Recently, Ma Xiaohui, a famous Chinese erhu     1     (perform) and composer with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, held     2     erhu concert with the theme of “Erhu Holding Hands with the World, New Music Trend, New Cultural Tour” in the Delegates’ Room at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Attendees from different backgrounds and participants in the World Madam Global Awards Ceremony were     3     (deep) moved by the unique charm of traditional Chinese musical instruments     4     (display) during the concert.

The concert began     5     the song “Woman Flower”. In the first movement, “Seven Colors of Erhu, Walking with Beauty, Colorful Silk Road,” melodies from Chinese and Western songs created an “ink painting” of the Silk Road.

In the next three     6     (movement), a classical repertoire (曲目) including “Butterfly Lovers”, “Thoughts on a Silent Night”     7     “The Spirit of My Erhu” attracted the audience. Next     8     (come) the theme song from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”,     9     beautifully celebrated the classic dialogue between erhu and cello (大提琴).

“This beautiful and     10     (inspire) concert wonderfully mixed classical, Chinese, and cross-cultural themes. It was a feast (盛宴) for the ears and souls,” multimedia artist Ranjit Bhatnagar said.

Xiao Han and He Ting, are now full-time artists and they run their own studios. They graduated from Shanghai Normal University     1     they majored in traditional Chinese painting,     2     unique ancient art form, which is created by using ink and water-based colors on materials such as paper or silk.

Xiao     3     (use) to creating paintings on round silk fans. His creative     4     (inspire) comes from the pure and simple life of people in the Southern Song Dynasty, “That is the very ideal painting and life style in a busy world     5     I dream of,” says Xiao, who set up a home studio in Shanghai     6     a window allowing him to enjoy the sunrise.

Despite drawing people and life, He Ting, from the coastal city of Xiangshan in Zhejiang Province, decorates the folding fans     7    (feature) paintings that are focused on landscapes. And he loves the views of Jiangnan water towns, which can bring people much     8     (warm).

“We are lucky to be living in a time when the government supports the culture industry     9     (complete). Now the revival(复兴) of traditional Chinese culture     10     (promote) in the whole country. And I believe that artists will get more chances to spread the culture both at home and abroad,” says He Ting.

Zhang Xuehua is     1     artist of paper cutting, who works attentively in her workshop in Ma’anshan city, east China’s Anhui Province. As she turns the paper, her scissors fly and a paper-cut work is “born”.

    2     (normal), paper cutting craftsmen first draw patterns on paper and then cut them into outlines, but Zhang has a special     3    (capable) to cut without sketching (画素描) patterns ahead of time. She can turn a piece of paper the size of a handkerchief     4     a lifelike paper cutting work in less than one minute. Her works show a mixture of paper cutting styles in northern and southern China.

Zhang     5    (learn) the craft from her grandmother. “In the beginning, I was not able to cut well, but in time I could create little frogs, butterflies, flowers and other works,” Zhang said. “Paper cutting created countless beautiful childhood     6    (memory) for me. ”

The walls of Zhang’s studio are covered with work, large and small, with subjects     7    (range) from the twelve zodiac signs to daily items. The work Zhang remains proudest of is the Folk Girl series,     8     now sits in the National Art Museum of China’s permanent collection.     9    (carry) forward the traditional craft of paper cutting, Zhang often offers paper cutting classes for free at residential communities, schools and museums, well     10    (recognize) by young people who want to understand the living heritage.

Yang Liping became known as the “peacock princess” after her 1986 award-winning dance piece, Spirit of the Peacock, a work    1    (inspire) by the graceful hand movements of the bird-related dance of the ethnic Bai people. Born in a Bai family in Dali, Yunnan, she never received formal dance training but displayed a talent    2    dancing since she was a child. Later, she left her hometown and    3    (perform) at grand theaters and festivals in China and overseas, as well as winning a number of     4    (award). Dynamic Yunnan is her significant work, which    5     (stage) more than 7,000 times so far.

On April 27, two days before International Dance Day, Yang appeared in Beijing    6    (attend) a public event marking her career.    7    (wear) a long pink dress with a hand-embroidered tiger in the front, Yang released her new work, a 12-minute dance film, The Tiger’s Roar. It is the second project Yang has done based on animals. In 2021, she produced a dance piece, Spring Ox Picture. The ox symbolizes hard work, a    8    (tradition) virtue.

Yang is not foreign to films. In 1995, she played    9    role in the film, Warrior Lanling, directed by Hu Xuehua. Last year, with a heavy heart, she shared news of breaking up the team, because of the COVID-19 pandemic,    10    has affected the performing arts scene.

Known for his playful style of watercolor works, Qi Baishi is a well-known Chinese painter. His works usually focus    1     birds and flowers and are admired and praised by many worldwide.

Qi Baishi was born to    2    peasant family in Xiangtan, China. During his early teenage years, he taught     3    (he) how to paint while working as a carpenter. Through his own efforts, he    4    (be) able to master the skills of painting, calligraphy, and even poetry at the age of 27. Some of his major influences include the early Qing Dynasty painter Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) and the Ming Dynasty artist Xu Wei.

