Manifesto

宣言

Sinofuturism is an invisible movement — a spectre already embedded into a trillion industrial products, a billion individuals, and a million veiled narratives. It is a movement, not based on individuals, but on multiple overlapping flows. Flows of populations, of products, and of processes.

中华未来主义（Sinofuturism）是某种不可见的运动。某种业已嵌入万亿工业产品、十亿个体及百万隐性叙述的幽灵。作为一种运动，它并非建立在个体上，而基于多种重叠的流动途径。人口、产品与程序的流动。

Because Sinofuturism has arisen without conscious intention or authorship, it is often mistaken for contemporary China. But it is not. It is a science fiction that already exists.

由于中华未来主义的兴起并非源于具体的意向或作者，它经常被误解为当代中国的产物。但事实并非如此。它是一种已经存在的科幻虚构。

This video essay is a retroactive manifesto for Sinofuturism, combining historical fantasy, documentary melodrama, and social realism, with Chinese cosmologies.

本视频论文是中华未来主义的回溯式宣言，将历史的狂想、纪录片式的情节剧、社会主义现实主义与中式宇宙观结合起来。

Although China only recently became the factory of the world, this is only the latest incarnation of the Chinese work ethic. It is a work ethic based on farm labour and large families, in an agrarian society prone to natural disasters, within a Confucian belief system that values hard work as the only insurance against a turbulent world.

中国最近才成为世界工厂，而这不过是中国工作伦理的最新呈现形式。这种工作伦理根植于易受自然灾害影响的农耕社会，建立在农业劳动与大家族的基础上，源于儒家信仰体系的内部，在这种体系中，唯有努力工作才能对抗动荡的世界。

Multiple stereotypes of this Eastern 'Other' are everywhere. Whether Chinese Olympic athletes are branded as 'robots', or Chinese students or tourists are likened to 'swarms', or Shenzhen factory workers are criticised for 'flooding the marketplace', the subtext is the same. It is the dehumanisation of the individual into a nameless, faceless mass.

关于这一东方式“他者”的陈词滥调无处不在。无论是奥运会上被标签化为“机器人”的中国运动员，抑或被比作“蜂群”的中国学生或游客，或因“涌入市场”而备受批评的深圳工厂工人，其中的言外之意具有某种一致性——将个体去人性化，使之沦为一种无名、无个性的大众。

On the other hand is the Orientalist aesthetic narrative, where China is the exotic other, eternally unknowable, mysterious, powerless yet seductive.

另一方面，存在某种东方主义的审美叙述：中国被视为某种异域的他者，永远不为人所知，神秘、无力而充满诱惑。

But rather than resisting cultural cliches, Sinofuturism embraces seven key stereotypes associated with China. These are its guiding principles: Computing, Copying, Gaming, Studying, Addiction, Labour, and Gambling.

不过，中华未来主义并非致力于对抗文化方面的陈词滥调，而凸显了7种与中国相关的关键刻板印象。基本原则如下：计算、复制、游戏、学习、上瘾、劳动、赌博。

At a material level, it is already everywhere: in architecture, in the products and technologies that we use every day.

在物质的层面，它已经无所不在：日常生活中我们所接触、使用的建筑、产品与技术。

However, I propose something more radical.

不过，我要谈更激进的东西。

I propose that Sinofuturism is in fact a form of Artificial Intelligence: a massively distributed neural network, focused on copying rather than originality, addicted to learning massive amounts of raw data rather than philosophical critique or morality, with a post-human capacity for work, and an unprecedented sense of collective will to power.

我认为，中华未来主义实际是一种人工智能的形式，广泛传播的神经网络，聚焦于复制而非原创性，习于研究大量的原始数据，而非哲学批判或道德，具有一种后人类式的工作能力，以及前所未有的集体性权力意志。

Rather than resisting stereotypes, Sinofuturism embraces cliches, many of which are reinforced by both East and West. Just as Afrofuturists answered the historical problem of slavery by declaring themselves as post-human super robots, Sinofuturism answers the Chinese problems of physical servitude, intellectual conformity, and computational OCD, by openly embracing Artificial Intelligence.

