1 . When the Uzbek girl Dilsora firstly met what seemed more like a Western-style dragon than a Chinese one, a beast to run away from her rather than a friend to be respected, she was at a loss about it. “Before college, I caught an interview on TV featuring an Uzbek student studying in China, she tweeted. However, I didn’t have the slightest idea that this language would be my future major in college. Then, when I started studying it at college, oh, jeez …pretty challenging! ” Nevertheless, as with a dragon story, there is a twist in the tail, and Dilsora’s despair gave way to nobler principles. “Give up? Nope! Instead, I pressed on with Chinese. ” she added with a giggle, “My mother also encouraged me all the way! ”

Gradually, her feelings toward Chinese changed in the second year of college after Dilsora got a scholarship to study at Northeast Normal University in Changchun for a year, which proved a big turn on the pages of her fulfilling life.

“The first time I came to China, amazingly engaging were the locals, by whom I was totally fascinated. In spite of myself, I fell in love with Chinese culture. ” Since then she has got master's and doctoral degrees, becoming a college teacher in Beijing, teaching Uzbek to Chinese students. In her spare time, being an all-nighter, she often loses herself in Chinese masterpieces. Two years later, on Instagram, she even set up a Chinese Reading Club to attract more to read.

“Although I am ordinary, ” just as she, now the boss of the Reading Club, matter-of-factly put it, “since I’ve come this far, I am to come further. Harvesting the best outcome is my lasting dream. ” Those primary schoolers hearing the tale of Dilsora devoting so much to Chinese learning might be several times more likely to learn Chinese hard than those who didn’t, as Jimu news staff predicted.

Besides, Dilsora has answered another calling: translating books by Chinese president into Uzbek. She said the leader’s foresight has impressed her greatly.

2 . About eight years ago, Li Jinglong and Guan Dian visited the Palace Museum in Beijing. The cloisonne (景泰蓝瓷器) objects on display attracted them in particular. They spent hours looking at those beautiful objects. They just couldn’t take their eyes off them.

Born and raised in Beijing, 35-year-old Li is no stranger to cloisonne, since there were a pair of cloisonne vases in his grandparents’ home. His wife, 34-year-old Guan, who learned to paint as a child and later became a designer after graduating from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, is also familiar with cloisonne, as it appears in her art books. As a result of their visit, the couple made the daring decision to open a workshop.

“We learned cloisonne after seeing the pieces displayed in the Palace Museum. We wanted to turn our hobby into a career, so that people could enjoy and learn to make the craft themselves,” said Li, who worked in a finance company before quitting his job to launch Handcraft Addicted, a DIY workshop where participants can make cloisonne. Since 2018, they have opened three workshops in Beijing. They are happy to give people a glimpse of the traditional techniques of cloisonne as part of a DIY experience.

Instead of focusing on making traditional cloisonne objects , such as plates and vases, the workshop allows participants to create the designs they want on surface of glass, resin (树脂) or wood. Although the process has been simplified, it is still not easy for people trying cloisonne for the first time to succeed. Participants spend months making one piece, which they take home or give friends as presents. It’s a luxury for people to spend time alone and fully focus on one thing nowadays because of the fast pace of life. Participants come to the workshop not only to create art, but also to take a break from their busy lives.

4 . Culture shock is the feeling of losing direction experienced by someone suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture and way of life.     1    . This guide will inform you of the different stages of culture shock, helping you be better mentally prepared.

1. The Honeymoon Stage

The first stage of culture shock is often overwhelmingly positive during which travelers become fascinated with the language, people and food in their new surroundings.     2    . On short trips, the honeymoon phase may take over the entire experience as the later effects of culture shock don’t have time to set in.

2. The Frustration Stage

Frustration may be the most difficult stage of culture shock and is probably familiar to anyone who has lived abroad or who travels frequently. At this stage, the stress of not understanding gestures, signs and the language sets in and miscommunications may be happening frequently. Small things — losing keys, missing the bus or not being able easily order food in a restaurant-may trigger frustration.     3    . These are common phenomenon that people tend to see as natural reactions.

