【推荐1】China is a big country with many kinds of famous Kongfu, which is also called Wushu (武术). The Red Quan is just one of them.

The Red Quan is a kind of fist (拳). It mixes traditional Chinese culture with Wushu. It has a very long history and it can date back to the Qin dynasties. The Red Quan’s skills can show people the agility, flexibility (灵活、敏捷), clear thinking, and powerful attack and defense (攻击和防御) movements.

There are seven kinds of Red Quan, and each of them is special in its own way. People need to learn the positions, moves, routines and basic knowledge. Among them, positions are the basic and the root of the Red Quan. It can help you exercise your tendons, hips and waist (肌腱、臀部和腰), and then the whole body. Some moves can help you exercise your legs and feet. The Red Quan has many skillful moves. It requires people to keep the whole body flexible and quick. If people want to learn Chinese kung fu well, they’d better learn one skill well instead of learning too many skills at a time. The key to learning the Red Quan well is to keep the body flexible and agile.

Now many students are interested in learning the Red Quan. It is a good chance to learn the spirit of Chinese kong fu by learning the Red Quan.

【推荐3】John Smith is an exchange student from New York. Here is a letter to his friend in his hometown.

How time flies! It’s been 3 months since I came to China. I’m having a great time on my student exchange program here. So far, I’ve completely got used to the life here and have known a lot about traditional Chinese culture. I’d like to share some with you.

In China, there are many different kinds of traditional art forms, such as paper cutting, Chinese clay art and so on. Among them, the kite interests me most. The first ancient Chinese kite appeared more than 2,000 years ago. Then flying kites was spread into Japan, Korea and Malaysia during the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. Kites are regarded as the earliest craft (飞行器). They played an important role in the process of inventing the plane.

Tea culture is important in China. Tea was discovered as a kind of drink by accident about 5,000 years ago. It is believed that tea was brought to Korea and Japan during the 6th and 7th centuries. It didn’t appear in England until around 1660. The tea trade from China to Western countries took place in the 19th century. Now tea has become one of the most popular drinks around the world.

Lastly, I’d like to tell you something about one of the traditional Chinese festivals — the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar (阴历). Chinese people have been celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying mooncakes for centuries.

If you’d like to know more about traditional Chinese culture, I will talk about it in the next letter.

Best wishes!

Yours,

John

【推荐1】Primary and junior high school students now are allowed to stay at school for two hours after school is over. Students can enjoy their hobbies or take part in other after-school activities.

This is one of the key measures (措施) of the “double reduction” policy (“双减”政策) across the country. The policy tries to reduce students’ stress caused by too much homework and off-campus training.

When students leave school, they can see their parents, instead of their grandparents, waiting outside to pick them up. Students are happy about it, and parents, too.

“It’s good that I can come to pick up my son,” said Mrs. Wang, a mother of a second-grader. “I’ve bought extra exercise books for him to do since he has no homework now. I still need to know how well he has learned.”

The changes also mean that students can choose to do their homework at school after classes.

“We have a reading course after classes end at 4 pm,” said Zhang Zirui, a primary school student. “Then we do our homework at school. I don’t have to do homework when I go back home.”

Lan Lan, a student at a junior high school, has less homework now. “The teacher has cut out the repetitive contents (重复内容) in the homework, which I welcome a lot,” she said. “And there are lots of after-school activities for us to take part in. It’s great.”

Mr. Wang, a father of a junior high school student, said the measures showed the govenment’s great efforts to lighten the burden (负担) on schools, parents and students.

【推荐2】Can you imagine gloves could talk? Do you want to know what it feels like to fly like a bird? We have picked out three interesting inventions to share with you.

Talking Gloves

Four foreign students have created a pair of gloves, which helps people to communicate with those who have hearing and speaking problems. There are sensors (传感器) on the gloves. They recognize (辨认出) sign language and translate it into text on a smartphone. Then the smartphone changes the text to spoken words. So people can understand sign language easily.

Google Glasses

Google Glasses are like a computer built into a pair of glasses. Then the glasses allow you to surf the Internet and make calls without even lifting a finger. The glasses also have a camera and GPS mapping system. Users can take and share photos, check maps and surf the Internet just by moving the eyeballs.

Wingsuits

The suit realizes your dream of flying like a bird. Well, not exactly flying, but gliding (滑翔) through the air. It increases the surface area of the human body, which makes it easier for people to float (漂浮) in the air. Fliers wearing wingsuits can glide one kilometer in about 30 seconds.