Heritage of Middle Kingdom, UNESCO, Contemporary Chinese Culture: News & Images

[ahojunk]

Chinese President stresses family virtues
(Xinhua) 08:29, December 13, 2016

Top Communist Party of China (CPC) and state leaders Xi Jinpingand Liu Yunshanmeet with attendees at a conference to honor model families across the nation in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)​

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called for efforts to enhance virtue and civility in Chinese families and make them "an important foundation" for national development, progress and social harmony.

People from all walks of life should work for "a new trend toward socialist family values" featuring love for the nation, family and one another, devotion to progress and kindness, and mutual growth and sharing, said Xi when meeting with attendees at a Beijing conference to honor model families across the nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the Chinese nation has always valued the family.

"Traditional family values have been engraved on the minds and melted into the blood of the Chinese people," Xi said.

Describing them as important spiritual power supporting the Chinese nation, Xi said virtue is a precious treasure for promotion of family harmony.

Xi hoped that families would value education and their own familial culture.

Calling families as "cells of society," Xi went on, "a prosperous, strong nation, the great national rejuvenation and the happiness of the people are embodied by the happiness of tens of thousands of families and the better life of hundreds of millions of people."

Only by realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation can the dreams of families come true, Xi added, calling on households, more than 400 million of them, to integrate their love for the family with their love for the nation.

Xi said though family education had many aspects, the most important was in character building, stressing sound moral values should be passed down to children from an early age.

Efforts should be made to "guide children to develop the trait of integrity, help them cultivate beautiful minds and ensure their healthy growth, so that they can be useful to the nation and the people," Xi said.

He called on households to nurture and practise socialist core values, encouraging family members, especially the younger generation to love the Party, the motherland, the people and the Chinese nation.

"Family is not only the dwelling of people's body, but also the home of people's hearts," Xi said.

A family may thrive with a good culture while a bad culture may bring trouble to themselves and to society, Xi said.

He called on all Chinese families to promote fine family culture and sustain the good social ethos.

The president called on leading officials to take the lead in maintaining the family virtues and learning from role models such as Jiao Yulu, Gu Wenchang and Yang Shanzhou.

Leading officials and cadres at all levels should teach their children and families to be law-abiding, frugal and self-reliant, Xi said.

He urged CPC and governmental organizations to cultivate good culture among families and help families in difficulties.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also met with the participants and attended the conference.

Liu at the conference stressed the important role of family culture in the country's development, national progress and social harmony, calling for promotion of socialist core values and the understanding of Chinese dream.

Monday's conference was the first of its kind to honor model families selected nationwide. A total of 300 model families won this honor in a selection that highlights patriotism, observation of law, ethics, harmony, honesty, professional spirit, thrift and commitment to public welfare.

Vice Premier Liu Yandong read the decision to honor these model families at the conference. Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the event.

Liu Yunshan (L), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presents the award to a representative at a conference to honor model families across the nation in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

 

[JSCh]

Temple helps go-getters with warm hearts
By Yang Jian | December 13, 2016, Tuesday

A Buddhist temple has become a major sponsor for local young entrepreneurs setting up startups.

The city’s Jade Buddha Temple yesterday announced it had sponsored local university graduates to set up 108 startup enterprises via an 8-million yuan (US$1.2 million) sponsorship since 2009.

Among those helped was the local online food delivery firm Ele.me, which has since expanded its services to some 1,000 Chinese cities.

“I received a 100,000-yuan sponsorship from the temple in 2009 when my 2-year-old company was about to go bankrupt. The sponsorship later became my ‘lucky money’,” said Zhang Xuhao, chief executive and founder of Ele.me.

Among other startups sponsored by the temple, 73 percent have managed to survive for more than three years, while over a third have made annual profits of at least 50 million yuan, said Shi Huijue, a senior monk in charge of the sponsorship. He said the percentage points were higher than other city startup foundations.

“The main reason is that we not only examine the quality of the startup projects, but also take the young entrepreneurs’ personality into account when deciding whether to sponsor,” Shi said.

He added entrepreneurs who had good personal qualities, credibility and warm hearts were more likely to succeed.

The temple yesterday signed a contract with Jiao Tong University to invite professors from the university to offer assistance and advice to startups.

Jade Buddha also launched a startup league with the university’s School of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Antai College Economics-Management to study the successful startup cases and share the experiences with new entrepreneurs to be sponsored by the temple.