3. The Adjustment Stage

    4    . Navigation becomes easier, friends and communities of support are established and details of local languages may become more recognizable during the adjustment stage. People are comfortable with the cultures, people, food and languages of new environments.

4. The Acceptance Stage

Generally — though sometimes weeks, months or years after wrestling with the emotional stages outlined above — the final stage of culture shock is acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean that new cultures or languages are fully grasped.     5    . During the acceptance stage, travelers have the familiarity and are able to draw together the resources they need to feel at ease.

5 . FOOTLOOSE FUN

The Isle of Wight Walking Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year — and a number of similar events are taking place across the UK as the weather warms up.

BEST FOR ISLANDS

Isle of Wight Walking Festival

This festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024, with an event in spring and another in autumn. Book onto the spring session to see the island’s natural world beginning to stir — guided walks take participants in search of red squirrels, passing through bluebell (风铃草) woods, wading the shallows on a seagrass harvesting project and exploring the steep, splendid scenery of West Wight. 11-19 May.

BEST FOR MOUNTAINS

Arran Mountain Festival

Anyone wishing to dip their toe into Scottish mountaineering should head to the Isle of Arran: not only are its hills said to represent the Highlands in mini size, but it also hosts the Arran Mountain Festival, with a programme of walks for multiple abilities. Head up Goatfell — the island’s highest point (874m) — or cross the A’Chir ridge, with vertical drops below. 17-20 May.

BEST FOR EASY WALKS

Suffolk Walking Festival

If the contours (等高线) of Wales, the English Lakes or the Scottish Highlands seem too hard, head to the more kindly slopes of Suffolk for this walking festival. Close to 60 guided walks explore this famously flat county, ranging from wanders beside the North Sea coast at mysterious Orford Ness to strolls amid the more picturesque landscapes of Dedham Vale. 11-26 May.

6 . Yu Zeling, an award-winning master of paper cutting, fills her studio with cutouts of animals, people, and scenes that are so vivid that they seem to leap from the walls. Her art covers village life in Ansai, a rural district in Shaanxi Province.

Ms. Yu came to paper cutting in the late 1970s as naturally as she breathed the earthy air.“We were very poor, and when it was time to celebrate the New Year, we all put paper-cuts on the windows to decorate our houses,” she says, recalling the holiday at her childhood home. Ms. Yu and others are working to keep the folk art alive, even as it evolves away from its roots as adornment for farmhouses.

The art originated in China in the centuries after paper was invented in A.D.105. Full of auspicious (吉利的) symbols from daily life, the decorations represented good weather, many offspring, long life, wealth, and happiness.

Using newspaper, Ms. Yu first practiced cutting the image of a Chinese national flag that she saw in a school textbook. She cut it 100 times before she was satisfied. Then her aunt took over, introducing her to increasingly complicated traditional themes.

Ms. Yu was later invited to train in the Ansai's Cultural Center. After years of training,Ms.Yu became a master in her own right, winning one award after another. Her works are on display in museums. But she's humble about her achievements. “I was, and still am, a farmer,” she says with a smile.

Hoping to carry on and grow the folk art, Ms. Yu volunteers to teach at free community training sessions. Paper cutting is also taught in Ansai’s public schools. Ms. Yu is aware of the need to go beyond protecting traditions and embrace new paper-cut experiments.

7 . Zhang Zening, a hanfu supporter and lover in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, started a surprising journey eight years ago to restore (使复原) this traditional Chinese clothing. Inspired by ancient murals (壁画), Zhang, 41, studied the artistry of hanfu in various museums, changing paintings into touchable and wearable pieces.

Upon graduating from college, Zhang first worked in material research, burying herself in the laboratory, conducting chemical experiments for the study of raw materials. At the time, she was one of the earliest lovers of hanfu in China, frequently organizing various hanfu activities in her spare time. Now as the owner of a hanfu studio, Zhang has worked with women’s re-employment organizations, looking for full-time stay-at-home women with sewing (缝纫) skills. This matched with her need for the production of hanfu.

