Chongqing - On the afternoon of May 29, the “Why Do We Read in the Age of AI? Read the World Through Pages and Miles-Reading Salon for Chinese and International Youth took place at Southwest University in Chongqing. The event was organized by Contemporary World Press and co-organized by four partners, one of which is the Chongqing International Culture Association. More than 120 Chinese and international students, faculty members, and literature enthusiasts gathered for an in-depth conversation on the humanistic spirit in the age of algorithms.
Scene from the "Read the World Through Pages and Miles-Reading Salon."
The event opened with host Wu Han quoting from The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, “the eternal way that endures through time”, and posing a core question: When artificial intelligence can compose poetry and read thousands of volumes in seconds, why should we still laboriously read “difficult” classics word by word?
“AI can only make us go faster, not higher,” said Meng Fanjun, a specially appointed professor at the College of International Studies, Southwest University, offering a concise answer. He pointed out that AI, by its nature, collects and organizes existing information, whereas reading and writing carry an irreplaceable warmth of life. “We must learn to harness AI, not become its servant.” In his view, reading a classic line by line is an empathetic process that connects one’s own life deeply with the struggles of the characters. Using Shakespeare as an example, he explained that even with AI assistance, we still need to engage in dialogue with Shakespeare using our full life experience, tempering our character through the truth of history, the goodness of words, and the beauty of cultural fusion between East and West. That emotional resonance across time and space is something algorithmic analysis of text can never provide.
While Meng Fanjun’s remarks highlighted the heights of human experience, Qin Hongyu, a professor and deputy director of the Southwest University Library, brought the discussion back to reality through his reading of The Myth or Elegy of Artificial Intelligence. Directly addressing the “AI flavor” that surrounds us, he posed four sharp questions: “Whose artificial? Whose intelligence? Whose myth? Whose elegy?” Qin warned against mistaking technological myth for humanity’s inevitable future. “The repeated questioning and reflection that classic literature provokes cannot be replaced by AI. Nor can human-to-human communication or human nature itself. The footprints of thought, the stories of youth, the witness of family affection — these are things AI will never replicate.” He encouraged young people to use technology as an extension of their senses, not as a replacement for their thinking brains. In an age of surging technology, he argued, we must hold ever more firmly to our human subjectivity.
Professor Qin Hongyu interpreted The Myth or Elegy of Artificial Intelligence.
Following this exchange of ideas, a unique “Human-AI Co-reading·Blind Test” session brought the salon to a high point. Three sets of texts were presented: a soliloquy from Hamlet, an excerpt from the sci-fi novel Out of the Earth Prison, and a passage from Yu Guangzhong’s essay Listening to the Cold Rain. Each set included both a human-written original and an AI-generated version, and the audience was asked to identify which was which.
Most participants successfully saw through the algorithms’ disguises. The contradictory, authentic self-negation in Hamlet’s soliloquy; the “giant iron chain tied to the left claw”, an uneconomical detail in the sci-fi scene; and the deeply personal metaphors in Yu Guangzhong’s work, “gray and tender”, “a thousand fingers and a hundred hands massaging the ear’s rim”, these “awkward” touches and the warmth born of lived experience and linguistic craftsmanship are precisely what AI’s fluent texts lack. The blind test revealed a simple truth: what truly moves people is never computational precision, but the texture of life that algorithms cannot quantify.
During the open discussion, enthusiastic questions from both Chinese and international youth kept the reflection alive. Aiperi, an international student from Kazakhstan, shared her thoughts: “At a time when we are exploring the integration of AI and education, events like this are especially important.” Addressing the anxiety over fragmented reading, the two guest speakers agreed that reading a classic from beginning to end complete reading is a spiritual journey. It builds not only the capacity for deep thinking but also the discipline of delayed gratification and the endurance to sustain a dialogue with great souls. All of these are qualities that cannot be cultivated by simply swiping a screen and extracting information.
A student shared her views at the event.
As the event drew to a close, the host recommended three books that address contemporary issues, The Magic Box, Out of the Earth Prison, and Project Edge of Civilization, and offered a message to the young audience: “May we, in this age of galloping algorithms, remain the ones who polish the stars, guarding our irreplaceable capacity for feeling through deep reading.”
Group photo of all participants after the reading salon.
The two-and-a-half-hour feast of ideas offered no ultimate answers about the future, but left participants with deeper questions: When AI can perfectly simulate every “outcome”, the human journey of reading and walking full of confusion, struggle, and emotion is itself an indelible value.
(Zhang Xuege, as an intern, also contributed to this article.)
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