The temple, home to two jade Buddhas, donated 10 million yuan to set up the Juequn University Entrepreneurship Foundation in 2009 to support local graduates, especially those from poor families, to set up startup companies.

Ele.me’s Zhang yesterday announced a 500,000 yuan donation to the foundation as a payback for the key assistance his company had received from the temple.

 

[ahojunk]

Museum displays ancient artifacts unearthed in region of Luoyang
2016-12-20 10:30 | Xinhua | Editor:Li Yan

In just one region of Luoyang, there are so many ancient cultural relics. The Museum displays artifacts found in 25 ancient tombs unearthed in the region of Luoyang.

Ancient artifacts displayed at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province, Dec. 18, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

Dec. 18, 2016. A relocated and restored tomb at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Wall paintings of a tomb at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province, Dec. 18, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

Combo photo taken on Dec. 18, 2016 shows the replicas of funerary objects found in a tomb of Tang Dynasty (618-907) at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Dec. 18, 2016 shows the interior of a relocated and restored tomb at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Dec. 18, 2016 shows the interior of a relocated and restored tomb of Song Dynasty (960-1276) at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Tourists visit the tomb of Emperor Xuanwu of Northern Wei (483-515) at the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art, in Mangshan Township of Luoyang City, Henan Province, Dec. 18, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)


********

This museum looks like a very good place to visit.
.

 

[JSCh]

Palace Museum annex to be built in Hong Kong
(Xinhua) 13:53, December 24, 2016

BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A branch of Beijing's Palace Museum, generally known as the Forbidden City will open in Hong Kong in 2022, to give residents and tourists opportunity to view some of China's most treasured artifacts.

The Palace Museum and Hong Kong authorities signed a memorandum of cooperation on the Hong Kong Palace Museum in Beijing on Friday.

To be built on an area of 10,000 square meters in West Kowloon Cultural District, the museum will have permanent exhibitions on the culture and history of the Palace Museum and imperial life.

 

[ahojunk]

Traditional hutong style to be restored
2016-12-22 08:52 | China Daily | Editor: Feng Shuang

Restoration work is underway in Beijing's Nanluoguxiang earlier this month.
(Photo by Sun Yue/For China Daily)


Beijing will restore 1,500 hutong－narrow alleyways－to their traditional style over the next four years, the city management commission announced on Wednesday.

Luo Hongyi, head of the city government's environmental construction planning division, said illegal stores built in hutong inside the Second Ring Road will be removed, as unapproved constructions have had a negative influence on the city's traditional style.

"We aim to restore the traditional feel of hutong by 2020," he said.

Over the past decade, many people have demolished walls of siheyuan－traditional courtyard residences－to build facades for barber shops, restaurants or stores, Luo said, adding that they often occupy narrow hutong, causing safety and sanitary concerns.

Hutong and siheyuan are considered tourist attractions for those interested in traditional Beijing culture. However, officials said tearing down walls without approval has been commonplace.

"We found more than 500 examples of such development in Dongsi subdistrict, which is about the size of the Forbidden City," said Ruan Jun, an official with Dongcheng district's city management division. "About 140 have been sealed since early August and restoration is underway."

Luo added that "there are at least 20 sub-districts within the Second Ring Road, and historians have been consulted to ascertain the target outlook of restoration work".

This is one key measure Beijing is taking to promote conservation and restoration of traditional architecture in the historical heart of the city. Other approaches include relocating electricity cables underground, as well as employing property management companies, according to Wu Yamei, deputy director of the city's environment construction office.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, the number of shops in Nanluoguxiang－an 800-meter-long hutong and tourist attraction known for its food and souvenir shops－has been cut by one-third to 154.

A detailed guidance on standards, including layout, height, outlook and material, has been released to regulate the architectural style of the area.

 

[ahojunk]

China earliest country to make textile from silk fiber: scientists
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 17:02, December 26, 2016

Chinese nationals may have been the earliest people to make textile from silk fiber, according to a recent report in international academic journal Plos One. The report was created by scholars from the University of Science and Technology of China.

Scientists inspected silk fibroin through soil samples collected from three tombs at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan province. Rough weaving tools and bone needles were also excavated from the site, indicating that Jiahu residents from 8,500 years ago may have possessed basic weaving and sewing skills necessary for producing textiles.

