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.

4 . One of the longest ancient wooden bridges in China, located in Fujian province, collapsed on Saturday night after a fire broke out. No casualties(伤亡)or injuries were reported. Wan’an Bridge, which has a history of more than 900 years, in the village of Changqiao in Pingnan county caught fire at around 9:10 pm. The blaze was put out by 10: 45 pm, according to the local emergency management bureau.

There are more than 50 wooden arch bridges in Pingnan. Measuring almost 100 meters long and 5 meters wide, Wan’an Bridge is the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the country. A fire broke out on the bridge in the Qing Dynasty(1644～1911)and it was rebuilt in 1742. It was listed as a key national cultural relic in 2006. The construction of wooden arch bridges uses the most sophisticated techniques among all wooden bridges in China, and the techniques themselves were listed as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2009.

Although uncommon, fires at cultural sites around the country do happen. In 2014, a fire destroyed around 300 houses in Dukezong township in Shangrila county of Yunnan province. Dukezong, established more than 1, 300 years ago, is known for its Tibetan-style architecture. The fire burned nearly a fifth of the ancient town’s core preservation area.

In 2019, the National Cultural Heritage Administration and Ministry of Emergency Management issued a guideline on improving fire safety for cultural relics. It required museums and institutions with cultural relics to conduct fire safety check every two hours when open to the public.

According to China News Service, Pingnan county has set up special working groups to look into the incident and to try to restore the bridge. The local authorities are looking into the cause of the incident and the public security bureau has started an investigation.

9 . It had been a “long” and hard walk from home to the subway station for teenager Mandy Chan when she first put on hanfu in public. Chan is one of the founders of hanfu in Hong Kong. “It was a set with a cream-colored shirt, a brown jacket in China’s Ming dynasty style and a red pleated skirt made by me,” she recalled recently, almost 10 years later.

It was not the looks from others but her limited knowledge on the traditional Chinese clothing that had made her uncomfortable. Chan added, “If anyone had asked what I was wearing, or the history behind it, I would have been afraid I couldn’t tell them the whole picture.”

However, her uneasiness had gradually gone with more in-depth research on traditional Chinese culture. Hanfu was the traditional clothing of China’s Han ethnic group that was formed in the main residential areas of the Han people in ancient China. The historical clothing has untold stories and ideas in every detail. The cutting and stitching line in the middle part of hanfu fits the spine (脊椎) of the human body and helps people to dress properly. This design, which has transcended (超越) itself as mere decoration, points to the qualities of the wearers as upright and moderate (温和的) individuals.,

“Instead of imitating people like what I used to do, I have jumped out of my comfort zone and found the style that suits me best,” Chan said. “Through hanfu, I have found myself and so many unexplored things in my life.” Chan added that she had found her lifelong passion through hanfu, which is a goal and dream that has never been absent from her life. Chan found she was not alone after falling in love with hanfu. She believes that classics will never go out of style and she herself has incorporated (使并入) hanfu into her everyday life.