Restart life

Chapter 536 0524 [Let's Begin]

Before he could even have dinner with the CEO of Sino-Ocean Land, Chen Guiliang was invited to record a talk show on CCTV.

The program will air during the summer vacation, but it needs to be recorded before the students have a break, so that it won't be difficult to invite youth representatives and student viewers later.

A few days before recording the program, Sabine sent him the program's content and asked Chen Guiliang to prepare a 15-20 minute speech.

They didn't mention anything else. This lousy show is very real-time and often doesn't give the guests any face.

A typical example is the episode with Zhou Hongwei, where an audience member asked: "I used 360's powerful uninstallation function to uninstall 360, but it failed. What should I do?"
That match really got Zhou Hongwei really angry. He rolled up his sleeves and was ready to argue with the audience to see who would win, even asking, "Can you lift yourself up to the sky by grabbing your hair?"

The recording location for "Let's Talk" is Xingguang Film and Television Park, near Xihongmen in Daxing. "Avenue of Stars" and other shows are also recorded here.

"Hello, Mr. Chen!" Sabining stepped forward to shake hands, but his smile carried a hint of restraint.

CCTV programs used to be quite serious, but starting this year, some programs have undergone significant style adjustments to cater to young people.

Sabinei clearly hasn't switched over yet; the show hasn't even started recording yet, but he's already already in his usual hosting mode.

Chen Guiliang said, "We can be more relaxed and make the program more lively."

Sabinen smiled and said, "I'm afraid I'll get my salary docked if I'm too lively."

“That’s right, that’s exactly the situation,” Chen Guiliang said. “Your program started off a bit monotonous and dull. The guests started by giving speeches for more than 15 minutes without interacting with the host or the audience. The live audience is probably fine with it, but the viewers at home are likely to get impatient.”

Sabinen said, "I don't think so. The speakers we invited are all big names like you. No matter what kind of audience you are, they will listen patiently."

“Adding some interaction would be even better. For example, when I first start speaking, you can chime in and say a few words to help the audience quickly immerse themselves in the topic of the speech,” Chen Guiliang said.

After thinking about it carefully, Sa Beining said, "I'll discuss it with the director."

After a moment, Sa Beining returned and said, "The director said it's okay, how about we go through it together now?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Rehearsing the lines in advance doesn't enhance the show. If my acting is bad, the audience will notice."

"Is this something you're doing on the spot?" Sabinen felt immense pressure.

The station had high hopes for this new program, and since it was only the first episode, Sa Beining was worried that something might go wrong.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Let's play around. It's not like it's a live broadcast. If we mess it up, we can just edit it later."

……

At this point, there were a total of 10 youth representatives on the show "Let's Talk". To be honest, too many people would cause the rhythm to become chaotic and drag on; it would be more appropriate to cut them in half.

The rest of the audience members were all from universities in Beijing.

The Communication University of China has the most students, followed by Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Central University of Finance and Economics, etc.

If celebrities are invited to speak, it will attract students from schools such as the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy.

After reading out the sponsors and program name, Sabinen began to get to the point: "This is a newly launched program, and each episode invites role models from youth to be the guest speaker. Today is the first episode, so we definitely need to invite someone important, and someone who is also very close to the youth... I mean, very close in age..."

Remembering his earlier conversation with Chen Guiliang about being lively, Sa Beining added on the spot: "This guest is very successful. The most obvious thing is that he's young and already rich. Not only is he rich, but he's also very talented; he's actually a bestselling author..."

"I'd like to ask the students here, who uses Weibo and WeChat? Please raise your hand." Sa Beining interacted with the audience in advance.

Everyone raised their hands; not a single one fell swoop.

Sabine asked, "Do you know who the guest is now?"

"Chen Guiliang!"

"Old Ancestor Chen!"

University students shouted.

Sabinen said, "Alright, now please welcome Mr. Chen Guiliang, Chairman of ByteDance and Game Science!"

Amid applause and cheers, Chen Guiliang came out with a microphone: "Hello, host, hello, students."

“Hello, Mr. Chen,” Sabinin paused for a moment, “Let’s begin.”

The three words came out very suddenly, but Sabinen had excellent timing.

Since it was the first episode, the director and production director were all on set.

They knew best what Sabinen had done, so they deliberately omitted a pre-designed line to emphasize randomness and suddenness.

CCTV hosts would never have done this before, as it would have seemed slightly disrespectful to the guests.

But the director didn't interfere. Now that CCTV is trying to innovate, he also wanted to see how it went.

Chen Guiliang took out a package box: "No rush, I brought you a gift."