Although previous studies have provided evidence of the early emergence of weaving, there has long been a lack of direct evidence proving the existence of silk. According to the report, this new finding may advance the study of early silk production, as well as civilization during the Neolithic Age, by nearly 4,000 years.

 

[JSCh]

Harmony rules among religious in Shangri-La
Source: Xinhua | December 27, 2016, Tuesday

ZHANG Yongzheng and his wife He Axiang used to pray to different deities.​

Zhang, a Tibetan ethnic, would go to a Catholic church near their home in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, while his wife, from the Naxi ethnic group, would go to a Buddhist lamasery.

“We believed in what we believed,” Zhang said. “Many of our neighbors are like us, family members believing in different religions.”

Zhang, 54, runs an inn and grows grapes in Cizhong Village in the hilly plateau of the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Deqen in Yunnan.

Some guidebooks call Deqen a “fairytale wonderland” and many locals believe the Shangri-La described by British novelist James Hilton in his “Lost Horizon” is Deqen.

And in 2002, Zhongdian County in Deqen was authorized by the State Council to rename itself Shangri-La.

What makes Cizhong different is the Catholic church built by a French missionary 150 years ago. Today, most villagers describe themselves as Catholics, while others stick to Tibetan Buddhism.

The signs of peaceful religious and ethnic coexistence are also obvious in the town of Shengping, where a mosque’s green dome rises beside a white Buddhist pagoda.

Dozens of steps away from the mosque lies the home of Li Zhongyi, 63, whose two-story house tells of cultural blending. On the first floor are two living rooms decorated with different religious symbols. One in the Tibetan style has an incense burner, a butter lamp and a statue of the Buddha for his 90-year-old mother Drolma Lhatse, devout Buddhist and lifelong Deqen resident. She would chant sutra, burn incense and serve the living Buddha. The Hui-style room has Arabic tapestries where Li entertains his Muslim friends.

“We have different beliefs in our family,” Li said. “We tolerate and respect each other as part of our daily lives.”

Atheist Li has been a member of the Communist Party for 31 years. His eldest daughter and son-in-law are also Party members. His brothers and sisters are Muslims.

Such diverse faiths under the same roof are mainly due to the cosmopolitanism tradition and what Li described as “complex” ethnic composition of the family.

Li’s ancestors had a Han bloodline. His mother and wife are Tibetans, his brothers and sisters Hui, his brothers-in-law Han, Yi and Bai.

In Deqen, the 400,000 population is made up of 26 ethnic groups — a third Tibetan, a quarter Lisu ethnic, a fifth Han, a 10th Naxi, and the rest Yi, Hui, Bai, Miao and others.

Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam have a combined 141,000 followers in the hilly prefecture.

“In Deqen, all ethnic groups are united and religions are in peace and harmony,” said Xiao Wu, head of the local Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.

The prefecture has never experienced major problems between religions. Staff of different religions learn from one another and the local government treats them equally, Xiao said.

When they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in 1998, Zhang and He agreed to just one religion. She became a Catholic.

To avoid being buried separately, many couples in Cizhong convert before the time comes.

 

[TaiShang]

Online Literature Spearheads China’s Cultural Industry

China Today by VERENA MENZEL, December 23, 2016

MEDIA, no matter print or broadcasting, television or the Internet, are more by far than just simple carriers of content, or transmitters of information. Each, through their medial preconditions, shapes during the creative process the content that they transmit.

The first online microficiton blockbuster.

This is especially true of the Internet – this dominant communications medium of the 21st century. China presents a compelling example of changes in classical content patterns that are attributable to the rise of the World Wide Web.

New Market Segment

The Internet has in recent years turned the classical literature industry as we know it in the West on its head. Since the turn of the millennium, a new form of literary writing has been hugely successful throughout China – that of online or web literature.

The popularity of smart phones spurs online reading and interaction between writers and readers.

The scope of web literature, however, is far broader than that created in the traditional manner and republished digitally on the net. Online literature also encompasses works composed specifically for this new medium. They are not only first published on the web, but also molded by the particular features of their target medium, for example, its immediacy and fast pace, low entrance threshold, detachment from the limitations of hard materials such as paper, and most especially its strong interactivity.

The result is an array of brand new concepts of literary writing, from digital poetry, literary weblogs and “micro fiction” to so-called collaborative writing. Most of these new genres are strongly influenced by the direct interaction between author and reader that the Internet provides – one utterly unforeseen in the realm of traditional books.

