Drums play a significant role in Chinese culture.     1     (accompany) Chinese civilization for thousands of years, the drum has a deep spiritual meaning which takes its existence far beyond a musical instrument. Confucius regarded the “Drum Dance”     2     (high). It is also the origin of the Chinese phrase “guwu” which means “embolden“ in English.

The earliest reference to the drum in China is in the Pottery Age. The Zhou dynasty     3     (establish) the drum music institution that was responsible for the management officials known     4    “drum men” and developed a complete drum music system. From then on, drums came to be used in ancient Chinese     5     (practice) such as sacrifice, military, labor and other activities.

In ancient China, agriculture was the main form of production and drums were considered inseparable for a good harvest. Since the sound of drums echoes     6    of thunder, it was believed that    7    (play) drums could attract rain.

Dozens of types of Chinese drums exist today. For instance, “Taiping Drum” is used to express hope for peace and prosperity（繁荣）    8     “Ansai Waist Drum” is meant to show the spirit of the Loess Plateau（黄土高原）and the    9     (hero) character of farmers in Northwest China.

The prosperity of drum culture reflects the     10     (stable) and prosperity of Chinese society. For thousands of years, drums have been played in the backdrop as the society lives in peace and contentment.

Yours,

Li Hua

7 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.

The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.

”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.

He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.

However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.

The youth version of The Peony Pavilion (《牡丹亭》) successfully entered the stage of the Spring for Chinese Arts at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.

The Peony Pavilion,     1     cultural treasure of the world, was written by China’s Ming Dynasty playwright and writer Tang Xianzu, who is compared to William Shakespeare. And Kunqu Opera,     2     (combine) songs performed in the Suzhou dialect, graceful body movements, martial arts and dance, was     3     (origin) born in the region of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. It was listed as one of the representative     4     (work) of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2001.

Kunqu Opera uses a seemingly endless     5     (vary) of gestures to express specific emotions and has distinguished itself by its rhythmic patterns. It also has a major impact     6     all the more recent forms of opera in China, such as Peking Opera.

    7     excites the organizing committee is that The Peony Pavilion     8     (attract) a growing young audience since its first performance in Beijing. Up to now, Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center,     9     aim is to emphasize the inheritance, promotion, development and popularization of traditional Chinese culture and arts, has also held many exhibitions related to traditional drama, and established the Peking Opera inheritance class     10     (popularize) the traditional art to children.