"A gift? Mr. Chen, you're too kind. You've come all this way, why bring a gift?" Sa Beining rubbed his hands together with a smile, looking eager, which drew laughter from the audience.

Chen Guiliang said, "The smartwatch that HarmonyOS Technology will be releasing soon."

Sabine took it apart and put it on his wrist: "What's the function of this?"

Chen Guiliang said, "You can use it as an auxiliary screen for your mobile phone."

“What about other features?” Sabinen asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "No, that's all."

Sabinen was speechless: "Then I can just use my phone. What's the point of this?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Don't you think it's very fashionable?"

Sabinen looked at his watch, unsure of what to say.

"Hahaha!"

Another burst of laughter.

Chen Guiliang said, "It does have high-tech features, such as a voice assistant. It's just that this assistant is a bit hard of hearing; it can't understand you if your accent is too strong or you speak too fast."

Sabinen was both amused and exasperated: "This is the first time I've ever seen someone promote their own products like this."

Chen Guiliang said, "We will definitely follow suit when a certain fruit brand launches something. However, everyone's voice recognition capabilities are about the same... about equally bad. It's not artificial intelligence, at most it's artificial stupidity."

"Hahaha!" The audience burst into laughter.

Sabinen said, "There will definitely be new features."

Chen Guiliang said, "Yes, there are. For example, watches and wallets; you can pay by linking your card and scanning a QR code."

Sabinen said, "A mobile phone would probably work too."

Chen Guiliang said, "Don't you think paying with a watch is cooler?"

Sa Beining scratched his head: "When I received this gift, I suddenly thought of Wenxi's 'Three Thousand Ways to Kill You'." The audience who understood the joke laughed again.

Chen Guiliang's smile faded, and his expression turned serious: "Next, we will add GPS positioning, heart rate measurement, and step counting functions to the smartwatch."

Sabine asked, "Are there still technical difficulties?"

Chen Guiliang said, "The GPS function is technically not difficult, but it consumes too much power, which will have to wait for battery manufacturers to improve. The heart rate measurement and step counting functions also have some minor difficulties."

Sabine asked, "Do we need more time?"

Chen Guiliang asked, "Yes, that's what I'm going to talk about today. Technology is developing, and as technology advances, lifestyles are changing. One day in the future, the smartwatch on your wrist may even become your health manager and weight loss coach."

"And your every move can be affected by it. Your smartwatch says you haven't been active enough today, so even though you wanted to lie down and rest, you force yourself to go downstairs and run a couple of laps..."

Sabine quietly stepped aside; his pre-event interaction was over.

“When I was a child, my favorite thing to do was watch TV, but my family didn’t have a TV, so I had to watch it at my neighbor’s house. My neighbor’s family had workers, both father and son, but their wives were farmers. This situation is a legacy of history…”

"They are workers, but they don't have houses in the city and can only live in the countryside with their wives. Because they are workers, they don't have household registration in the countryside, so they haven't been allocated land there. Students who are interested can look into this phenomenon; I won't go into details here."

"What I want to say is that in our area, their family was the first to have a TV. Everyone went to their house to watch TV. At first, they were very proud because it satisfied their vanity. But gradually they became unhappy. First, they found it troublesome, as some people would stay late into the night; second, electricity costs money, and they would feel the pinch after a while."

"So, they deliberately started saying strange things, which angered the neighbors so much that they stopped watching TV. My mother raised pigs for two years and finally saved up enough money to buy a TV, but she didn't watch TV during that time."

"Back then, entertainment options were limited. If a projectionist came to the countryside, farmers who had worked hard all day would still have the energy to walk seven or eight miles to watch an open-air movie in the evening..."

A 15- to 20-minute personal speech requires rambling to make up the time. And you can't talk about overly technical topics, otherwise the audience will get impatient; the more accessible and popular the better.

"Life was very slow back then. We didn't make phone calls or send telegrams often because communication costs were too high. Exchanging one letter a month was considered high-frequency, long-distance interaction..."

"I remember when I was in sixth grade, a classmate used the village's public phone to call home and say he wouldn't be coming home for lunch. I was shocked. A phone, such a high-tech and expensive thing, was being used to say something as trivial as not coming home for lunch..."

"By high school, I was making phone calls frequently. There were phone booths outside the school; short distances were 2 cents and long distances were 3 cents a minute. It was very convenient. Although I couldn't afford meat in high school, I was already considered a success compared to when I was in elementary school..."