Results of a study by Chinese online portal sootoo.com in the first quarter of 2015 showed that around 350 million people in China regularly read online literature. Three years earlier, in 2012, the figure was around 233 million.

In the same study, 85 percent of respondents stated that they preferred and so generally read digital rather than printed publications. Furthermore, the average time spent on reading books or long articles on mobile devices by those citing reading as their favorite pastime amounted to 84.6 minutes a day. Reading, therefore, easily topped other mobile pastimes such as listening to music (an average 72.6 minutes per day), browsing social media (66.1 minutes), playing online games (54.6 minutes) or watching online videos (45.8 minutes).

Between 2012 and 2015, the market volume of the new web literature sector expanded from RMB 2.7 billion (€ 364 billion) to RMB 7 billion (€ 943 billion). Online literature has hence become a promising sector of China’s cultural industry.

Against that backdrop, it is no surprise that Chinese Internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent have in recent years invested generously in this nascent but growing market segment. Such outlays include the contracting of web authors whose works are published on their reading web portals.

Tencent, for example, which amongst other things runs China’s most successful messenger service QQ and the popular social media app WeChat, embarked in early 2015 on large-scale cooperation with Cloudary, the online publishing house belonging to the Chinese Shanda Group.

Since its establishment in 2008, Cloudary has established five hugely successful online literature websites that provide more than six million online publications, and signed contracts with more than 1.6 million authors. Within just a few years, Cloudary has become the country’s biggest provider of web literature. Tencent’s cooperation with the Shanda Group underlines the great importance that China’s big IT companies place on the rising online literature industry.

Why China?

But what makes web literature so successful in China, while in many Western countries it tends to be a niche sector? Why is this new form of literature so appealing to both readers and entrepreneurs?

Answering these questions calls for a closer look at the development of China’s literary industry since the onset of reform and opening-up. In the past, literary journals traditionally constituted the main driving force of China’s literary world as well as the most important literary mainstream medium. Readers loved these journals, and they often acted as stepping stones for promising new writers.

However, after implementation in the late 1970s of the reform and opening-up policy and the growing market-orientation and niche formation it engendered, China’s literary journals gradually lost their function as a mainstream medium.

The Internet started to fill this gap at the end of the 1990s. Owing to its low entrance threshold and thanks to the fresh possibilities for expression it offered, the web became a new creative playground for young and as yet unknown authors, as well as for an army of amateur writers.

Han Han, one of the first popular web authors.

In 1997, the first Chinese online literature web portal Rongshuxia.com, which literally means “Under the banyan tree,” appeared. Users of this new website both submitted their own literary works and read those of others, for free. In just a few years, many young writing talents thus matured “under the banyan tree,” among them such famous names as Han Han, Ning Caishen, Jin Hezai, and Murong Xuecun.

Since then, the online literature market has experienced a golden age of development. The first years of self-discovery and willingness to experiment, however, were gradually superseded by growing commercialization and the establishment of online publishing houses.

However, this development has not spoiled readers’ enthusiasm for the new genre. Statistics from China’s biggest Internet industry website sootoo.com show that online novels score the highest points among young, urban readers living in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, 85 percent of whom have yet to celebrate their 40th birthdays. Most new web authors are also part of the emerging Chinese middle class born in the 1970s or later.

Writer-reader Interaction

What makes new online works so special is their optimum use of new media interactivity. It is arguably this feature that makes these books so appealing. Readers and writers can enter into a more or less direct dialogue on the Internet via both comments that the audience posts directly below such publications and during the actual creative process as well.

Inspired by the new possibilities this medium offers, genuinely new literary genres have appeared, such as collaborative writing, where several authors write a single novel or story, or it is completed through the participation of netizens themselves.

Another example of these literary forms is that of so-called micro fiction. In opposition to the sheer infinity of virtual space, authors of this genre impose on themselves strict limitations as regards length. Similar to tweets on the social network Twitter, the literary content of these literary micro-bites is condensed to a maximum 140 Chinese characters, equivalent to a few short sentences.

One author who has won micro fiction fame is Chen Peng. In 2010 he published his micro-series “Life of eilikochen,” a lyrical collage of written daily life snapshots. It was a huge hit in China’s online society.

