2 . Minor Cold: A sugary feast to get through the freezing winter

Minor Cold, or “Xiaohan” in Chinese, is the 23rd of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar     1       We’ve outlined below how people deal with the Minor Cold and its significance in Chinese culture.

Eight treasures rice pudding or “babaofan” in Mandarin is a special sweet rice dish enjoyed during Minor Cold and Chinese New Year dinner. In Chinese, the number eight is pronounced as “ba”, which is similar to another Chinese word “fa”.     2    . Because of its pronunciation, this traditional Chinese dim sum is regarded as a symbol of wealth and health.

    3    . Different regions in China have different eating habits. People in Nanjing and Shanghai usually cook vegetable rice while in Guangzhou, it is a tradition to eat sticky rice on the morning of Minor Cold.

For Chinese people, this time of year also sees preparation for the most important festival of the year: the Spring Festival.     4    . In the old days, Chinese families would usually start to purchase the necessities for the Spring Festival, write couplets and make paper cuts by themselves.

The ancient Chinese noticed the slight changes in seasons by observing the movements of the birds. Wild geese would usually start to fly back to the north while the magpies (喜鹊) make their nests. These animals remind people of the beginning of the suitable farming and life for Minor Cold.     5    . Therefore, more attention should be paid to domestic animals’ warmth.

3 . Cultural traditions shape who you are. Lear n more about your traditions and how you can preserve them by means of the followings.

Share your culture art.

Each culture is carried by different forms of art. Museums often house items like clothing, music instruments, and visual artworks. However, beyond these exhibits, there exist tools crafted by ancestors, which present the traditions through generations’ wisdom.     1    

Attend or organize major events.

Your country, religious organizations, or immigrant ethnic groups almost certainly celebrate major holidays or cultural festivals.     2     If there aren’t any of those in your area, you can arrange your own events.

Cook family recipes.

Find some recipes from your grandmother’s cookbook.     3     As you knead dough (揉面) or follow the right amount of spices, you might remember meals from your childhood or holidays. Cooking your family recipes can help you inherit the family tradition and make it possibly passed down.

Promote your dialects (方言).

Language shapes culture to some degree. Therefore, promoting a dialect contributes to the protection of a certain culture.     4     So if you know one of them, help to spread it. With more and more people speaking, these dialects could be successfully preserved before they go extinct.

Spend time with other members of the community.

The best way to preserve your culture is to keep it alive.     5     Many aspects of culture are difficult to learn in books and museums, including body language, and humor. But you can get to the core (核心) of the cultural experience through daily communication.

4 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). Start of Autumn, the 13th solar term of the year, begins this year on Aug 8 and ends on Aug. 22. Start of Autumn means the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.     1    . The following are four things you should know about Start of Autumn.

Gathering crops

    2    . It is time to gather crops. There is a saying: “If it rains on the day of the Start of Autumn, a good harvest is expected.”

Eating peaches

In Hangzhou, people eat peaches and pray health on the Start of Autumn day. The peach stones are kept until New Year’s Eve and thrown into the stove, burned into ash. People believed that in this way,     3    .

Eating dumplings

In Shandong province, people make dumplings during the Start of Autumn, and they call it “Eating the Autumn”. On the day of Start of Autumn, senior members of the family will stand in the middle of the hall, they worship (敬奉；信奉) a bowl of cereal, and     4    . Most of the families will eat dumplings together after Start of Autumn day and have the thirst for more crops.

Eating gourds (瓜)

Although Start of Autumn indicates the beginning of autumn, hot weather will not come to an end. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), people would put gourds outside for a day before the Start of Autumn, and     5    . Today people in Tianjin believe that eating melons such as towel gourd, white gourd and bitter gourd can prevent diarrhea (腹泻) in autumn and the coming winter and spring.

8 . Literary festivals are held annually in many corners of the globe and attract large numbers of readers, writers, playwrights (剧作家) and publishers.

Miami Book Fair

For eight days each year in November, the campus of Miami Dade College hosts over 500 outstanding authors during the Miami Book Fair. The fair offers young writers a unique opportunity to attend creative writing courses and workshops. Readers can listen to famous international authors talk about their latest books. Most of the events are offered free of charge to encourage a love of literature across all income groups.

Cheltenham Literature Festival

The festival runs for 10 days every autumn in Cheltenham. It’s the world’s first literature festival, leading the way in celebrating the writ- ten and spoken word. The fair offers something to everyone-you can attend reading activities and debates, and bring your children to see their favorite storybook characters brought to life.

Paraty International Literary Festival

It’s held each year in the city of Paraty, Brazil. Visitors can meet many local and international authors, poets and playwrights, and attend literature workshops. As part of the festival, Flipinha is mainly for children where young readers can meet writers and relax with a book in a special space. A further arm of the festival is called FlipMais. A series of free events about live theatre, music and cinema are held throughout the city of Paraty.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

The festival lasts for over 16 days every August and usually features around 900 events where you can meet your favorite authors, and bring your children to attend magical story-telling sessions and special workshops for children with learning disabilities. In most years, the festival attracts over 1,000 authors, poets and educators.

The Han Dynasty was one of the heydays in ancient China. Han has a history     1    (date) back thousands of years and the traditional clothing of the Han people is called Hanfu,     2     charm has also flourished for centuries.

Hanfu is     3     important carrier of Chinese civilization, with etiquette (礼仪) as its core. Hanfu not only embodies the Chinese aesthetic taste,     4     reflects a unique meaning in etiquette, religion and culture. As long as people put on Hanfu, they should behave in accordance with     5     the “etiquette” system requires.

Hanfu is composed of yi, chang, headgear, hairstyle, shoes, etc. There are two types of “yi”.     6     is the kind with the separation of the upper and the lower garments, while the other is the one-piece kind that unites the upper and the lower garments together. The decoration on the garments represents the faith and customs in the Han culture. The Yin-Yang and all the subjects on earth     7    (picture) on Hanfu profoundly reflect the Chinese ancients’ understanding of the universe and nature.

In recent years,     8     people’s enthusiasm for traditional culture growing, wearing Hanfu in a trip or in a party     9    (become) a new trend among young people. The revival of Hanfu is a new exploration of the beauty of Chinese clothing by contemporary people, and also represents the new     10    (recognize) of the value of traditional culture by the younger generation.