Liu Yexi has taken Douyin by storm. As of Nov 17, the virtual idol, who debuted on the social media platform on Oct 31, had only released two short videos but attracted over 5 million followers.
柳夜熙已經(jīng)席卷抖音。虛擬偶像柳夜熙于10月31日在社交媒體平臺(tái)上首次亮相，截至11月17日，她只發(fā)布了兩個(gè)短視頻，卻吸引了500多萬粉絲。

Different from other virtual idols, Liu is defined as a “virtual beauty vlogger”. In her first video, Liu is doing makeup with an eye brush while dressed in a traditional Chinese costume. When she turns around, the onlookers are terrified, except one boy. Then Liu slightly brushes the boy’s eyes, allowing him to see the fantasy world in her own eyes.
與其他虛擬偶像不同的是，柳夜熙的定位為“虛擬美妝博主”。在柳夜熙的首個(gè)視頻里，她身穿中國傳統(tǒng)服裝，手持眼刷，正在化妝。當(dāng)她轉(zhuǎn)過身來，周圍的人都嚇壞了，唯有一小男孩不怕。隨后柳夜熙輕輕掃了掃男孩的眼睛，讓他看到了自己眼中的奇幻世界。

The internet users marveled at its storyline, science-fiction elements and special visual effects with cyberpunk style. Liang Zikang, the CEO of the production team, told China Newsweek that the team spent two months making the video.
網(wǎng)友們驚嘆于視頻的故事情節(jié)、科幻元素以及賽博朋克風(fēng)格的特殊視覺效果。制作團(tuán)隊(duì)的首席執(zhí)行官梁子康在接受《中國新聞周刊》采訪時(shí)表示，團(tuán)隊(duì)花了兩個(gè)月的時(shí)間制作這支視頻。

Liu’s instant popularity online further reflects that the virtual idol industry in China has been booming. There are over 32,400 virtual idols that have opened accounts on video-sharing platform Bilibili in the past year, seeing a year-on-year rise of 40 percent, Chen Rui, the CEO of Bilibili, said in a speech.
柳夜熙在網(wǎng)上的迅速走紅進(jìn)一步反映了虛擬偶像產(chǎn)業(yè)正在中國蓬勃發(fā)展。嗶哩嗶哩首席執(zhí)行官陳睿在一次演講中表示，去年在視頻共享平臺(tái)嗶哩嗶哩上共有超過3.24萬的虛擬偶像開播，同比增長40%。

“Compared with real idols and stars, the virtual ones seem to be more approachable for fans,” Shine News noted. Additionally, these virtual web celebrities won’t have scandals.
Shine新聞指出:“與真正的偶像和明星相比，虛擬偶像對(duì)粉絲來說似乎更容易接近?！贝送猓@些虛擬網(wǎng)絡(luò)名人不會(huì)有丑聞。

As more young people are fascinated by these virtual figures, their commercial value has been on the rise. Generally, they earn money by endorsements, online concerts, livestreaming and related products. For example, Luo Tianyi, a well-known virtual singer, cooperated with livestreamer Li Jiaqi to promote goods in 2020.
隨著越來越多的年輕人為這些虛擬人物所吸引，虛擬偶像的商業(yè)價(jià)值也在上升。虛擬名人一般通過代言、線上演唱會(huì)、直播和周邊產(chǎn)品賺錢。例如，知名虛擬歌手洛天依曾在2020年與主播李佳琦合作推廣商品。

Therefore, some people are wondering whether they will replace real humans. “These so-called virtual idols have real human teams to back them up and control them. They are not really virtual,” Ding Daoshi, an independent analyst in the internet sector, told the Global Times. The real virtual idol will come when artificial intelligence achieves a new level of self-learning and self-training and then interacts with others, he added.
因此，有些人好奇虛擬偶像是否會(huì)取代真人。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)獨(dú)立分析師丁道師在接受《環(huán)球時(shí)報(bào)》采訪時(shí)表示：“這些所謂的虛擬偶像背后有真人團(tuán)隊(duì)在運(yùn)作和控制，并不是真的虛擬?！倍〉缼熝a(bǔ)充說，如果人工智能達(dá)到一個(gè)全新水平，能夠自我學(xué)習(xí)、自我訓(xùn)練，而且能夠與他人互動(dòng)，那么真正的虛擬偶像就會(huì)出現(xiàn)。

以上文章內(nèi)容選自《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》，詳情請(qǐng)見《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》高三762期