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The Power of Story: How Names, Myths, and Dramas Shape What We Eat
When I was reading French novels as a child, I found that the heroes and heroines in the stories often ate oysters. What is an “oyster”? It sounds so high-end! At that time, I thought that oysters must be a very high-end food. Later I learned that the so-called “oyster” means “sea oyster”. But they sound so different in style. Same thing, different names, is the difference that big? It’s not a difference in the taste of the food, it’s a difference in the taste of the story! Have you ever eaten “roasted bird”? “Yakitori” is actually the grilled chicken skewers in Japanese restaurants. Many meat skewers called “roasted birds”…
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Ricardo Palma and the Immortal “Legends of Peru”: Crafting a Literary Genre Through Wit and Storytelling
Ricardo Palma (1833-1919) completed the ten-volume “Peruvian Legend” through forty years of tireless work. This also established his immortal status as the father of modern Peruvian literature. People revered him and praised him as a worthy representative of American culture. ”Legends of Peru” tells the story of Peruvian people and the vicissitudes of the world during the three hundred years from the Inca Kingdom, the Viceroyalty (i.e. colonial period), the independence period to the republic period. There are 453 legends in total (9 series and 1 appendix), of which 6 are about the Inca Empire, 339 are about the Governor-General period, that is, the colonial period, 43 are about the…
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‘AI anxiety’ plagues Hollywood
There is no doubt that ChatGPT is one of the hottest topics sweeping the world recently, and Hollywood is no exception. Some AI advocates argue that generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, can develop or write scripts for the next big hit show, can generate characters with “diverse” personalities, and can Immediately generate images on a variety of media, but the operating cost is only a fraction of hiring human artists to do the same work, and it is inevitable to replace humans in the future. If this prediction becomes a reality, then the face of Hollywood will surely be changed by AI. The current AI boom…