【推荐1】Xiong Chuanfa is a 34-year-old man. He can blow a lively tiger out of sugar in just minutes. Kids look at him in surprise, thinking he is a “magician”. Xiong has been blowing sugar figurines (吹糖人) for twenty years. Blowing sugar figurines is a Chinese traditional folk art with a history of over 600 years.

Every morning, Xiong prepares the sugar and drives to different markets to start his “magic show” around his city. He heats the sugar, pulls off a little to make a ball and blows it into different shapes—a rabbit, a monkey, and even Bing Dwen Dwen.

People, especially little kids, are interested in his skills. To make young people closer to the art, he also stops by university students are interested in the art. Among them, Simon, a foreign student, also wanted to make one sugar figurine by himself. However, he couldn’t get the wanted shape though he tried several times. “It looks easy, but actually it’s very difficult to have the skill.” he said. Thanks to Xiong’s help, Simon finally saw a horse coming out slowly. “I can’t believe I can do this.” he said happily.

Xiong said that his family has passed down this art for four generations (代). “We will spend the rest of our lives helping pass on this skill.”Xiong said.

“Humans can develop certain abilities we aren’t born with by practicing animals’ movements,” the traditional Chinese Wushu lovers believed in the past—and still do today.

Chinese Five-Animal Exercises, also known as Wuqinxi, are the first complete set of qigong exercises following the movements of animals: monkeys, deer, birds, bears and tigers. In the last years of Eastern Han Dynasty, they were created by one of the greatest doctors in Chinese history, Hua Tuo.

The Five-Animal Exercises are well-designed to help blood circulation (循环), and let the energy go smoothly in the body so as to improve the health.

“The bear movements are good for the stomach. The tiger movements can reduce the pain in the back. The deer movements help reduce the fat around the waist (腰). The bird movements can help keep our knees healthy and the monkey movements can be good for the heart,” said Hua Yi, the 59th inheritor (继承人) of Wuqinxi.

For those new learners, the first few exercises might not go well. You may find it hard to focus (集中注意力), wear comfortable clothes, keep peaceful in your mind, try to move slowly… little by little, you’ll feel more and more harmonious with nature. You may even feel you become a tiger or a deer, walking in the forest freely.

These exercises need no tools and they are easy to learn. You can search online for the videos and practice them at any time when you feel like relaxing your body and mind. Because it’s fun to practice and good for health, Five-Animal Exercises are becoming more and more popular in recent years, not only in China, but also in many other places of the world.

【推荐3】Bi Sheng was born in Song Dynasty. He lived in a small village which lies in Huanggang today.     1     He was the world’s first inventor of the printing. It is about 400 years earlier than the printing in Germany. The printing is also called the movable type printing (活字印刷). But how did it work in the past?

First of all, the clay was made into movable types. Then words were engraved (雕刻) carefully onto the types.     2     Next, the workers brushed ink onto the movable types. Finally the types could be used for printing. They could be used again and again for different books.

    3     With the help of it, Chinese culture spread around the world more quickly. At the same time, the movable type printing was widely used in the world at that time.     4    

The movable type printing, the compass (指南针), gunpowder and the paper-making are called four great inventions of China.     5    

【推荐1】Are you a film fan? Jack the Giant Slayer《巨人捕手杰克》comes to the screen this week.

It tells the story of the war between humans and giants. Though it is based on a classic English fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk《杰克与豆蔓》, there is still something new to watch in this film.

In the original story, there was only one giant. In this story there are a large number of them.They have different characteristics（特征）that are really fun to watch. The giants are very different from what people have seen before.

Actor Nicholas Hoult plays Jack, the farm boy who opens a door between our world and the giants by accident. The giants come onto the Earth through the door for the first time in centuries and they want to get back the land they once lost. The brave young man Jack tries his best to stop the giants. He comes face to face with the giants and makes himself a warrior（勇士）.

Jack the Giant Slayer is fresh and wonderful. You can imagine yourselves being involved in Jack's world when you see this film. Hopefully you'll laugh as well. It's full of fun.

【推荐2】Wukong, Tiangong, Tianwen ... Do you know where the names of Chinese space programs come from?

Wukong, the Dark Matter Particle Explorer satellite (暗物质粒子探测卫星), is named after (以……而命名) Chinese superhero Monkey King. According to Journey to the West, Monkey King has a pair of sharp eyes (火眼金睛) which can tell the difference between good and evil (恶). The Wukong satellite is just as sharp-eyed as Monkey King to help scientists look for dark matter in space.

The name of the space station, Tiangong, means “Heavenly Palace”. In Chinese myths, this is the home of Tian Di. Now Tiangong Space Station is a home for Chinese astronauts in space. And China welcomes foreign astronauts to Tiangong so that they can work together.

Tianwen, China’s Mars missions (火星任务), gets its name from the poem Tianwen by Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan is a famous poet from ancient China. In Tianwen, he had the questions about the sky, stars, nature, myths and the real world, showing his hunger (渴望) for truth. Perhaps the Tianwen missions will end up answering some of Qu Yuan’s questions.

If you look into more names of Chinese space programs, you will find that they all have beautiful meanings. We, the Chinese people, have a long-cherished (珍藏已久的) space dream. So the naming of Chinese space programs is taken very seriously.

【推荐3】① Animals United is a 3D German cartoon by Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe. It is a story about animals that get together to find water. Along their journey, lots of funny things happen, and of course, they have a lot of adventures(冒险).

②The animals in the grasslands in Africa are waiting for the coming flood (洪水). However, this year’s flood seems to come later than in other years. The animals become worried. At the same time, some animals from other places come to the grasslands to look for peace. However, the situation seems worse because the water is becoming less and less. So they decide to look for the river.

③Finally, they find the reason why they don’t have any water to drink. People built a dam (拦河坝) to have a better life. After a long fight with people, they let the world know that animals are in danger.

④This film is about environment (环境). People are the bad and the animals are the good. This film is to give people a warn that they must not destroy (破坏) the homes of animals or destroy nature in order to make their own life better. People should know animals also have their own world.

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