China’s Spring Festival blockbuster(大片) “Hi, Mom” beat the 2017 American superhero film “Wonder Woman” at 5.39 billion yuan on Tuesday and made Chinese film director Jia Ling overtake Patty Jenkins to be the world’s highest-grossing(最高票房记录的) female director for a single film.

The achievement was made 54 days after its release on February 12, the first day of Chinese New Year. “Hi, Mom” is currently the second highest-grossing film only after the 2017 action-adventure film “Wolf Warrior 2”, according to China’s movie-ticketing platform. They are the only two domestic-produced films among the top 100 grossing films worldwide.

“Hi, Mom” is the first film directed by Jia Ling, who is a comedian and actress. It stars Jia who was saddened by her mother Li Huanying’s accidental death, magically transported back to 1981 to become a friend of her mother and tried her best to delight and planned a better life for her mother.

“Although the film has a strong individual mark, it causes many people’s empathy,” said professor Tian Huiqun at the School of Arts and Communication of Beijing Normal University. He added that it is hard to copy the film’s success since Jia and the film itself cannot be reproduced.

The success of “Hi, Mom” also became a milestone to mark the growth of “She power” in the man-dominated film industry in the last ten years. However, some film critics say that the film’s success is just because people are interested in women topics for the time being, and money goes to people’s interest.

“Women creating films is still not an easy task,” Dong Yige, assistant professor in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at University at Buffalo, “Why not use female audiences’ power to push the women creation?”

4 . Chinese People are eating too much salt. On average, people in China eat about 10.5 grams of salt each day, much higher than the 6 grams recommended（建议）by Chinese Dietary Guidelines（2016）.

China now has one of the highest salt intakes（摄入量）in the world. To fix this, China had the first salt reduction（减少）guide for its food industry.

If the guide is followed properly, the average salt intake for Chinese people will drop by 20 percent by 2030. The guide calls for food companies to lower the salt content in their products by improving their production techniques （技术） and adjusting （调整）flavors.

The salt we take in mainly comes from processed（加工的）food. For example, a 104-gram can of Lay’s classic potato chips has about 0.66 grams of salt in it, which accounts for over 10 percent of the recommended daily salt intake. A 100-gram bag of instant noodles has nearly 2 grams of salt.

A small amount of salt makes food taste better and is important for good, health, but eating too much increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks（心脏病）and strokes（中风）, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Less salt leads to better health. And there's no need to worry that food will be less tasty in the future. A study by the Monell Chemical Senses Center in the United States found that it’s easy for people to reduce their salt intake. Although you may think your food is not salty enough at first, your taste buds（味蕾） will gradually get used to it and you will feel that your food tastes the same as it did before.

You may have heard the saying “The Yangtze River is China’s mother river.” The main route of the Yangtze is almost 6,400 km long. As the world’s third-longest river, its valley(流域)covers one-fifth of China’s land area. The Yangtze River Economic Zone covers 11 provinces and cities, making up about 40 percent of China’s total population and GDP.

On Dec 26, China’s top legislature(立法机关)passed the Yangtze River Protection Law, which will work on March 1, 2021. It is the first law to protect a waterway in China, CGTN noted.

The “mother river” is in great need of protection because something is wrong with it. For example, the river’s Chinese paddlefish(白鲟)has died out after surviving for 150 million years because of overfishing and water pollution. There’re also desertified(荒漠化的) land and soil pollution near the upstream part of the river in Qinghai province, Xinhua reported.

The Yangtze River Protection Law includes bans(禁止)on activities that could have terrible influence on the river. It also includes heavier punishments for those who don’t follow the law.

According to the law, fishing will be banned in all of the Yangtze’s natural waterways, including its major tributaries(支流)and lakes. Those who are caught fishing will be fined 50,000 to 500,000 yuan.

Sand mining(采沙)will be strictly limited in the river valley. Many companies are mining sand along the river, as sand is a rare resource. However, this has led to lower water levels on the river, which has caused the river’s water quality to become worse.

Companies operating along the river will turn to green development. Companies that produce dangerous chemicals will move out, the law says.

6 . On Feb 18, NASA’s Perseverance Rover (美国航天局“毅力”号火星车) made a historic landing on the surface of Mars. It planned to work on Mars for about two years.

This is the fifth rover NASA has sent to Mars and is full of firsts. It will be the first rover to search for signs of ancient life. A helicopter (直升飞机) will fly on the planet for the first time as well. The rover is also better at solving problems on its own than the rovers before.

Landing a spacecraft (宇宙飞船) on Mars isn’t easy. It had to go through the “seven minutes of terror (惊险七分钟)” all by itself, as NASA calls the landing process. Since it takes 11 minutes for a radio signal to travel from Earth to Mars, NASA couldn’t control the craft during the process.

