At the opening ceremony of the 2002 Western China Exposition, which kicked off on May 25, a long-haired hostess in Chinese traditional Qipao was delivering the news fluently in Chinese, English, Japanese and other languages consecutively. She is Jiang Ling’er, China’s first virtual and interactive TV hostess based on the Internet.
After more than one year of comprehensive development, it was the first time for Jiang Ling’er to broadcast the news live via Internet at the 2002 Western China Exposition.
The company which employs her is China’s first Internet-based Interactive TV network. According to the staff of this network company, this new anchor lady can not only deliver news in many foreign languages, but also chat with netizens, take part in animated games and art performances – a breakthrough which greatly improved the otherwise very limited communication between traditional TV emcees and the audience.
It is said that Jiang Linger’s emceeing doesn’t need anyone to give her voice-over. A new kind of simultaneous voice-managing technique adopted by the company empowered her with the ability to give various expressions with human intelligence. According to Chen Dahui, Jiang Ling’er’s image designer, this virtual hostess with human intelligence is able to transfer tones according to punctuation in the text. By duplicating different animated templates, Jiang Ling’er could give expression to all kinds of moods such as happiness, anger, sorrow, just like ordinary people.
Cheng Dahui also said that Jinag Ling’er is designed according to the appearance of the girls from western China represented by Chongqing and Chengdu City of Sichuan Province. The most difficult part, as well as the breakthrough point, involved the design of her hair, which makes her facial appearance more full of life.
Before Jiang Ling’er, China once invented two Internet anchors, one called Yan Dongfang, the other Yi Mei’er. However, Chen Dahui thinks that for both of them, there are still many unsatisfactory aspects that prevent them from becoming qualified TV anchors.
At this exposition, Jiang Ling’er was assigned to make 24-hour consecutive live news broadcasts everyday. After the expo, further improvement in her design will be carried out, extending to another half a year according to the plan. Then, she will formally take the position as the interactive TV anchor at Western Net Link. During World Cup, she will also anchor a 15-minute news program every day.
China Internet experts say that the appearance of Jiang Ling’er at this time in Chengdu marks the fact that China’s Internet-based interactive TV station has reached a new stage in application, and it is expected to have great impact on China’s traditional TV industry sooner or later.
(千龙新闻网 [BeijingNews.com.cn] May 28, 2002, translated by Feng Shu for china.org.cn)
