with chicken mesh. The bean sprout’s diameter is only 2 millimeters on average, which is a really hard process. There has no recipe in detail. In fact, what we learned about this course all came from the history research materials about the empress dowager Cixi. There are only descriptions about the dish’s visible part and how it tastes, but no details about the raw materials, the sauce that is used, or the way of cooking.

http://www.bilibili.com/video/BV147411H7VT