However, the most common Chinese web literature remains that in the traditional narrative forms of novels or short stories. They feature such genres as crime fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. But ancient narratives set in the imperial court and offices, student stories, time travelling tales, as well as tomb raider adventures, also enjoy great popularity among the young Chinese readership.

Their narrative content is often published chapter by chapter, or as a series, so formally reflecting the specific features of the digital reading process characterized by a comparatively short attention span.

Mature Production Chain

Perhaps most important, this formal adjustment to the target medium at the same time creates an ideal link for commercial remarketing of literary content through other media channels. It is this potential for remarketing that could account for the great success of Chinese online literature. It might also explain why this particular segment of the cultural industry segment does so well in China.

Whichever author achieves a breakthrough on the Internet in China stands a good chance of finding their way into the traditional print market. A typical success story starts with Internet-hype, transforms into a re-publishing of the story in book form, and ends in adaptation of the content into a script for a movie or TV series, or as a basis for manga, comics, or computer games.

Thus, over the past years, a mature production chain has been spun into China’s web literature, and the cycle from online breakthrough to remarketing in other media has become shorter.

Here China differs somewhat from industrialized nations like Europe and the United States, as well as its Asian neighbors Japan and South Korea, where specific pop culture production mechanisms for all types of media were fully developed well in advance of the Internet era.

In these countries, genre novels have for many years been successfully remarketed as movie or television adaptations, and remodeled into cartoon or manga books. But in China these economical mechanisms did not emerge until much later.

Whereas most marketing structures remained stable in the Western industrialized nations after the Internet arrived on the scene, albeit with certain small adaptations, in China these mechanisms were relatively underdeveloped upon the advent of the World Wide Web. They therefore seemed more amenable to adaptation.

China’s first web literature portal.

In China, the success of the Internet suddenly opened up a whole new space, which young amateur and professional writers put to maximum use. As a consequence, new emerging Chinese writing portals could absorb many resources formerly controlled by the traditional literary industry. In the fully developed literature markets of many Western countries, however, these resources stayed in the hands of big, long-established publishing houses.

Over the last years, new cultural players in the literature market have managed not only to build a huge fan base but also to attract cash from the anime, cartoon, and games sector (ACG sector). According to sootoo.com statistics, the vast majority of Chinese web literature fans are male (76 percent). Furthermore, most share a taste for ACG culture as well as Anglo-American or Japanese-Korean TV series. This also plays into the hands of web portals and authors of online literature as regards further marketing of successful online works.

Writers’ Rich List

Today, some of the more successful web authors earn millions of yuan. China’s most commercially successful Internet author in 2015 was Tangjia Sanshao, as executive vice president of the Publishing Association of China Wu Shulin stated at the international conference “Story Drive,” organized by the Frankfurt Book Fair in China’s capital Beijing.

According to Wu, Tangjia Sanshao pocketed around RMB 110 million (US $16.5 million) last year from his online literature. Five other web writers received revenues of more than RMB 50 million, and more than 160 authors earned a yearly salary in excess of RMB one million.

But such success stories remain exceptions. “There are millions of authors on the web today,” Wu said. “Only a few make the breakthrough.” Among the reasons why is undoubtedly that characteristic features of the Internet, namely, its low threshold, prompt, non-bureaucratic distribution channels, potential to reach an immensely wide readership, and independence from traditional printed media boundaries, are both a blessing and a curse.

“There are still big discrepancies in quality,” Wu said. Critics hold that there is a high level of commercialization, and even pieces which, upon taking a closer look, turn out to be nothing more than clever advertisements.

Moreover, some experts bewail the absence of an advanced system of literary criticism for the online genre. So far, the tastes of the masses set the tone. “Some of the contents glorify violence or are questionable in other ways,” Wu said.

Another problem yet to be solved is that of intellectual property. “In the end, the function of traditional publishing houses as guarantors of quality remains indispensable,” remarked Jürgen Boos, president of Frankfurt Book Fair, on the margins of the “Story Drive 2016.” He added: “This also applies to the Chinese market.”

However, it is an indisputable fact that, since appearing at the end of the 1990s, China’s online literature has grown from a small niche genre not taken seriously for some considerable time into a promising and influential new sector of the country’s cultural industry. One reason for the success of China’s web literature is undoubtedly its potential for adaptation into movies and television series, or re-marketing in printed form.

