Digital humans serve in different fields and some even have a large fan base in China. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO TEENS / CHINA DAILY
Accompanied by the background sounds of Chinese traditional instruments, Yuanxi – China Daily’s digital employee –introduced the 9,000-year-old stone carvings from the Helan Mountains in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region on Oct 14.
10月14日，伴随着中国传统乐器演奏的背景音乐，《中国日报》数字员工“元曦”向大家介绍了中国西北部宁夏回族自治区的贺兰山岩画，这一艺术已有9000年历史。
“The meeting between the virtual human and Chinese traditional culture is quite interesting,” an internet user commented on Sina Weibo.
一位网友在新浪微博上评论道:“虚拟人遇到中国传统文化还挺有趣。”
With the rise of the metaverse, virtual humans have become a growing phenomenon in China. According to a research report by QbitAI, it is estimated that the overall market size of China’s virtual humans will reach 270 billion yuan by 2030.
随着元宇宙兴起，中国的数字虚拟人产业也日益兴盛。市场研究机构量子位发布的《虚拟数字人深度产业报告》指出，预测到2030年，我国虚拟数字人整体市场规模将达到2700亿元。
Though they are not real, these virtual beings share similar identities with us and serve in different fields of our daily lives, including education, broadcasting, and business. For example, in June 2021, Hua Zhibing, a virtual human who can write poetry, was officially registered as a student at Tsinghua University. Throughout the 2022 Winter Olympics, China’s first AI sign language presenter served hearing-impaired audiences 24/7.
这些数字虚拟人虽然不是真实存在的，但与我们有着相似的身份，服务于包括教育、广播、商业在内的日常生活的不同领域。例如，2021年6月，会写诗的虚拟人华智冰在清华大学正式注册成为学生。2022年北京冬奥会期间，中国首位AI手语主播亮相，为听障观众提供全年无休服务。
Due to their perfect image and interesting setups, some virtual humans even get a large number of fans and become idols in real life. Luo Tianyi is one of them. As a virtual singer, Luo has over 5 million followers on Sina Weibo. When she held a concert in Shanghai in 2018, more than 10,000 fans waved glow sticks and cheered for her. Gao Yu, a fan of Luo, told Economic Information Daily that “just like chasing human idols, Luo’s fans also hold birthday parties for her and buy the products she promotes.”
数字虚拟人形象完美，设定有趣，一些虚拟人甚至收获大批粉丝，在现实生活中成为了偶像，洛天依就是如此。作为一名虚拟歌手，洛天依在新浪微博拥有500余万粉丝。2018年，洛天依在上海举办演唱会，1万多名粉丝挥舞着荧光棒为她加油。粉丝高玉在接受《经济参考报》采访时表示:“就像追星一样，洛天依的粉丝也会为她举办生日派对，购买她宣传的产品。”
Generally speaking, virtual humans are often seen as the gateway to the metaverse and have demonstrated financial potential, but there’s still a lot of room for development, reported Xinhua.
据新华社报道，一般来说，人们通常认为数字虚拟人能“叩响”元宇宙的大门，而且也显示出经济潜力，不过，数字虚拟人仍有很大的发展空间。
以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报》高三790期
