【推荐1】Have you ever seen lions dancing in the streets? The lions dance to the beat of a drum. Of course, they are not real lions. They are dancers in lion costumes. Lion dancing first started in China centuries ago. It is meant to bring good luck in the coming year.

Usually, a lion is made up of two dancers. One dancer controls the head. The other controls the tail.

“I think of it as a sport,” says Anthony Huang, aged 16. He is a member of the New York Chinese Freemasons Athletic Club. Anthony performs as the lion’s head. It can weigh 20 pounds. Lion dancing is important to Anthony .“This tradition really lifts me up,” he says.

In the past, lion dancing was performed mostly by men. But it is different today. Lion Dance Me is a lion dancing group in San Francisco, California. There are boys and girls in its team. They dance together.

“Anyone can take up lion dancing. You have to believe that you can do it,” says Ananda Tang-Lee, a 17-year-old girl.

Lion dancing will continue to evolve. But team’s sense of community will never change. “We call it a family,” Ananda says .“It’s real great, because we always have each other’s backs.”

【推荐2】Paper cutting is a traditional art in China. It has a long history. The kind of art went after the invention of paper in the Han Dynasty. It became one of the main forms of arts, and was popular with the people of the time.

Most of the paper cutting artists are women. The themes (主题) of their works usually include everything in people’s everyday life. The main tool for paper cutting is scissors. Once they are owned by a master of paper cutting, they will do so well that they become so supernatural and their paper cuttings are beyond imagination of a common pair of scissors.

Arts come from life and serve life. Paper cutting is very popular in the countryside. They are often found in wedding ceremonies (结婚典礼) or festivals in China. And people like to decorate their windows and doors with colorful paper cuttings of different shapes and sizes whether they are birds, animals or flowers.

【推荐3】The book I’m Fine in China has been come out by Shanghai Educational Publishing House recently. It talks about the story of 22 Foreigners and China. The writer Melody, who was born in 1988, has been in China for twelve years. Over these years, she has traveled more than half of China.

Melody played a key role as the book’s main writer. She connected 21 other people from different counties with different experiences to write down their stories about China. Among them were her close friends and classmates, as well as foreign friends she did not know but found through the Internet.

Anasi from Latvia has been in China for 16 years. After graduating from high school, Anasi decided to learn Chinese. The reason why she chose Chinese was that she knew that China is a multi-ethnic (多民族) and multicultural country, and she wanted to learn the history and culture of China. She had planned to return to her home country after studying in China for a year, but she became interested in the country while studying at Fudan University. After graduating from Fudan University, Anasi stayed in Shanghai to work.

Like Anasi, each main role in the book has a lively life story in China. And most of them use the word “predestination (缘分)” in their stories. Convenience and safety are their impression (印象) on China. Each of them has their favorite Chinese things. Some like Chinese food, some like Chinese language, some like... In the process of digging up the story, there are always unexpected surprise for Melody.

【推荐3】Fast walking is exercise between walking and race walking. A study shows that fast walking has become the most popular exercise in China and many people walk more than 5, 000 steps a day. The results of the study are from QQ users. About 37% of the people choose (选择) fast walking as their favorite exercise; over 23% choose running and more than 14% choose riding bikes.

Fast walking and running are easy, cost (花费) little and work well, so they are popular. And many people would rather (宁愿) do exercise in nature than go to gyms. It’s best to walk fast for at least 10 minutes at one time and walk up to 6, 000 steps everyday.

The study also shows that people in Guiyang, Guizhou love sports most. On average (平均) everyone there walks 5, 941 steps every day. It seems that people in places with better environment (环境) and air are more willing to (更愿意) do sports.

Enjoying flowers with festival

享受花节

People celebrate their birthdays every year. But do you know that flowers also have a birthday?

Flower-Worshipping is the birthday of flowers and the goddesses（女神） of flowers. It started in the Tang Dynasty. People celebrate it in the second lunar month. The dates are different in different places across China. But it is usually in March or April.

There are 12 goddesses of flowers. Each is in charge of a month of the year. On the day of the festival, people often offer incense and spirit to the flower goddesses. They wish for good weather and a harvest for the year.

People usually have fun outdoors for Flower-Worshiping Festival. Families go to the countryside and have a picnic near flowers. Some may also plant some flowers.

The Flower-Worshipping Festival is also a festival for girls. Girls get together and make friends. They wear flowers in their hair. They put red ribbons on trees. They also make desserts and rice cakes with flowers.

The festival is like a big birthday party for flowers. Do you want to join in it?

【推荐2】The Songkran Festival is traditional Thai New Year’s Day and is celebrated from April 13 to April 15. It is also called the “Water Festival” because people believe that water will wash away bad luck. Also, this festival is for rain because it is held in the hottest season.

In the past, on this day, people threw small drops of water on monks and old people to bless（祝福）them. Nowadays, besides the old tradition, people also throw water on whoever walks past their houses or walks down the street. Everyone gets wet, but it is all in a spirit of friendliness, blessing and fun—even among people who usually have great disagreements. People who get wet actually do not get angry because they know that it is a tradition.

On this day, everywhere in Thailand, people celebrate and enjoy the festival. People will carry water to the temples to soak the stone figures（石像）, using brushes. They also give very good food to the monks. Chiang Mai Province, which is in the northern part of Thailand, is especially lively, and animals and birds are often set free from their cages. What’s more, people can enjoy public events, such as beauty contests and marching bands during this festival which ends on April 15.

The Water Festival gives people freshness, happiness and fun during the hottest season. No wonder the Thais like it so much.

【推荐3】We spoke to three students from around the world about different national holidays. There are different customs for each festival.