His artworks mostly belong to the gongbi mode(风格), a style     5    features “fine brushwork and great detail”. Through his paintings, he puts into focus the small things of the world rather than large landscapes. The fishes, shrimps, crabs, and frogs were said to be his favorite     6    (subject).

He was most     7    (experience) in simple, freely sketched compositions, but he could also    8    (successful) perform a meticulous(细节的)style.    9    (use) heavy ink, bright colors and vigorous strokes, he created works in a fresh and lively manner which expressed his love of nature and life. In 1955, he     10    (honour) with the International Peace Award.

As you walk into the Shandong Arts and Crafts Exhibition Center, you    1    (greet) by a magnificent sight: a larger-than-life rabbit. With an auspicious cloud atop, the Tuzi Wang, or “lord rabbit”, is dressed in a golden helmet, armor and a flowing red robe.

The creator of the rabbit figure is Yang Feng,    2    inheritor of this Shandong intangible cultural heritage.    3    (locate) on the second floor of the exhibition center is his studio    4    he displays his works, in different designs and sizes, as well as the legends and stories associated with them.

After dedicating two decades to perfecting his craft, Yang is committed to     5    (promote) the traditional skill of creating the lord rabbit in his own unique style. “For me, crafting the rabbit is not just a job,    6    a lifelong career that I am    7    (passion) about,” he says.

Hou Yangjun, the deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association,    8    (explain) that the practice of worshiping the moon with the rabbit god can be traced back     9     the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was practiced     10    (main) in Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong’s Jinan and Qingdao.

The craftswoman Ji Yulan, an inheritor of the intangible heritage of paper-cutting from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,     1     (engage) herself in the art for over 40 years.

She made paper-cuts of people from all     2     (walk) of life. “The paper-cutting art comes from the folk and it should return to the people,” Ji said. One of her pieces described a nurse with long, beautiful hair,     3     (wear) a mask and a white gown (罩衣). Ji was deeply impressed by female medical workers     4     cut their long hair to better themselves for their jobs. “Women are charming in long hair and it takes a lot of courage to cut it,” Ji said. She created a paper-cutting work to show the image, in which a nurse has her long hair back.

Ji has 12 students, aged from 3     5     23. “They discovered their interest in paper-cutting and came to me to learn it, “she said. She devotes     6     (she) to her career and often encourages her students     7     (create) works based on a younger mindset. Ji said, “I am     8     (extreme) optimistic about the future of the craft. Younger generation have a real sense of     9     (culture) heritage.”

Ji keeps practicing paper-cutting every day. Her works hang in her studio     10    appear in every corner of her home. She also learned to share her works on video-sharing platforms to increase her audience.

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary,” said Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Wu Liren has been maintaining such a “diary” of the Grand Canal    1    1978.

The 65-year-old painter from Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, has been using ink and brush for more than 40 years    2    (record)the beauty of the arterial(干线的)waterway, the hospitality of local residents and the richness of culture    3    flows all the way.

Wu says memories and emotions run deep in his paintings, and these are far    4     (important) than any technical perfection. “My art has always been about the Grand Canal. Sometimes I paint what I    5     (see)in the past and sometimes I reproduce what I heard about people who lived by the canal,” he says.

Wu believes the Grand Canal is often compared with the West Lake, one of the most famous scenic    6     (attraction)in Hangzhou. “The West Lake is seen as a beautiful treasure that needs to be cared for. But the Grand Canal is like our mother, who has watched us grow up, earn a living along her busy banks, leave her in search of a better future    7    return to her embrace later on,” he says.

Recently, Wu completed a 100-meter-long scroll(卷轴)painting of the canal’s Tangxi-Xixing stretch in Hangzhou. “I have actually painted the entire Grand Canal in Hangzhou,     8     (borrow) historical anecdotes from every dynasty,” Wu    9     (proud)says. “The story of the canal needs to be told and the culture it represents must    10     (pass)down.”

    1     (fortunate) his father died, leaving the family even worse     2    , so Charlie spent his childhood looking after his sick mother and his brother. By his teens, Charlie had, through his humor, become one of the most popular child actors in England. He could mime and act the fool doing ordinary everyday tasks. No one was ever     3     (bore) watching him—his subtle acting made everything     4     (entertain).

Mozart showed musical gifts at    1    early age, composing at five and performing in public only a year later.    2    (drive) by the thirst for wealth, his father took him on a performance tour around the French and English royal families,     3     he made a deep    4    (impress) on everyone with his     striking skills. During the tour, he also had his first music    5    (publish) and wrote his    6    (early) symphonies. After the family’s returning home late in 1766, he began his bittersweet life    7    a musician. Mozart died when still young. Throughout his short life, he studied, taught, wrote and played music. Even by working hard, he found    8    challenging to make ends meet(使生活收支平衡), borrowing money from his friends at times.    9    , his music made him happy and for more than two hundred years his   music     10    (make)others happy as well.