中华未来主义并非对抗陈词滥调，而是吸纳它们，其中许多陈词滥调被东方与西方强化了。非洲未来主义者们通过宣称自己是后人类式的超级机器人以回应奴隶制的历史问题，与此相似，中华未来主义通过公开拥护人工智能而回应身体的奴役、思想的同流与计算强迫症的中国式问题。

In computer science, one of the most promising routes to developing AI is a combination of neural networks and machine learning. Here, an interconnected mesh of programmed neurons learn from sets of data based on real-world phenomena. Engineers declare that the results of neural networks are always surprising, especially in competition against humans.

在计算机科学中，发展人工智能最有前景的方法之一即为神经网络与机器学习的结合。在此，一个由被编程的神经元所组成的交互网络从一系列基于现实世界之现象的数据中学习。工程师宣称，神经网络的结果永远是令人惊奇的，尤其当它与人类竞争之时。

For a long time, grand masters of the ancient game of Go considered themselves unbeatable against AI players. But in March 2016, the AlphaGo AI developed by Google DeepMind beat Go world champion Lee Sedol by four games to one. Most surprising was Lee's comment about some of AlphaGo's inhuman moves; Lee said he witnessed moves so profoundly unconventional that only a program could conceive of them.

很久以来，古代围棋大师自认为不可被人工智能选手战胜。但在2016年3月，由谷歌DeepMind研发的人工智能阿尔法狗（AlphaGo）以4:1的比分击败了世界冠军李世石。最令人惊讶的是，李世石对非人类阿尔法狗棋路的评论——他发现对手的棋路如此离经叛道，唯有程序才能构思出这样的棋路。

This essential unknowability of the AI to the human, of the mystique of a consciousness beyond conventional understanding, is exactly the same 'Other' identified in  Orientalism. It is this oppositional 'Other' which Sinofuturism identifies with, reorienting the technological narrative in a way that the nameless, faceless mass of Chinese labour becomes a collective body.

人类对人工智能，以及超乎一般认知范围的意识秘密一无所知，而这一根本性的无知正与东方主义中的“他者”别无二致。正是这一中华未来主义所定义的对立性“他者”，以无名、无个性的中国劳动大众沦为集体性身体的方式，重新规定了技术的叙事。

Chapter 1. Computing

第一章：计算

Could Sinofuturism be said to constitute an artificial intelligence? The ‘Chinese Room’ is a thought experiment by John Searle that questions the possibility of computers reaching consciousness. Like the game of Chinese whispers, the word 'Chinese' here is taken as synonymous with something fundamentally foreign and unknowable.

我们是否可以认为，中华未来主义在建构一种人工智能？“中文房间”（Chinese Room）是约翰·塞尔（John Searle）提出的一个思想实验，探索计算机接入意识的可能性。正如传话游戏“中文耳语”，在此，“中文”一词完全等同于陌生与未知。

Chapter 2. Copy

第二章：复制

Copy everything. Respect for historical tradition is a main principle of Chinese aesthetics.

复制一切。对历史传统的尊重是中式审美的主要原则。

Replicating old masters, memorising old texts, following moral standards, are all part of this tradition. But Sinofuturism absorbs everything.

重现大师，记诵经典文本，遵循道德标准，均属于这一传统。但中华未来主义吸纳一切。

Nothing is sacred. Authorship is overrated. Copyright is wrong.

没有什么是神圣的。作者被过誉了。版权观念是错误的。

The aesthetic of Sinofuturism combines gloss with grime.

中华未来主义的审美结合了浮华与污浊。

The notion of class, of taste, of good design, and of tackiness do not apply.

品位、趣味、设计感，以及庸俗的概念均不再适用了。

Because the physical components of high technology are literally made in China, it makes no sense to produce visions of the future. It's already here.

由于实质上高科技的物质组成在中国制造，畅想未来就变得毫无意义了。未来已经在此。

Sinofuturism shares a critical optimism about technology with other movements including the Italian Futurismo, Afrofuturism and Gulf Futurism, while integrating specific cultural, historical and industrial patterns unique to the region.

中华未来主义与其他诸如意大利未来主义、非洲未来主义、海湾未来主义之类的运动均对技术抱有某种乐观主义态度，而将该地区具体的文化、历史与工业模式融入其中。

All of these Futurisms are minority movements which share an optimism about speed, velocity, and the future as a means to subvert the institutions of the present.