The spacecraft hit the top of the Martian atmosphere (大气层) moving at 12,000 miles an hour (19,300 km an hour) and had to slow down to 1.7 miles an hour (2.7 km an hour) within seven minutes before landing. Drag (空气阻力) that was created by the atmosphere slowed it down.

At the same time, the surface of the craft heated up to about 1,300 ℃. This high temperature could melt (熔化) the rover! But since the craft’s heat shield (抗热涂层) was able to take in most of this heat, Perseverance itself only reached room temperature.

The craft then joined a parachute (降落伞) and a sky crane (空中吊车) together to slow itself down for its final close to Mars. A video of the landing was later shared online, allowing people all over the world to see the amazing moment for themselves. The rover even recorded audio on Mars for the first time just after landing, catching the sounds of Martian wind.

7 . In February, the Ministry of Education announced that mobile phones should, in principle, be banned ( 禁 止 ) in primary and secondary schools. This aims to protect students’ eyesight, make sure they focus on their work and prevent them from becoming addicted (上瘾的) to the Internet and online games.

Xu Xiaohe, a 13-year-old from Zhejiang, supports the policy. “In fact, my school has never allowed us to bring our mobile phones,” Xu said. “It’s a distraction (干扰) from our work. Even adults can’t control themselves, let alone kids like us.”

Li Zihan from Beijing, however, feels differently. The 13-year-old believes that a mobile phone ban is too simple for a generation that has grown up with mobile phones. “Students should be taught self-management skills, as well as learn how to use their phones effectively (有效地) to help with their studies,” Li said. “This might be the best way to deal with technology in modern times.”

For Ge Ziqi, the problem with banning phones has more to do with life outside of school. The 13-year-old Beijinger uses a bike-sharing app every day to travel between her home and school.

“Today, phones are used everywhere, from taking a bus to buying food,” she said. “If I can’t take my phone with me, I’ll have to buy my own bicycle.”

Some schools have come up with ideas to solve problems like Ge’s. At Shanghai Shatian School, for example, students are asked to put their phones in special lockers (储物柜) during school hours. The students call these lockers the “phone farm” (养机场) or “phone tarmac” (停机坪).

8 . In the fight against the COVID-19 (新型冠状病毒). Chinese people have come up with many creative (创造性的) ways to solve different problems. They have shown their wisdom (智慧) during hard times.

☆Amazing China speed

In cities like Wuhan that had large numbers of infected (被感染的) people, more hospital beds were needed. The quickest way to solve this was to build makeshift (临时的) hospitals.

On January 23 and 25, the government decided to build Huoshenshan Hospital and Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan. More than 4,000 workers worked day and night, and nearly 1,000 large machines and transportation helped with the project.

Within less than 15 days, the two hospitals were set up. They provided about 2,600 beds in total. The speed shocked many people around the world.

☆All for masks (口罩)

During that period, medical things such as masks were in great need. To increase production (扩大生产), over 3, 000 Chinese factories have transformed their production lines to make medical things. For example, a factory that used to make clothes spent 55 hours transforming their production lines and is now able to make 1,200 protective (防护的) medical suits every day. Several car factories in China have also turned their production lines into mask-making lines.

☆Sharing workers

The idea of “sharing workers” became popular during the period. As most people were staying at home, many workers in restaurants, cinemas and shopping malls had no work and were not getting paid. However, online everyday and medical things continued (继续) to grow, making the workers from Dingdong (叮咚), Freshhema (盒马鲜生) and other online shops too busy.

As of February 10, over 1, 800 workers had started their new short-term (短期的) jobs as delivery (送货) workers with Dingdong and Freshhema, Xinhua reported.

10 . On April 2, we said goodbye to Tiangong Ⅰ, China’s first space lab. According to the China Manned Space Agency(中国载人航天局), Tiangong Ⅰ re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere(大气层) and some of its debris(碎片) fell into the South Pacific Ocean.

There are many spacecraft(宇宙飞船) that are still in orbit(轨道) above the Earth. After finishing their trips, they will all re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere like Tiangong Ⅰ.

There are two types of re-entries: controlled re-entry and uncontrolled re-entry. Some satellites and manned spacecraft come back to the Earth in a controlled re-entry. Experts calculate(计算) the path of the falling spacecraft and its speed. They can guide the spacecraft to fall in a chosen area.

Some spacecraft may have problems while in space after a certain amount of time. These spacecraft come back in an uncontrolled re-entry. It is hard to tell when and where these spacecraft will fall until the last few hours. The US space station Skylab came back partially uncontrolled in 1979. Parts of the station fell in western Australia, but no one was hurt.

During re-entry, most of the spacecraft will burn up while passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. Only a small amount of the debris will reach the ground. The debris typically ends up falling into the ocean, China Daily reported.