1 . Napoleon Bonaparte by Emil Ludwig (German1881~1948)

Napoleon Bonaparte is an extraordinary statesman, strategist, the founder of the French First Empire. This biography was written by famous German writer Emil Ludwig, and there’s no doubt that the book is a great success. The writer uses his own writing style to show the charming character of Napoleon to the readers of the book.

Cao Xueqin Biography by Li Jianshu, 2009 (Chinese edition)

The book tells the life story of the novelist Cao Xueqin — author of The Dream of the Red Mansions. Cao was born to a rich family but suffered great poverty for most of his life. He drew on his life experiences to write his famous novel, which was published after his death.

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, 1903

Even though Keller wrote this autobiography when she was only 22 years old, it is considered a great book in American literature. It tells about her dark and silent childhood, and how her teacher — Anne Sullivan opened up a new world to her by teaching her how to communicate.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 2011

Isaacson interviewed Steve Jobs over forty times, and interviewed hundreds of Jobs friends, relatives, and rivals to sum up Jobs’ remarkable life. The result is an interesting story of a man driven to succeed and driven to make perfect products.

3 . Mr. Jafri is a 44-year-old artist from England. As the COVID-19 spread and many countries went into lockdown, Mr. Jafri was in Dubai. Rather than feeling stuck because he was unable to move on, Mr. Jafri decided to take on a huge project that could “make a really big difference.”

He decided to create the world’s largest painting in a way that would involve people from around the world. He asked children to send him pictures showing how they were feeling during the pandemic. He got artwork from kids in 140 different countries, some of which was included in his painting.

Using the children’s ideas as a starting point, Mr. Jafri began to paint. He created the painting in the dance hall of a closed hotel. The painting, called “The Journey of Humanity”, is over 1,600 square meters. It took Mr. Jafri seven months, up to 20 hours per day. He hurt his back by bending over so much while he painted. It took over 1,000 paintbrushes and 6,300 liters of paint to create the painting. When he finished last September, he had set a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest painting. The painting was roughly the size of four basketball courts.

Since Mr. Jafri’s goal was to raise money to help children, the painting was cut up into 70 large pieces. Mr. Jafri hoped that by selling the painting separately, he could raise $30 million. But when the sale ended on March 22, Mr. Jafri did much better than that. And he didn’t have to cut up the pieces. The whole artwork was sold for $62 million, the fourth highest price ever paid for a painting by a living artist.

Andre Abdoune, a French businessman, bought all 70 of the pieces. “The painting was very powerful when I saw it,” Mr. Abdoune said, “And for me, it would have been a mistake to separate the pieces.” Knowing that the money would go to charity also helped Mr. Abdoune decide to pay more. He plans to build a special building to show the artwork off.

Nearly a hundred objects of historical value from the Confucius Museum are now on show at the exhibition, Rites, Music, and Costumes, which runs until May 26 at the China National Silk Museum, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It shows how Confucianism was an essential part of the Chinese liyue culture, an education of social etiquette (礼仪) through engaging in poetry, rites, music and dancing.

These artifacts mark the significance of Confucius and how his teachings have been followed throughout centuries. Several exhibits are being shown in Zhejiang for the first time.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 73-1 Yuhuangshan Lu, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. 0571-8703-5223.

In his life, Li Jianchen taught at several universities to help cultivate (培养) for the country many artists and architects of note. Besides his respectable accomplishments in teaching, he was also acknowledged as the “father of modern Chinese watercolor”.

An exhibition now on at Jiangsu Art Museum shows selected watercolors by Li, from his donations to the museum. Painted at different stages of his career, these works trace the evolution of his art, reflecting changing social needs and artistic tendencies. The show ends on March 31.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 333 Changjiang Lu, Nanjing, Jiangsu province. 025-8961-0810.

Different Cycles from Different Eras United by a Single Paintbrush, an exhibition currently running at Shenzhen Art Museum in Guangdong province, brings together 118 paintings produced by Spanish expressionist Jorge Rando since the 1960s. They are from the dozen series he has created over the past five decades, revisiting themes such as a mother’s love, nature, landscapes, butterflies and cycling, to name a few.

In 2019, Rando’s works were shown in Hunan and Sichuan provinces. The current exhibition in Shenzhen runs until May 26.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 32 Donghu Yijie, inside Donghu Park, Aiguo Lu, Luohu district, Shenzhen, Guangdong province. 0755-2542-6069.

5 . Following Christmas dinner, my family was relaxing around the kitchen table. We had all enjoyed traditional turkey, sweet potatoes lightly coated with brown sugar. The good cooking smells still stayed. Dad had risen from his chair and was contentedly standing nearby.

My nephew, Andrew, never one to sit still for too long, began dribbling (运球) his new basketball. Upon nearing Dad, he stopped — almost uncertainly. With shaking, wrinkled hands, Dad had reached out for the ball. He did not speak, and the boy, confused, looked up and over at us. It took some convincing, but the ball was carefully passed over.

A playful smile appeared on his face. The twinkle in his eyes shone brighter than any Christmas lights. Holding the ball and reaching forward, Dad bounced it on the floor then caught it. Gently throwing the ball away, Dad began a game of catch. His active participation was remarkable to me, since he had advanced Alzheimer’s disease. It had robbed him of many memories and the recognition of people, places and points in time. Despite this, Dad clearly recognized the ball and what you could do with it.

In my younger years, playing with Dad was rare. To his credit, Dad worked hard and provided for us. He was very private and never showed or shared much emotion, His game of choice was chess, which he did eventually teach me how to play. As an adult, I had become a caregiver and watched helplessly as Dad declined. Connecting moments between father and son had been few and far between before he took the basketball.

I’m not sure how long we played catch. What I do know is that our game ended all too soon, and it was time to face the reality of dirty dishes piled high on counter-tops. The moment, though, will certainly linger forever. On this Christmas, Dad gave me a special memory — one that I will always treasure. These stories about meeting Santa will fill you with Christmas spirit.

10 . Have you ever wondered why most store-bought tomatoes are so tasteless? Does it relate to climate change or soils? The answer has something to do with farmers’ income: Tomato farmers care about output, and the genetic variants (基因变体) associated with output are not associated with tasty tomato flavor, a new study finds.

Is it possible to bring back the rich, sweet flavor of the tomato? To find out, Denise Tieman, research assistant at the University of Florida, explored which genes are associated with tomatoes’ taste.

In an attempt to fix supermarket tomatoes, Florida researchers looked at 398 different types and identified the chemical and genetic makeup of each one. They had participants taste-test 101 varieties, cross-referencing the participants’ favorites with their research findings. They ended up with 13 genetic compositions that are most likely responsible for giving tomatoes their flavor. The researchers then measured the content of the 13 flavor compositions in each of the tomatoes, and identified about 250 genetic loci (遗传基因座) that controlled tomato flavor. And the researchers also wanted to explore why supermarket tomatoes have no taste.

It turns out that for industrial growers, it all comes down to priorities (优先性). North American consumers want year-round availability, so farmers started raising their plants for qualities like firmness, shelf life, high output and disease resistance, says Tieman. “Not to discount any of that because it’s all important. We want to have tomatoes in the grocery stores year round and be able to ship them long distances when it’s winter in the north. If they have to be shipped from Florida or Mexico, you need to have all those features.” But as growers planted tomatoes to meet those priorities, the flavor gradually disappeared.

Going back to the old varieties is not an option — at least, not for grocery stores. But the researchers believe that there is hope for a growable tomato that’s both long-lasting and flavorful in about three to five years.