Village libraries may help change children’s lives.

When Zhang Dongdong, from Beijing, arrived at Sanbao Street in Qinglong, Guizhou in August, 2019, he found that most of the children there lived with their ________. Their parents moved to large cities to ________. The families were poor, and there were ________ books for the children to read. They only had textbooks. Zhang felt sorry ________ the children. He tried his best and got 3,000books from all over the country. And then he ________ Sanbao Children’s Library.

In October, Zhang went to Zhanma Village. He visited the village primary school. Zhang found that the school library was a ________ room with old books and that there was no place for children to read. So Zhang began to build another library ________ 2019, and on June 1st the following year, World Children’s Day, Zhanma Village Library opened ________ door.

“I’m not the only one that has built a library for a village,” Zhang said. “In fact, most secretaries (书记) ________ to build village libraries as a very important part of their work. ________ can be good friends for the children. And they can enrich children’s childhood and lives.”

Life can be very difficult sometimes. Too much stress and anxiety (焦虑) can make a person feel sad, confused and worried. It can cause pain in the body, too. When life becomes too stressful and filled with anxiety, there are many activities you can do to relax.

First, exercise. It is one of the best ways to relieve stress and anxiety. Go on a walk. Go to a gym. Go running. It will keep your body healthy and your stress under control. It also builds confidence.

Second, drink some green tea. Drinking tea helps the body to calm down from stress and anxiety. Coffee is not a good choice. The caffeine (咖啡因) in coffee can raise your stress level. Try some tea one day.

Third, write down your feelings. Writing your feelings down is another way to have less stress and anxiety. Writing down the things that made you angry during the day can clear your head. It may make you feel better.

Lastly, spend time with family and friends. This is the most important thing. A person's family and friends can bring love and laughter. These two things are the perfect relaxation method for any stressful time.

Next time you feel stressed or anxious, try these methods. Stay happy, stay healthy.

“Chinese New Year is a seven-day-celebration, and the beautiful thing I like is the way we put fu outside. We change the direction, which means that fu has already come.” Rajni Aggarwal from India, running an Indian restaurant in Hangzhou, seems to know everything about it. Actually, nowadays more and more foreigners like Chinese traditional culture. The video “Hello! Spring Festival!” by China Daily tells us what the Spring Festival is like in some foreigners’ eyes.

Barbara, a German designer who is running a children’s wear brand in Shenyang, is full of praise for Chinese food, especially yuanxiao.“We always prepare some handmade lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival feast.” She added, “This year for Chinese New Year I gave out some special hongbao, but the most important thing is the money inside.”

Zhang Luka from Italy is the spreader of Chinese chilli and delicious food. He told us what was his first experience with the Spring Festival. “At that time, I saw everyone leaving, taking big bags and going back home. All of a sudden, the university was empty, all the restaurants were closed, and waimai was pretty tough to order as well. What an unbelievable story!” “Luckily, after the first year, I got to meet many Chinese friends and enjoyed the holidays in Chinese way. That was the opportunity for me to really get close to the Chinese culture.”

From Shy Girl to Pop Star

For this month’s Young World magazine, I interviewed the 19-year-old Asian pop star Candy Wang. Candy told me that she used to be really shy and took up     46     (sing) to deal with her     47     (shy). As she got better, she dared to sing in front of her class, and then for the whole school. Now she’s not shy anymore and loves singing in front of crowds.

I asked Candy how life was     48     (difference) after she became famous. She explained that there are many good things, like being able to travel and meet new people all the time. “I     49     (used) to be popular in school, but now I get tons of attention everywhere I go.” However, too much attention can also be a bad thing. “I always have to worry about how I appear to others, and I have to be very     50     (care) about what I say or do. And I don’t have much private time anymore.     51     (hang) out with friends is almost     52     (possible) for me now because there are always guards around me.”

What does Candy have to say to all those young people who want to become famous? “Well,” she begins     53     (slow), “you have to be prepared to give up your normal life. You can never imagine how difficult the road to success is. Many times I thought about giving up, but I     54     (fight) on. You really require a lot of talent and hard work to     55     (success). Only a very small number of people make it to the top.”

Among all traditional Chinese operas, types of facial makeup in Peking Opera have developed into the most systematic (系统化的) one. Different colours are used to show different characters, but at first, only three colours were used: red, white and black.

Red is generally used to show that a role is honest, frank (直率的) and loyal (忠诚的). Because many roles use red and black to show they’re very brave and honest, red gradually has another meaning. A typical “red full face” is Guan Yu, known for his loyalty to his emperor, Liu Bei.

The role with the white face commonly seen on the stage is bad in human nature. Typical characters are Cao Cao who was powerful but cruel (残酷的) in the time of the “Three Kingdoms”, and Qin Hui who put the national hero Yue Fei to death.

The black face shows either an impolite and brave character or a fair and selfless personality. Typical characters of the former are Zhang Fei with a black cross butterfly face of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Li Kui of Water Margin, and a typical character of the later, Bao Zheng who was a fearless and fair official of the Song Dynasty.

Later, other colours are gradually added to them, such as purple symbolizing justice (正义); yellow used for soldiers and standing for bravery; blue showing a character that has a strong personality and is very calculating (工于心计的); gold and silver which are widely used to mean gods and ghosts. Audiences can tell the difference clearly through the colours between the nobility (贵族) and the common people, good or bad.