1 . Kwanzaa may be a festival celebrated by millions of African Americans and pan-Africans, but it has only been around for a few decades (十年). Introduced to the United States in 1966 as a ceremony to welcome the first harvest to the home, the festival, which takes place from December 26 to January 1, is a celebration of life, unity, family, and culture.

Featuring feasts, music and dance, and a devotion and recommitment to different principles (信条), the festival was created in the middle of the Black Freedom Movement, at a time when it was felt that cultural grounding was needed.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach, is responsible for bringing the festival to life. After the Watts violence in L.A., Dr. Karenga searched for ways to strengthen the African-American community. He paired the practices with traditions of several different harvest celebrations on the African continent, and although it is celebrated around the Christmas period, it perhaps has more similarities to Thanksgiving or the Yam Festival in Ghana and Nigeria.

There are five common sets of values that are central to the week-long activities: ingathering, reverence, commemoration, recommitment, and celebration. There are seven principles of Kwanzaa, meaning first fruits in Kiswahili, a language spoken in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The first fruit celebrations appear in ancient and modern times in classical African civilizations.

These seven principles are known as Umoja, meaning unity; kujichagulia, self-determination; ujima, collective work, and responsibility; ujamaa, cooperative economics; nia, purpose; kuumba, creativity; and Imani, faith. There are seven candles used during the festival, and like, the Jewish Hanukkah, these candles are used to represent the principles.

On December 31, participants celebrate with a plentiful meal, often featuring good meals from various African countries.

The number of Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa has changed greatly over the years, and with as many as six million getting involved in the 1980s, Kwanzaa became a mainstream holiday. Now, however, numbers have paled, but it still remains an important cultural touchstone (试金石) for many African American communities.

2 . “One day I went to a Swedish friend’s and while we were playing in his room, his mom yelled that dinner was ready. And check this. He told me to WAIT in his room while they ate!” an Internet user shared on a media platform. Consequently, there was a lot of criticism of the Swedes. Many said they wouldn’t dream of being so mean in their culture. Would a host in Sweden really not invite a guest to join their meal if it’s dinnertime?

It does happen, says Richard Tellstrom, a food historian at Stockholm University. He says this so-called “non-hospitality” was customary when he was a kid in the ‘60s and ‘70s. If he was over a friend’s house and it was time for dinner, he would go back to his own house to eat. Or he would stay and wait in another room while his friend finished his meal. Then they’d continue playing.

“Some Swedes think feeding a guest creates a sense of duty.” explains Tellstrom. “And in a society that values equality and independence, people don’t want to put a burden on someone or feel like they owe someone something.” However, it wasn’t a universal rule. Families in the countryside, for example, were more likely to feed guests. People lived farther apart, so it wasn’t as easy for people to go home and eat. The “no dinner for you” policy has slowly faded, says Tellstrom. “Since the 1990s, food has become a new symbol in society. We have open kitchens. People like to dine there and show off their cooking.”

But non-sharing hosts haven’t entirely disappeared, says Mohini Mehta, a food scholar. She admits she had a tough time adjusting to life in Sweden when she moved there in 2020. She was used to cooking dine every day for friends and hosting dinner parties almost weekly in India. She learned that in some cultures, like her own, sharing a meal with someone is a way to break the ice—but this isn’t always the case for Swedes.

3 . Nature and culture are often seen as opposite ideas. What belongs to nature cannot be the result of human activities and, on the other hand, cultural development is achieved against nature. However, this is not the only opinion on the relationship between nature and culture. Studies in the development of humans suggest that culture, whether taken as an effort against nature or a natural effort, is part of the development of the human species (物种).

Several modern writers saw the process of education as a struggle (斗争) against human nature. We are born with wild natures, such as eating and behaving in a disorganized way or acting selfishly. Education uses culture as a way to get us out of our wildest natures; it is thanks to culture that the human species could learn to adapt (适应), progress and raise itself above and beyond other species.