所有这些未来主义运动均为少数派运动，共享某种对速度、速率与未来的乐观主义，将其作为一种颠覆当下机制的手段。

Unlike Western Enlightenment forms of government, which revolve around a humanist belief in democracy as liberation from Feudalism, Futurism uses technology as the basis of freedom. Each futurism in turn applies a magical narrative about technology specific to their own geographic context.

与建立在启蒙运动上的西方政府形式——此种政府依据对民主的人文主义信念而运转，将其视为把人类从封建主义中解放出来的手段——不同，未来主义将技术作为自由的基础。每种未来主义均具有某种根植于其自身地理环境中的魔幻性技术叙事。

Chapter 3. Gaming

第三章：游戏

Games are a training ground for a future reality, one where the individual will most likely perform repetitive tasks — both individually and in groups.

游戏是未来现实的训练土壤；通过游戏，个体更倾向于完成重复性的工作。既作为个体，亦在群体之中。

Why not start young? Gaming is training.

为什么不早点儿开始呢？游戏也是训练。

Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism studies the cultural representations that are the basis of the West's patronizing perceptions and fictional depictions of the ‘East’, the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He argues that Orientalism, the Western scholarship about the Eastern World, was and remains inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power, and therefore intellectually suspect.

爱德华·萨义德（Edward Said）在作于1978年的《东方主义》（Orientalism）一书中论述了基于西方对“东方”——亚洲、非洲与中东地区的社会与居民——的傲慢观感与虚构描绘的文化再现形式。他认为，东方主义，即西方学术界对东方世界的描述，一向与孕育它的帝国主义社会不可分割，这让东方主义式的著作在本质上便是政治性的，屈从于权力，因此在学术层面显得可疑。

He argues that ‘Western knowledge of the Eastern world’ depicts the Oriental as an irrational, psychologically weak non-European Other, which is negatively contrasted with the rational, psychologically strong West. Such a binary relation derives from the psychological need to create a difference of cultural inequality, between West and East.

他表示，“西方对东方世界的知识”将东方描述为一种非理性、心理弱势的非西方他者，消极地与理性的、心理强势的西方形成对比。这样的二元关系源于某种试图在西方和东方创造文化不平等之差异的心理需求。

Although important, Said's narrative created a paradigm where Orientalism has become a generalised swear-word. That was a long time ago. Since the Millennium, many journalists and writers have explored the significance of China as a rising global superpower, replacing Russia to balance America.

虽然萨义德的叙述是重要的，但它创造出一种范式——东方主义沦为一种概括性的谩骂。这是很久之前了。千禧年以来，许多记者与作家致力于研究中国作为新生的全球性超级力量，成为取代俄罗斯充当平衡美国的角色。

Airport bookstores around the world are lined with titles like 'China Shakes The World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation', 'Chinese Rules: Five Timeless Lessons for Succeeding in China', and 'Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China'.

全世界的机场书店充斥着诸如“中国震动世界：饥饿国度的崛起”“中国规则：五堂永不过时的课教你如何在中国成功”“野心的时代：在新中国追求财富、真理和信仰”的标题。

In these titles — geared towards a global corporate elite, the desire to understand is deeply intertwined with an agenda to exploit. This is nothing new.

在这些为全球企业精英定制的标题中，理解的欲望与剥削的计划紧密相联。太阳底下无新事。

Within China, the so-called 'century of humiliation' refers to the period of intervention and imperialism by Western powers and Japan in China between 1839 and 1949, Today, the memory of colonial exploitation is mixed with rising nationalism. Yet the new market economy gives individuals unprecedented opportunities for growth and prosperity.

在中国，所谓“百年国耻”指1839年至1949年间中国被西方及日本帝国主义势力入侵的时期，如今，殖民剥削的记忆同正在兴起的民族主义混合在一起。不过，新的市场经济赋予个体以前所未有的成长与兴盛的机会。

The future always changes. In Communist China, there was no need for Futurism, Utopia, or Science Fiction. Unlike Soviet Russia, China had no space programme, and thus there was no need for state-sponsored films about a better tomorrow.

未来总是在变化。在共产主义意识形态统摄下的中国，未来主义、乌托邦或科幻小说均没有存在的必要。与苏联不同，中国当时没有太空项目，因此国家没有必要资助关于美好未来的电影。

But within these fantasy worlds, philosophical reflections on fate and destiny are common.

但在幻想世界里，对于命运的哲学思考是司空见惯的。