We’re all obsessed with Chinese martial arts novels, but the latest obsession sweeping the Chinese internet is shocking in a different way. There’s no scriptwriter, no production budget, no studio green light. All you need is an AI, a salted duck roast, a title called “Save the Fox,” and an online social gathering that determines the end of the story.
It all started as a standard riff on Wuxia Romance. A scholar saves a fox during a blizzard, and she repays him with love. It’s a classic metaphor. But then the internet asked a very important question. What happened to the duck he left behind in the snow? The duck he forgot about. The duck was waiting. That roast duck that has been frozen all winter has gained sentience and is now hungry for blood.
This absurd, slapstick, dramatic premise quickly turned into a container, an empty vessel into which the internet poured itself. All the objects that scholars abandoned ended up in the next episode. Do you want to leave a bomb behind? Bombs have an abandonment problem. The ice mountain itself? It will be a revenge episode. There are currently over 50 versions, each with their own quirky flair and flavor, and powered entirely by AI video generation.
Culturally, this is interesting. The same thing happens when the AI hands the pen back to the crowd. It democratizes storytelling, turning a single, ridiculous prompt into a collaborative, decentralized cinematic universe. It’s funny, totally off-kilter, and the perfect snapshot of Gen Z’s chaotic digital humor.
But this deluge of AI videos also has a dark side. While the internet is busy laughing at bloodthirsty ducks, we’re ignoring the enormous environmental impact of entertainment. AI video generation is known to be resource-intensive. Training and running these models requires enormous amounts of power and water to cool the data center. The carbon footprint of producing 50+ high-resolution jokes isn’t exactly healthy for the planet.
As we navigate this new era of online collective creativity, we must ask ourselves: At what point does internet gold become environmental waste? The salt duck may want revenge, but the real victim of this AI obsession may be the environment. If you haven’t already, check out the video explaining the above courtesy of the one and only Alex Gostick below.
Cover image via AsiaOne.
