【推荐3】As the year 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit in China, many brand have rolled out an array of rabbit-themed goods. Wang Chuchun, an 18-year-old freshman from Xiamen University in Fujian, bought a pair of shoes from the rabbit collection made by Holli, a domestic brand, during the Spring Festival holiday.

“I would like to see Chinese culture be more incorporated into consumer goods that carry a variety of beautiful connotations(内涵).” Wang told journalist.

Guochao, the combination of Chinese traditions with modern designs, has become a keyword for this year’s Spring Festival product consumption, according to statistics from Vipshop(also known as weipinhui in Chinese), an online retailer(零售商). The sales volume of 361 Degrees, a sports equipment company, saw a rise of 188 percent on a year-on-year basis during the Spring Festival with their rabbit collection.

Who is behind the surge of sales for guochao products? According to a report released by data service provider Aurora, the proportion of young people interested in the guochao products accounted for more than 70 percent of consumers.

Thus the target market of the guochao products is China’s 400 million-strong army of young consumers, Tom Harper, a lecturer in international relations at the University of East London, said to The Conversation.

Like their peers in Western countries, China’s Gen Z consumers are enthusiastic users of social media; but that is where the similarities end.

This generation has grown up during China’s rapid economic development in the 2000s and 2010s, which is a marked contrast to their peers in the West, who came of age, in the shadow of the2008 financial crisis. As a result, they have been characterized as being more confident and better educated than previous generations.

“Complex and profound social and cultural factor have contributed to the rise of guochao. But it all comes down to decades of stable development in China. As our country enters an era of prosperity(繁荣), our cultural confidence gets boosted as well,” said Wang.

【推荐2】Sometimes life puts us in places where we are supposed to be. Whether we were headed that way or not, we just need to make the best of it. Here let’s read three stories.

In 2016, Wanda Dench sent a text to her college-aged grandson inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner. But she got the number wrong and reached Jamal Hinton. When Hinton asked who had sent the message, Wanda sent a picture of herself. “You’re not my grandma,” Jamal texted back, “Can I still get a plate, though?” Wanda replied. “Of course, That’s what grandmas do — feed everyone!” And for six years, Jamal has celebrated Thanksgiving with the Dench family.

In another community, Robert’s wife asked him to drop some books off at a local elementary school after a book drive. When he carried the books to the classroom on his lunch hour, the teacher mistook him for one of the volunteer tutors. “Thank you for coming,” the teacher said, “Isabella is struggling with comprehension and is a grade level behind. Here is a book and her worksheets.” Robert thought, “I have time. I’ll just sit down and help.” Robert, an artist, drew the pictures of words and illustrated their meanings. Isabella was delighted. “I think that’s when the light went on for her,” Robert says, For a full year, Robert tutored Isabella during his lunch hours. Her reading comprehension quickly caught up and then shot past grade level. “Seeing her learn so fast made my day,” Robert says.

Twenty years ago, Gladys Hankerson in Florida dialed up her sister in Maryland for a chat. But she misdialed the area code and reached Mike Moffit in Rhode Island, Mike said Gladys was a bit shy but very sweet. Gladys loves her sister and tried to call again a few days later — and made the same mistake on the area code. Mike answered again and recognized Gladys’ voice. They had a nice chat and laughed about it. Since then their friendship has deepened — and it has carried on for 20 years.

【推荐3】Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional from Ireland, never worried too much about how she looked. However, when her job went fully virtual, she found herself anxious about Microsoft Teams meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger, and her top lip looked thinner than she had ever noticed it while looking in the mirror.

As the COVID-19 forced a lot of people into video meetings throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia”. After months of remote meetings and seeing their own faces on screen, more and more people became focused on their weaknesses on their faces. Shadi Kourosh, a Masachusetts doctor studying skin diseases, coined the name in the summer of 2020, when she noticed more and more people asking about how to improve facial appearance. It is clear that the age of video meetings has opened up a Pandora’s box of physical and mental insecurities (不安全).

Psychological studies have long connected time spent in front of the mirror with one’s increasing feelings of insecurity. However, Kourosh says that looking at yourself on a screen is not like looking into a real mirror. Front-facing cameras, with their close focus, can distort (使…失真/变形) people’s appearance, making eyes look smaller and noses seem bigger.

