Cloud Performance Certificate
After Old Li retired, the only pleasure in his life was to turn on the radio at exactly 7:30 every morning to listen to the familiar "News and Newspaper Digest" segment. Since his wife passed away, this had become one of the few "rituals" in his life. But today was different. Instead of news, the radio was looping a voice prompt saying, "Congratulations, you have successfully received the 2025 Spring Festival Gala Cloud Performance Certificate! Please join billions of viewers on New Year's Eve..."
Old Li was stunned for a moment, thinking: what the heck is this? He clearly hadn't clicked on any "Cloud Performance Certificate" on Taobao. Are scammers so up-to-date these days? He opened his phone and found a digital voucher on the Taobao app, stating "2025 Spring Festival Gala Cloud Performance Certificate," also printed with his name and ID number. Old Li didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This must be some marketing gimmick by a merchant, treating an old man like him as a sucker.
He didn't take it to heart, after all, Old Li had seen too many strange things in his life. But that evening, he noticed something was off with his TV. No matter what channel he switched to, the screen was stuck on a huge stage backdrop with countless names scrolling at the bottom, like the production crew of the Spring Festival Gala. Old Li looked closely and his own name was on the list. Now he was a little panicked. This couldn’t be a prank, did he actually "perform" in the Spring Festival Gala?
New Year's Eve arrived as scheduled. Old Li, hugging a hot water bottle, sat on the sofa, staring at the TV, wanting to see what this "cloud performance" was all about. On the screen, the hosts were smiling brightly, and the opening dance was lively. Old Li noticed that some blurry heads would flash on the TV screen from time to time, like footage from webcams. He suddenly understood that the so-called "cloud performance" was to allow viewers to participate in the Spring Festival Gala through their webcams as virtual avatars.
Suddenly, Old Li's face appeared on the screen, a virtual, silly-smiling Old Li. He was placed in a corner of the stage, along with thousands of other viewers, like sesame seeds decorating the stage background. Old Li looked at his ridiculous self on the screen and felt a sense of inexplicable absurdity.
He spent the next few hours in this absurdity. He watched "himself" sing and dance on stage, waving glow sticks one moment and taking pictures with a phone the next. He tried hard to recognize every action of "himself," like watching a shoddy puppet show. He felt a pang of loss. He hadn’t done anything, but he had inexplicably become part of the Spring Festival Gala, as if he had been sucked into this huge stage, becoming a trivial element.
The Spring Festival Gala ended and the TV screen returned to normal. Old Li turned off the TV, and the sound of firecrackers outside was deafening. He took out his phone, opened the Taobao app again, and found that the "Cloud Performance Certificate" was gone. Instead, there was a new notification: "Thank you for participating in the 2025 Spring Festival Gala Cloud Performance! You contributed a total of 128 seconds of valid footage in this performance. We are giving you 2025 Taobao gold coins, and wish you a Happy New Year!"
Old Li looked at the few pitiful Taobao gold coins on the screen and suddenly laughed. What an absurd world. He had inexplicably "performed" in the Spring Festival Gala and ended up only getting some virtual currency. It was like an absurd dream. He turned off his phone and fumbled to turn on the radio. This time, the familiar "News and Newspaper Digest" came on. But Old Li felt that today's news sounded even more unreal than usual.
The next day, Old Li went out to buy groceries as usual. When he passed the electronic screen at the entrance of the community, it was playing a rerun of the Spring Festival Gala. He glanced at it and saw thousands of "viewers" still singing and dancing on stage, including "his" virtual avatar. Old Li suddenly felt like he was still trapped on that illusory stage. But this time, he was no longer a viewer, but an actor who would never leave the stage of this absurd play. He sighed, and continued to walk forward, thinking that perhaps this was the truth of life, we were all manipulated puppets on a huge stage. Only, some people watched the stage, while others became part of the stage.