Gao Zeng or Gt or the being?

‘They are everywhere.’

I shook my head, ‘You see, it has to be everyone being a secret agent in order to make them everywhere. Not everyone is interested in spying on others.’

‘There was a time when most of the people spy on others, even within the family.’

I stared at him, ‘You have that experience?’

‘No. But my ancestors did.’ Lu looked around, ‘I guess you’re the man.’

This again frustrated me. ‘I am? Who is me then.’

‘Gao Zeng, alias Gt, the one who wrote, or is still writing about the lotus robot.’

Curious as I am, I asked cautiously, ‘Where do you know about my book, from the website or the blog?’

Lu’s answer stunned me, ‘From someone who will come back to me from the future, and he had.’ He paused, trying to make me believe, ‘I was visited by this being, I don’t know whether it’s a he or she, and then I was told about the possibility of an infant robot.’

‘Wait,’ I waved him to stop, ‘this is my plot. How come you know it?’

Lu seemed angered, 'I just told you about the sixth mascot and you said that's your plot...'

Then it suddenly dawned to him, and he tried to verify something, 'you know that being?'

I tried to figure out the causal relationship before answering.

That’s part of my conversation with this man Lu.

The reason I cited them is because I want to tell the world about this strange incident. It is about a mascot prepared for this year’s Olympic Games by a rural craftsman. It is intended as a surprise, a robot made in China, among the first of its kind.

Chinese had had the mechanical know-how to drive wooden ox and horse long before the West did the alike. Those were Lu’s words.

‘I started this because I like robotics. It can be traced far back into more than a millennium ago. Westerners don’t know it because they’re so absorbed in themselves. Japanese robotics leads the world. It represents a major trend in the science. And remember, Japanese culture originates from China, the old Cathay. So why should anyone be surprised if a Chinese like me makes an archetype of the robot mascot?’

Before I could say anything, Lu whispered, ‘The earthquake on 12 May let me have a little more time, as the secret agents seemed absent these days.’

‘Secret agents?’ I asked.

rural robotics

Lu nodded, ‘You got it.’ Upon my suspicious tone, he said, ‘Of course you don’t mean to believe it. The fact is, I got inspiration from the underworld. Somehow they told me how to use the pressure of silicon layers to form necessary metals.’

I was bewildered. ‘You mean like coal or petroleum?’

Lu agreed.

‘Who told you that, underworld scientist?’

‘I don’t suppose you can accept it. Me neither, at first. But then I find it feasible. I don’t need to have the exact know-how, just make it, placing the ore into the layers. It’s like...’ Lu pondered for a while before going on, ‘you don’t need to do all the computer programming to make a robot move. You can just have the joints, the hand and a driving force to throw out a javelin.’

‘Like insects.’

‘Yeah.’ Lu smiled.

‘You know, that’s a major trend in developing robotics.’

‘That’s why I’m using this easier and efficient way to make robots.’

‘Can you finish it? There are only around forty days before the Olympics.’

‘Forty-one days, actually. I’m trying my best.’

a craftsman making a mascot

‘Excuse me, what’s your name?’ I changed the subject and asked.

‘Call me Lu,’ The man paused, ‘I come from Lu Xiang, you know, the pace where Lu Ban lived.’

‘And Lu Ban is...’

Lu stared at me, somehow not used to a response of not knowing who Lu Ban was,‘The patron of craftsmanship.’

‘Oh, Master Lu.’ I recalled. ‘What’s the color of this would-be sixth mascot? ’

‘Brown, the color of earth.’

‘Isn’t there already a mascot in more or less the same color?’

‘Orange, that is. Mine is brown.’

‘Brown because it’s from clay or underground?’ I tried to resume a disconnected topic.

Earthquake and mascot

'Yeah, the mascots are selling.'

Lu changed his tone, ‘The price of the mascots is hot, soaring day by day. I feel heartache. On this side, the earthquake in Sichuan Province, on the other side, the businessman grabs profits.’

‘They may donate money from their profit to the Sichuan...’

‘Do you really believe it? Here, in the mainland?’ He said with distrust.

‘Talking about trust, do you want me or others to believe in what you’ve said, that we have an extra mascot robot for the coming historic Olympics?’

‘Yeah,’ he nodded, ‘normally you don’t. But if even earthquake pops out from nowhere, then why shouldn’t you believe in my sixth mascot? ’ And he continued with a secretive tone, ‘To tell the truth, the quake has opened some passage below the ground, and let the Underworld comes up.’

China makes robot...

The man asked, 'You don't believe it, do you?'

I made a gesture.

He paused and continued, 'Not the kind of robots seen in Japan, say, android, but a kind of natural... evolution. That by having a body proper, no matter it's a clay doll or metal shell, it works. Do you understand what I mean?'

I shook my head, 'No, I don't. Do you mean a doll made from clay and sand can be a robot, that can move?' I showed disbelief.

'Yeah, a clay doll, that's what I'm making.'

'A mascot of clay doll?'

He was delighted, 'Why not?'

the mascot is a robot?

'It isn’t allowed? What about earthquake? It isn’t, but however it quaked!'

I looked at the man. He was in short temper and seemed so emotional that he was at a loss of what to do. After a while he continued, 'It's the robotics industry that counts.'

'Wait, what do you mean by robotics? What does that to do with the would-be sixth mascot?'

'Because the mascot would be a robot.'

'You mean like a robot that looks like human, that can move?'

'Should be.' The man replied, but with hesitation.

'Should be? I don't think we have that kind of technology...'

the would-be sixth mascot of 2008 Olympic Games

I was visited by a mysterious man the other evening. He asked for something to drink, and started talking.

What caught my attention was that he mentioned about the sixth mascot of the Beijing Olympics in the coming August. It wasn't ready yet, but soon it would be.

'Is it a joke or hoax?'

'Not a joke.' The man shook his head seriously.

'Is that legal?' I asked. 'No one makes a mascot for the Games except the Chinese Government.'

He stared at me. 'You're like the others. Why can't we have a mascot not from the government?'

The question in me remains whether it is legal.