Doctors are familiar with how the phenomenon of “Zoom dysmorphia” has become increasingly worsened in recent years by beautified photos of film stars or by social media filters (滤镜). Most people are smart enough to know a social media filter is not real life. But as for Zoom dysmorphia, people simply were not aware that video calls could cause distortion. These types of insecurities also affect a much bigger part of society. Almost everybody who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic used video meeting. The impact can be significant and lasting.

Jane has mixed feelings. Her job will be online for the coming future. Feeling less attractive on screen than in real life, she is considering cosmetic surgery (整容外科) to improve her confidence. “But it feels stupid as a 40-year-old woman to think too much about my appearance like a teenager. There are bigger problems in the world.”

【推荐2】Joseph Pulitzer was born to a wealthy family in Hungary on April 10, 1847 and grew up and was educated there in private schools.

At the age of 17, Pulitzer decided to become a soldier in the Austrian Army but was rebuffed because of weak eyesight. Luckily, he later met the U.S. Union Army and contracted to joined the army as a substitute for a draftee. In America, Pulitzer enlisted for one year in the Lincoln Cavalry.

Later he worked his way to St. Louis where he got a job offer from the leading German language daily, Westliche Post. Four years later, the young Pulitzer, who had built a reputation as a tireless enterprising journalist, was offered a controlling interest in the paper. At the age of 25, Pulitzer became a publisher and there followed a series of successful business deals from which he became recognized as the owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and a rising figure on the journalistic scene. When taking hold of the Post-Dispatch, Pulitzer worked at his desk from early morning until midnight or later, interesting himself in every detail of the paper. He specially splashed investigative articles criticizing government corruption. With his hard work, circulation mounted and the paper was successful.

Five years later, during a journey to New York, Pulitzer purchased The New York World, which was in financial difficulties. He brought about revolution in the editorial policy, content and format of The World. He employed some of the same techniques that had built up the circulation of the Post Dispatch. In one of the most successful promotions, The World raised public donation for the building of the pedestal at the entrance to the New York harbor so that the Statue of Liberty could be put into position. The World for years served as the influential editorial voice on many issues of the government, and Pulitzer himself was applauded for representative of freedom of the press.

In 1912, one year after Pulitzer's death, the Columbia School of Journalism was founded, and the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917. More awards in journalism would go to exposure of corruption than to any other subject.

【推荐3】“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist (慈善家)”, these words are the Ironman Tony Stark’s self-identification. However, they can be also used to describe the impressive historical figure of an American inventor, Howard Hughes. In fact, the characters of Tony Stark and his father(also named Howard)have been confirmed to have been inspired by Hughes.

Howard Hughes was born on December 24, 1905. At a young age, Hughes showed an interest in inventing things. At the age of eleven he made a radio transmitter (无线电发射机) out of an electric doorbell, and a year later he made a self-starting motor for his bicycle. At the age of fourteen he made his first airplane flight. His mother died when Hughes was sixteen and his father just passed away two years later, leaving him about $870,000 and a patent for a drill bit used in most oil and gas drilling that brought in large amounts of money to the family’s Hughes Tool Company.

Hughes left school to take control of the company, using its profits to finance a variety of projects. In 1924 Hughes entered the film industry and produced such films as the box-office hits Hell’s Angels(1930), Scarface(1932)and The Outlaw(1943). He discovered actors Jean Harlow and Paul Muni and made Jane Russell a well-known star.

In 1928 Hughes obtained a pilot’s license. His interest in aviation (航空) led him to found the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. In 1942 he began to design and build the world’s largest plane, a wooden seaplane, later nicknamed the “Spruce Goose”. It was supposed to serve as a troop carrier in World War Ⅱ. The “Spruce Goose” flew only once for one mile and 70 feet above the water, with Hughes at the controls, on November2, 1947.

In 1950 Hughes began a strange life of isolation (隔离), keeping himself to himself. Hughes died on April 5, 1976. In 2004, Hughes’ life got public attention again with the film The Aviator, which presented his early days.