VIRTUAL “POPAGANDA”
COMPUTER-GENERATED SINGERS, FIRST POPULAR IN JAPAN, ARE BEING APPROPRIATED BY THE GOVERNMENT
Luo Tianyi is 15 years old, about 5-feet-10, with gray hair and green eyes. In her blue skirt, a figure-eight chignon on her head, she is typically “Chinese.”
But Luo is not real. She’s the joint creation of the Japanese conglomerate Yamaha Corporation and a Chinese company, Thstars, using Vocaloid software, Yamaha’s singing voice synthesizer.
To her fans, though, little Luo is real; she even has a personality based on music generated by users. Creators just need to input melodies and lyrics into her sound-editing program, which can be synthesized from a voice bank provided by professional voice actress Shan Xin, according to the Global Times.
Since her public debut in July 2012, Luo has “produced” more than 6,000 original songs, accumulating over 200 million views, according to China News Weekly. The concept of a “virtual idol” originated in Japan, where holographic or VR celebrities command vast commercial opportunities. Similar technology has been used by some Western artists, too, with a “hologram Tupac” debuting at a Coachella concert with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in 2012.
Hatsune Miku, a famous Japanese virtual idol, makes her creators serious money by holding concerts all over the world using this tech: A Miku concert held in Shanghai in 2015 charged an average 500 RMB per ticket.
In China, though, virtual idols have taken on another
role. According to the Global Times, Luo has become a spokesperson for several popular brands such as KFC and Chang’an Automobile, and has been endorsed by the Communist Youth League, who believe she can be used to “promote positive values to the youth.”
Analysts think Luo has such a large market because the number of young anime, comics, and games (ACG) consumers in China is increasing. According to a report by Chinese firm iresearch, there were 260 million ACG consumers in 2015.
“Virtual icons like Luo Tianyi could cause zero harm to youngsters as they won’t yield to any temptation like drugs or get involved in any sex scandals” the Global Times noted. “In recent years, a number of popular human celebrities were found to be drug users or sex addicts. It’s also not uncommon to find stars falling from the public’s worshiping altar after making an ethical mistake.”
What the report doesn’t mention, though, is that Luo herself briefly ran afoul of China’s strict censorship environment in 2015, when one of her songs was placed on the Ministry of Culture’s list of 120 songs banned from online distribution. Perhaps this is why a defiantly “parental advisory” Tupac hasn’t returned to the virtual stage since. – PHOEBE ZHANG
When Chang, a middle-aged woman, was making her way to the restroom at The Nest, an upscale restaurant on Shanghai’s Bund, she was stopped by the manager—she’d been mistaken, due to her looks, for a man.
An argument ensued. “You people, neither male nor female,” the manager shouted. “I’ve seen plenty like you.” Later, several male attendants allegedly wrestled her to the ground, punching her body, head, and face. Police are now investigating the December incident, amid calls for a boycott of the business by LGBT groups and their supporters.
“A revolution is not a dinner party,” Mao Zedong once said. It is “an insurrection, an act of violence.” China’s “toilet revolution,” a state-backed directive spearheaded by President Xi Jinping to improve China’s public bathroom quality, officially refers to improvements like increasing the use of Western-style flush toilets and improving hygiene standards. However, Xi has also publicly supported a related effort to install so-called “third toilets.”
On third toilets that already exist in public areas and tourist sites around the country, the English translation— “family toilet,” “mother-baby toilet”—and illustration on the signs suggest they are simply unisex facilities, provided for those who may need to assist the opposite gender: parents with young children, for example. Though the toilet revolution, outlined by Xi in last November, was the first official effort to promote unisex restrooms, there have been numerous independent initiatives. In China, there are already genderless restrooms, neutral restrooms, and family restrooms, all essentially offering the same service.
One type, Beijing’s all-gender toilets, is being promoted by Beijing’s Gender Health Education Institute (BGHEI), specifically with the purpose of encouraging gender equality and diversity.
Martin Yang, BGHEI’S sustainable development manager, says that while their and Xi’s campaign differ in some ways, both contribute to providing safe places for all people to use a restroom. Yang points out that the concept of a unisex toilet isn’t necessarily revolutionary: Many rudimentary latrines and bathrooms are essentially communal. “It doesn’t make sense that they have this traditional man-woman sign on their doors,” says Yang. “But we want to say publicly…it’s super gender-friendly.”
“Friendship” and “equality” are two of the “Core Values of Chinese Socialism,” as outlined by the 18th Congress of the Communist Party in 2012. As long as the “third toilet” fits concept within these values, China may sidestep some of the politicized controversies that have hijacked the issue of non-traditional gender identities in the US, while promoting some values of its own: civility and harmony. – ALEXANDER CECIL MCNAB