Over the past century and a half, however, studies in the history of human development have shown that the formation of culture is part of the biological adaptation. Consider, for example, hunting. It seems to be an adaptation, which allowed humans to move into new and different areas, opening up the opportunity to change living habits. At the same time, the development of weapons (武器) is related to that adaptation — from rocks and stones to a set of hunting tools, and from hunting tools to rules relating to the proper use of weapons. Hunting also seems to be responsible for a whole set of bodily abilities, such as balancing on one foot. Just think of how this very simple thing is closely related to dance, a key expression of human culture. It is then clear that biological development and cultural development are closely tied.

The transmission of culture seems to be directly related to what’s in our blood. Just as snails carry their shell, so do we bring along our culture. However, culture is also passed on among people of the same times or among people belonging to different populations. We can learn how to make jiaozi even if we were born from Russian parents in Paris just as we can learn how to speak English even if none of our family or friends speaks that language.

4 . The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM), located in the West Kowloon Cultural District of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was established on June 22 and is scheduled to open to the public on July 2. More than 40,000 tickets were sold or reserved within eight hours on the first day of public sale, and all free visits on Wednesdays in July were fully booked.

The HKPM, not only adds to cultural atmosphere in the city, but also provides a new site for local residents and visitors to learn about the development of Chinese civilization and culture. More than 900 pieces of treasures from the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing will be put on display at the opening exhibitions. From paintings to ancient architectures, the exhibits span the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, covering all categories of the collection of the Palace Museum, including 166 pieces of first-class cultural relics of the country. This will be the largest and highest-level cultural heritage exhibitions of the Palace Museum outside of the mainland since its establishment in 1925.

Prepare work for the exhibitions began in 2018, with the Palace Museum fielding a team of leading experts and scholars, associated with the manage team of the HKPM.

“It is a great thing to display the pieces of cultural relics in Hong Kong, which reflects the central government’s support to the development of Hong Kong’s cultural projects,” said Ng, adding that the exhibits from the Palace Museum will present a cultural feast to Hong Kong residents by telling them about the motherland’s long history and splendid culture.

“Promoting traditional Chinese culture is one of our important tasks,” said Betty Fung, chief executive officer of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. She said the HKPM will actively push ahead with the publicity of the motherland’s culture and history after its opening, enhancing Hong Kong residents’ cultural confidence in the country, especially among youths.

Fung said that the HKPM will actively enhance cooperation with international museums, telling the world the stories of China, including the stories of Hong Kong.

5 . The concept “China chic”, or guochao, has become popular in recent years. According to relevant data, from January to July 2022, the search volume for “Guochao” as a keyword has increased by 392. 66% year on year. Big Data Report of 2021 Guochao Pride Search from Baidu revealed that the level of interest in guochao has skyrocketed in the past 10 years. Domestic（国内 的）products are in fashion, and domestic consumption has increasingly become an important choice for the new generation of consumers.

China chic mixes unique cultural elements with the latest trends in various industries, which not only satisfies younger consumers' needs for pursuing personality and fashion, but also plays a role in bringing back traditional culture. The rise of China chic is the result of China's rapid economic development and has some cultural motivations behind it. Besides, the continuous improvement of the consumption power of Chinese people is an important reason for the rise of China chic.

Most importantly, cultural confidence is the driving force for the rise of China chic. Five thousand years of Chinese civilization has left us a rich cultural heritage. Guochao is, in many ways, the perfect representative of the new wave of Chinese nationalism. Starting in the fashion industry, this trend shows Chinese consumers' newfound interest in Chinese cultural heritage. The guochao trend is at its strongest among young adults who live in an even more powerful China and thus have a strong feeling of national pride. China's national strength is increasing, and its soft power is also on the rise. Even so, we still have a long way to go to carry forward this China chic. But as it has become a part of people's lives, no doubt there will even be more diverse China chic products showing Chinese charm in the future.