Consequently, China’s web literature has long since hit the mainstream of the country’s Internet-centered readership. The future development of literary quality will finally depend on the qualitative demands of the targeted audience.

However, there seems little doubt that the online literature boom has created an exciting new field of experimentation, nurtured by ideas from those of China’s authors and readers who were born in the 1970s and after. This artistic playing field will likely act as inspiration for China’s cultural industry as a whole, and could also stimulate development of the cultural industry in the West.

 

[ahojunk]

People.cn holds hiking events in 40 cities in honor of New Year
(People's Daily Online) 09:39, December 31, 2016

On the last day of 2016 and first day of 2017, group hiking events are being carried out in more than 40 cities around China, in celebration of the start of 2017 and in honor of the 20th anniversary of the People's Daily Onine (People.cn). About 100,000 people have signed up for the events. Read more about the event

People.cn was officially established on Jan. 1, 1997.

Aimed at promoting the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint, as well as the State Council's plan to develop China's fitness industry, the events will support a favorable environment for national fitness and encourage people to do more sports.


3:35pm, Dec 31, Southwest China’s Yunnan

Students from Yunnan Minzu University in Kunming city of Southwest China’s Yunnan puts on their ethnic costumes while attending a hiking event to mark the new year and also 20th anniversary of People's Daily Online, Saturday. They will finish a five-kilometer tour through the city of Kunming.


2:00pm, Dec 31，Ningxia of Northwest China

About 1,000 people from Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, took part in a hiking event to mark the New Year and in honor of the 20th anniversary of People's Daily Online at 8am on Saturday, Dec. 31. The photograph shows a participant signing her name on a billboard.


11:35am, Dec 31，Hainan of South China

About 9,000 residents in south China's island province of Hainan took part in a hiking event to mark the New Year and in honor of the 20th anniversary of People's Daily Online at 8am on Saturday, Dec. 31.

Participants are wearing T-shirts with company logo.

On the last day of 2016 and first day of 2017, group hiking events will be simultaneously carried out in more than 40 cities around China, in celebration of the start of 2017 and in honor of the 20th anniversary of the People's Daily Onine (People.cn). About 100,000 people have signed up for the events. More about the event


10:05am, Dec 31, Guangxi of South China

Participants in Luchuan, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Saturday.


9:00am, Dec 31, Guizhou

Participants in Southwest China's Guizhou province.



*********

Interesting way to celebrate New Year Eve and welcome the New Year.
In other countries, it's drinking, drinking and more drinking.

.

 

[Place Of Space]

Very interesting.

 

[ahojunk]

Century-old Dashijie back in business after 13-year revamp
2016-12-29 09:10 | Ecns.cn | Editor:Yao Lan

Cultural heritage skills, Chinese opera and traditional food are presented to invited residents at the century-old Shanghai Dashijie amusement center that reopens for a trial operation on December 28, 2016. The building, also known as the Great World Amusement Center, has now become an exhibition center for China’s “intangible cultural heritages.” The Dashijie entertainment center was built in 1917. It closed in 2003. The building is now able to receive a maximum 3,300 visitors simultaneously once reopened to the public. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Hengwei)

Cultural heritage skills, Chinese opera and traditional food are presented to invited residents at the century-old Shanghai Dashijie amusement center that reopens for a trial operation on December 28, 2016. The building, also known as the Great World Amusement Center, has now become an exhibition center for China’s “intangible cultural heritages.” The Dashijie entertainment center was built in 1917. It closed in 2003. The building is now able to receive a maximum 3,300 visitors simultaneously once reopened to the public. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Hengwei)

Cultural heritage skills, Chinese opera and traditional food are presented to invited residents at the century-old Shanghai Dashijie amusement center that reopens for a trial operation on December 28, 2016. The building, also known as the Great World Amusement Center, has now become an exhibition center for China’s “intangible cultural heritages.” The Dashijie entertainment center was built in 1917. It closed in 2003. The building is now able to receive a maximum 3,300 visitors simultaneously once reopened to the public. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Hengwei)

Cultural heritage skills, Chinese opera and traditional food are presented to invited residents at the century-old Shanghai Dashijie amusement center that reopens for a trial operation on December 28, 2016. The building, also known as the Great World Amusement Center, has now become an exhibition center for China’s “intangible cultural heritages.” The Dashijie entertainment center was built in 1917. It closed in 2003. The building is now able to receive a maximum 3,300 visitors simultaneously once reopened to the public. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Hengwei)

 

[TaiShang]

Participants are wearing T-shirts with company logo.

