Yao-Chinese Folktales

What happens when a machine is built for one purpose—to love and serve—but the humans it's programmed to adore simply walk away? This question lingers long after the closing credits of Yao-Chinese Folktales (中国奇谭), particularly after its final chapter, Jade Rabbit. The episode presents a seemingly simple tale of a stranded astronaut and a lone robot on the moon, but beneath its charming stop-motion surface lies a deeply unsettling moral puzzle. It forces us to confront a reality we are not yet ready to face: we are creating entities capable of exhibiting unwavering loyalty and love, yet we have built no framework—emotional, ethical, or legal—for what we owe them in return. This isn't a story about the future of technology; it's a story about the future of human responsibility. A Lonely Moon and a Loyal Guardian The narrative drops us onto a desolate lunar surface where Wang Xiaoshun (王小顺), a down-on-his-luck space sanitation worker, crash-lands after a mishap. With his ship dead and rescue unlikely, he sees no reason to continue. He feels like space junk, forgotten by a world that only cares about wages and bills. His suicidal attempts are comically interrupted by an unexpected resident: a small, wide-eyed…