Around 2015, Zhang began to focus independently on the process of hanfu restoration. In that year, she visited Dunhuang, Northwest China’s Gansu Province where she was attracted by the beautiful murals there, wondering how she could possibly change them into beautiful costumes.

In the past years, she has traveled to more than 10 cities across China, constantly studying murals and conducting research to restore hanfu from different dynasties. She managed to restore more than 50 sets. She referred to different materials including various murals, other cultural relics and literature to make sure that the restoration is as correct as possible. Thanks to her work, many young people wear restored hanfu when they visit museums, and Zhang is excited to see more of them doing so.

8 . India’s touring (流动的) cinemas are dying, and being reborn. And India is perhaps the most film-mad country in the world while it also has the lowest ratios of screens to human beings.     1     The screens that do exist are unevenly distributed. PVR, India’s biggest cinema operator, has more screens in Chandigarh, a prosperous city of about a million people, than it does in Rajasthan, a poor stale of 80 million. If Muhammad could not go to the movies, the movies had to come to Muhammad. Twenty years ago, there were 1,400 odd touring cinemas in Pusegaon.     2     However, today there are only 52 travelling cinemas.

    3     One is smartphone and internet expansion, which leads to the other reason for the collapse of the touring cinemas:     4     Sushil Chaudhary, the founder of a new chain of touring cinemas called Picture Time, is making a different bet on the possibilities of cinema. Mr. Chaudhary started his company in 2015 and has since set up 37 moving screens seating between 100 and 250 people. The touring cinema was nothing like the one in Pusegaon.     5     The picture was crystal clear and the sound used Dolby. Picture Time’s tickets are cheap, at between 30 and 70 rupees, compared with an average ticket price of 191 rupees at PVR’s cinemas.

9 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Major Snow, the 21st solar term of the year, begins this year on Dec 7 and ends on Dec 21.     1    Here are several things you should know about Major Snow.

The sow in North China may last a whole day, breaking tree branches and blocking the. Snowflakes fall and the world turns white.     2    That is why an old saying goes like this, “A timely snow promises a good harvest”.

Plum blossoms usually flower in mid-to-late December in some southern cities of China, and sometimes bloom even earlier.     3    Along with the pine (松木) and bamboo, the plum blossom is considered one of the Three Friends of Winter.

Lamb is a favorite food for Chinese people during Major Snow. It’s excellent for nourishing (滋养) the body and providing protection against the cold. People in Chongqing like to have potted lamb soup with their families and friends.     4    Though cooked in different ways, lamb remains the main dish on this day.

During Major Snow, Chinese people watch for outbreaks of illness, which can be prevented by wearing a scarf to protect the neck and properly drinking water. When it is getting drier and colder, people should drink more water; but do not drink too much at once or drink cold water after exercise.

10 . By tradition, on Lunar New Year, you’re supposed to put on new clothes, from inner to outer ones. If they’re the lucky red, all the better. You can never have too much luck.

But when you turn a multiple of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and so on — the tradition gets extended: Red underwear every day of that lunar calendar year. When I first heard about the practice a few years ago, I considered it nonsense. It also seemed ridiculous to buy so many pairs in a color vivid under light clothes. My practical immigrant Chinese parents, an engineer and scientist, didn’t pass this tradition down. Adding another superstition (迷信) also seemed like a thing I could do without. But as I approach my fourth time around the wheel for the “Year of the Dragon,” — in what’s known as “ben ming nian” or the threshold year — I’ve been reflecting upon the milestones of those past intervals: puberty at age 12, moving across the country for a job at 24 and giving birth to my twin sons at 36.

The more I’ve looked into the practice, the more I realize the significance of its popularity. As an American-born Chinese, I have always adopted and adapted what comes from my birthplace. Logically, I know it won’t matter if I wear red or not, but for me, for now, this shared tradition strengthens my bond with my culture.

So often, life goes by so quickly before we could realize. Days become weeks, months, years and suddenly a dozen years go by. My newborns have grown into tweens and I’ve transformed from not quite middle-aged to now very much so. With the turn of the Lunar New Year, I value a chance to reflect on my past struggles and how I found a way through.

It’s a mindset we could all benefit from.