New title available: Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 3

With the rise of generative AI, such as ChatGPT and all of its siblings, people begin to lose trust in what they are reading. 

“Is it written by a human or a computer?” People now often question.

Well, about our latest title, Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 3, I can guarantee you that it is 100% human work, because this is something beyond ChatGPT’s capabilities.

This is now a fact that students use computers to write essays which their teachers give an A. The only criteria are that students need to make sure that their computers are not hallucinating, i.e. giving false information.

I really doubt this is a good direction to go for the education system. Students hardly get to work on their use of language, and teachers are confused and wondering what’s the point of teaching students to write when computers are the ones that are doing the actual writing.

Writing is an important element in human development. We benefit immensely from the past written texts and we continue to marvel at, and to enjoy, these texts. Through these texts, we feel we are in connection with our ancestors, learning directly from their souls. 

Therefore, it is sad to see that writing is increasingly becoming a non-essential task, and people are delegating writings to computers. I suspect that people are letting go of something really precious to the human race. 

Unfortunately, today, this seems to be the trend everywhere. And it is hard to go against it.

Fortunately, for people who are still interested in exercising their writing skills, I’m sure outlets are still there. At the very least, Chinese Writing Contest is still beyond the reach of AI. So far, no AI could write a story or a poem using 320 Chinese characters only.

That’s a reason to celebrate our humanities right there.  

The limitation of 320 unique characters encourages writers to search for innovative ways to convey their ideas, prompting them to experiment with different choices of words or characters. The careful selection of each character becomes a delicate art form, akin to crafting a mosaic made up of finite pieces. 

Oh well. That may be exaggerated a bit, but it is the truth.

To write well is no easy task. To write well in a second language is even harder. Therefore, I hope, for these ten writers, this book holds some personal significance. 

Some writers are exploring the possibilities of language and storytelling at a tender age. Others have embraced the challenge of writing in a second language as a means of personal growth. And they are from everywhere, literally. 

I hope this book also offers a unique experience for readers and inspire all Chinese language learners.

In an age when writing is overshadowed by AI, this book can remind all of us of the fun time we have in learning, writing and reading…

… and listening.

A free audio book below is available for all to enjoy.