Cool t-shirt. Like to get one.

***

Chinese firefighters awe netizens in 2017 Calendar
(China Daily) January 01, 2017




Photos of handsome firefighters posing for the 2017 Chinese Firefighters' Calendar have gone viral, impressing viewers with their supermodel-like bodies and masculine valour. The photo shoot featuring the firefighters' firm eyes and muscular bodies are a testimony to the strength of China's search and rescue forces, providing Chinese people with a stronger sense of security. [Photo from Sina Weibo]



Photos of handsome firefighters posing for the 2017 Chinese Firefighters' Calendar have gone viral, impressing viewers with their supermodel-like bodies and masculine valour. The photo shoot featuring the firefighters' firm eyes and muscular bodies are a testimony to the strength of China's search and rescue forces, providing Chinese people with a stronger sense of security. [Photo from Sina Weibo]



Photos of handsome firefighters posing for the 2017 Chinese Firefighters' Calendar have gone viral, impressing viewers with their supermodel-like bodies and masculine valour. The photo shoot featuring the firefighters' firm eyes and muscular bodies are a testimony to the strength of China's search and rescue forces, providing Chinese people with a stronger sense of security. [Photo from Sina Weibo]



Photos of handsome firefighters posing for the 2017 Chinese Firefighters' Calendar have gone viral, impressing viewers with their supermodel-like bodies and masculine valour. The photo shoot featuring the firefighters' firm eyes and muscular bodies are a testimony to the strength of China's search and rescue forces, providing Chinese people with a stronger sense of security. [Photo from Sina Weibo]



Photos of handsome firefighters posing for the 2017 Chinese Firefighters' Calendar have gone viral, impressing viewers with their supermodel-like bodies and masculine valour. The photo shoot featuring the firefighters' firm eyes and muscular bodies are a testimony to the strength of China's search and rescue forces, providing Chinese people with a stronger sense of security. [Photo from Sina Weibo

 

[ahojunk]

Touchable Monkey King in 3D version of 'Journey to the West'
2016-12-29 16:05 | Xinhua | Editor:Li Yan

3D paper-art book of Chinese literature classic Journey to the West debuted in Beijing on Tuesday. The designers transformed a series of scenes in the novel into exquisite movable paper art after more than 800 steps.

3D paper-art book of Chinese literature classic Journey to the West debuted in Beijing, Dec. 27, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

3D paper-art book of Chinese literature classic Journey to the West debuted in Beijing on Tuesday. The designers transformed a series of scenes in the novel into exquisite movable paper art after more than 800 steps.

3D paper-art book of Chinese literature classic Journey to the West debuted in Beijing, Dec. 27, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

A reader shows the 3D paper-art book of Chinese literature classic Journey to the West at the launch ceremony in Beijing, Dec. 27, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

Ma Dehua (left), who played Zhu Bajie in the 1986 TV adaptation of Journey to the West, attends the launch ceremony of the book in Beijing, Dec. 27, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

 

[onebyone]

Ancient but still shiny: 2,300-year-old sword found in China

File photo: Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) practice with swords as they take part in a winter training at China's border with Russia in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, February 27, 2015. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A video out of China reveals a double-edge sword being pulled from its scabbard, and at a reported 2,300 years old, it is ancient— but in shiny condition.

First found in a tomb in the city of Xinyang, China, the straight bronze sword (a jian) is believed to be a relic of a time known as the Warring States period, which spanned 475-221 B.C. A state called Qin was triumphant.

The video shows blue-gloved researchers pulling the sword slowly from the scabbard and presenting it for the camera.

The sword is not the only discovery to come out of China recently. In Ganzhou, workers discovered— and nearly destroyed with dynamite— a new species of dinosaur dubbed the “Mud Dragon.” Those fossils make the newly-found sword seem like a find from only yesterday, as they date to about 66–72 million years in the past.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017...shiny-2300-year-old-sword-found-in-china.html

 

[CriticalThinker02]

I have read the three kingdom era history of China which replaced the Han dynasty around 200AD, so I think it was the Han dynasty which replaced the Qin well over 2000 years ago, that sword is in prime condition being so old.