“I communicate with my parents more often now. Before, we could only exchange letters a few times a year because mail delivery was inconvenient during my junior high school years. But in high school, I was able to call my parents every month…”

Chen Guiliang went on to talk about telephones, mobile phones, and the internet: "Have you all noticed that with the development of communication technology, real-world communication is gradually decreasing?"

"And even on the internet, the pace is getting faster and faster, and online time is becoming more and more fragmented. In the past, blogs were popular, with thousands of words written at a time. Now, microblogs are popular, and you can basically finish in 140 characters or less..."

"I predict that online videos will follow this trend. The future belongs to short videos. Who will have the patience to watch videos that are more than 20 minutes long? Gradually, they will become 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and eventually, they will be measured in seconds..."

"Those who now consider excessive internet use as internet addiction will likely become more addicted than anyone else as smartphones become more widespread. Like an old house on fire, it usually burns the brightest..."

After rambling on for a while, Chen Guiliang looked at the countdown: "Foucault coined the term 'heterotopia,' and there's a story in *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio* called 'The Painted Wall.' With technological advancements, the internet is gradually being shaped into a heterotopia, becoming a painted wall on the internet. We will all be involved in it. I hope that someone can step out of the painted wall at any time and return to reality to communicate more with their family and friends. Thank you everyone!"

Sabine walked back and said, "This is such a serious topic. I really didn't expect President Chen to bring this up. I thought you were going to talk about university entrepreneurship."

“We’ve said that thing so many times, everyone’s tired of hearing it,” Chen Guiliang said. “You graduated from Peking University, right?”

Sabinen laughed and said, "Hey, that's what I've been waiting to hear. I'm also from Peking University, we're alumni, and we were both admitted without taking the entrance exam."

Chen Guiliang said, "Peking University is alright."

Sabinen said, "I completely agree!"

"Hahaha!"

The Peking University students in the audience burst into laughter.

Sabinen steered the conversation back to the main point: "Weibo was the first product you created, even launching before Twitter. Do you feel like you've unleashed a demon?"

"It has nothing to do with me; it's an inevitable trend in technological development. And it's not evil either; it's half good and half bad," Chen Guiliang said.

Sa Beining asked, "You seem to be posting on Weibo less often lately. Is it because you've come out of the mural?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I haven't come out of this yet. I've been lurking and watching the drama unfold every day. Fang Zhouzi, Han Han, and Lao Luo have been at it since January, for half a year now, and they still haven't calmed down. Isn't watching their bombshell revelations much more interesting than watching TV?"

“Yes.” Sabinen nodded.

Chen Guiliang then asked, "Whom do you support?"

"Huh?" Sabining quickly waved his hand. "I can't say that casually. Publicly supporting anyone will get me criticized. President Chen, don't give me a hard time. Let's ask the youth representatives here to ask questions... Hey, someone raised their hand."

A boy stood up: "Hello, Senior Chen, my name is Liu Zihao. I am from Guanghua School of Management and also a member of the Peking University Debate Team."

"Hello," Chen Guiliang said.

The boy said, "I don't like listening to your lectures, and I certainly don't want to be pampered by motivational platitudes. I just want to ask, do you still remember the small goals you set for yourself back then?"

"One hundred million?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Sabinen chimed in, "I also want to achieve this small goal."

"Hahaha!"

The audience burst into laughter again.

The boy said, "Yes, a small goal of 100 million. What should I do to move towards that goal?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I will withdraw from the Peking University debate team first."

"Huh?" the boy asked, puzzled.

Chen Guiliang said, "Talk less and do more."

Sabinen suppressed a laugh and said, "The instructor of the Peking University debate team would faint from anger if he saw this program."

The boy said, "The eloquence I honed in debate competitions can be used to persuade venture capitalists in the future."

Chen Guiliang said, "Under normal circumstances, venture capitalists will come to you. You don't need to convince them; they've already convinced themselves before they even come to you."

The boy said, "But I've read a lot of reports. For example, when Ma Jie got investment from SoftBank, he said he convinced Masayoshi Son with his eloquence."

“You just said you don’t drink chicken soup,” Chen Guiliang said.

The boy asked, "Is this story fake?"

Chen Guiliang said, "At that time, it wasn't that Jack Ma persuaded Masayoshi Son to invest. Rather, it was that there were too many institutions that wanted to invest and acquire too many shares. Jack Ma's real headache at that time was how to ensure his control over the company with so much money."

The boy said, "This is different from what our professor taught."

Chen Guiliang said, "It's obvious that you professors also make chicken soup."

"Hahaha!"

Laughter erupted again, and the boy sat down awkwardly.

(End of this chapter)