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What does AI have to do with footbinding in Taiwan? Well, it's a 13-min mini episode, so you're just gonna have to listen and find out. Check the show notes for more info.
Cover: YES, we recognize the cover is strange - but that's the point. The cover is from a prompt to an AI: "Make an image explaining the Chinese tradition of footbinding. Don't use cartoon style art. Make it look historical." And this is one of the strange options we got.
So, AI is far from perfect. It gives false answers, it makes weird images, it falls short in so many areas. But it's learning exponentially, and some predict we are "several thousand days away" from super-AI, which will see AIs building better AIs -- over and over again, at speeds we can hardly imagine.
What does AI have to do with foot binding in Taiwan? Well, it's a 13-min mini episode, so you're just gonna have to listen and find out. We will, however, offer these three links and give you a hint: Can an AI create a podcast you might actually be interested in listening to?
2. The Rise And Fall Of Chánzú: A Short History Of Footbinding In Taiwan by Kate Allanson Conlon
Below: : The Regal Chinese Girl (c.1904) by The Casas-Rodríguez Postcard Collection / Flickr, license: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
3. Taipei Times BOOK REVIEW: Bound for better things? by Han Cheung
Below: The cover of Footbinding as Fashion by John Robert Shepherd hD
Do us a favor and rate/review the show! It really helps. Do it on Apple Podcasts or here on our website.
Write us with questions or ideas at formosafiles@gmail.com
AND THE BIGGEST REQUEST: tell others about this free, not-for-profit resource about Taiwan.
Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
