1 . Walt Disney: A Legacy of Dreams

The name “Disney” evokes a rush of images: from the enchanted kingdom of Disneyland to the heartwarming tales of Bambi and Simba. For almost a century, Disney, initiated by Walt Disney himself, has been synonymous with storytelling, imagination, and dreams-come-true. But what’s the journey behind this global empire of happiness?

Founded in 1923 by Walt and Roy O. Disney, the company started as a small animation studio in the back of a real estate office in Los Angeles.     1     The creation of the beloved Mickey Mouse in 1928 marked the beginning of Disney’s ascent to fame. This iconic character not only helped the company regain its footing after a business setback but also paved the way for the world of animation as we know it.

Disney’s first full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in 1937.     2     Its success proved that storytelling combined with animation had the power to touch the hearts of audiences worldwide, setting the foundation for a series of masterpieces that followed.

Disneyland, opened in 1955, was Walt’s most ambitious venture (经营项目).     3     Termed as “The Happiest Place on Earth”, this theme park was built upon a narrative, each attraction telling its own story, making it a pioneering effort in the world of amusement parks. It wasn’t just about rides, but an experience of stories coming to life.

With Walt’s death in 1966, there were doubts about the future of the company.     4     Today, Disney is not just about animation or theme parks. With its acquisition of entities like Marvel and Lucasfilm, it’s a major player in global entertainment.

Walt Disney once said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”     5     Disney remains a testament to the power of dreams, imagination, and pursuit, lighting up lives across generations and geographies.

2 . Want good luck in 2023? Hit the kitchen. Throughout the world, New Year’s day means celebrating with traditional foods. For your holiday menu, greet the new year with the following foods.

Fish

The Chinese eat fish because the word for “fish” sounds like the word for “a large quantity”. But in other cultures, the custom results from the practicality of cod s (鳕鱼) easy preservation. Among the fishy dishes out there are: boiled cod in Denmark, dried salted cod in Italy, and seafood salad in Sweden.

Grapes

In the early 1900s, Spanish grape growers had a good harvest, and there was born a tradition. When the clock strikes midnight, revelers (狂欢者) pick up a grape for every strike, with each of the twelve grapes representing a month of the coming year. If the particular grape is especially sweet, you can expect an especially happy month matching which grape it was. For example, if the second grape was sweeter than the rest, your February will bring you much happiness.

Beans

Speaking of money, it couldn’t hurt to pair cash with coins. That’s the idea behind eating foods that are small and round. Italians and Germans eat small beans, while the Japanese prefer sweet black beans. In the American South, eating black-eyed peas is thought to bring success, a tradition which started with Sephardi Jews who moved to Georgia in the 1700s.

Cake

What’s a meal without dessert? The meal for the New Year’s Day, commonly a round cake completes the meal. You’ll find pastries in the Netherlands, Poland and Italy. Some cultures hide a meaningful treasure within, and whoever gets it is guaranteed a great year. In Greece, look out for a coin; in Scandinavia, a nut is buried in rice pudding.

5 . International travel is popular, but visitors can run into trouble if they don’t know some basic “rules”. So, it’s important to learn about the cultures they’re visiting.

BRAZIL

In general, Brazilian culture is informal. Most Brazilians are very friendly, so it’s important to greet the people you meet. Normally women kiss on the cheek, but men usually just shake hands. Brazilians usually stand very close to each other while speaking. Even if this is unusual in your culture, try not to move away if it happens. If you go to a business meeting, you are not expected to take a gift.

On the other hand, if you are invited to someone’s house, you should take a gift — like flowers or chocolate. However, avoid anything purple or black, as these colors have to do with death.

If you are invited to dinner, arrive at least 30 minutes late, but always dress well, because a person’s appearance can be very important to Brazilians.

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia is a very traditional country. It is important to greet the oldest or the most senior person first. People shake hands in business situations, but men and women do not touch in public.

In a business meeting, do not start with business matters at once. Instead, lead in the conversation by asking about people’s family or health. Arrive on time for business meetings, but don’t be surprised if others are late. Being on time is less important in Saudi Arabia than it is in most western countries. Business dress is formal.

Gifts are not expected at business meetings. If you are invited to a Saudi home, acceptable gifts are chocolate or coffee. Be careful not to admire the things the host owns, because he or she will feel necessary to give an item to you as a gift.

6 . What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? The question occurred to me with the photos in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world that staged public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day. Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?

As a cultural sign, the pillow is deceptively soft. Since at least the 16th Century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an afternoon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.

Subsequent writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-Century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.

It’s a trick perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.

With the words of Tang. Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries: an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down — one that must be lightened.

8 March 2016 is the 106th International Women’s Day (IWD). Besides sharing your greetings to all women that you love and expressing thankfulness to those who love you, there are 10 things you should know about this special day.

While IWD is now largely aimed at inspiring women across the world and celebrating their achievements, its roots are in movements struggling for better pay and voting rights.

The first National Women’s Day was marked on 28 February 1909 in the United States after a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.

During an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen the following year, Clara Zetkin, leader of the “Women’s Office” for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, suggested the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day. The idea was met with no disagreement.

1911 saw IWD honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19. Over a million people attended gatherings campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public offices and end discrimination (歧视).

On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women celebrated their first IWD on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1965, it was declared as a non—working day in the USSR.

IWD was changed to 8 March that same year and has remained the global date for the event ever since.

In 1975, the United Nations gave official permission to IWD and began sponsoring it.

The United States now names the whole month of March as “Women’s History Month”.

IWD is also an official holiday in 15 countries including China, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Over the past few years Google have marked the occasion with a “Google Doodle”, changing their logo on the search engine’s homepage to reflect the occasion.

9 . How Sociologists Define Culture

Culture is one of the most important concepts within sociology because sociologists recognize that it plays a crucial role in our social lives. It is important for shaping social relationships, maintaining and challenging social order, determining how we make sense of the world and our place in it, and in shaping our everyday actions and experiences in society.    1    

In brief, sociologists define the non–material aspects of culture as the values and beliefs, language, communication and practices that are shared in common by a group of people. Expanding on these categories, culture is made up of our knowledge, common sense, assumptions and expectations. It is also the rules, norms, laws and morals that govern society; the words we use as well as how we speak and write them; and the symbols we use to express meaning, ideas and concepts.    2    It informs and is encapsulated in how we walk, sit, carry our bodies and interact with others; how we behave depending on the place, time and “audience”; and how we express identities of race, class and gender, among others. Culture includes the collective practices we participate in as well, such as religious ceremonies, the celebration of secular holidays and attending sporting events.

    3    This aspect of culture includes a wide variety of things, from buildings, technological gadgets and clothing, to film, music, literature and art, among others. Aspects of material culture are more commonly referred to as cultural products.

Sociologists see the two sides of culture—the material and non–material—as closely connected. Material culture emerges from and is shaped by the non-material aspects of culture.    4    But it is not a one–way relationship between material and non–material culture. Material culture can also influence the non-material aspects of culture. For example, a powerful documentary film might change people’s attitudes and beliefs.    5    What has come before in terms of music, film, television and art, for example, influences the values, beliefs and expectations of those who interact with them, which then, in turn, influence the creation of additional cultural products.

10 . To the Sweden, there are few smells more attractive than surströmming (臭鲱鱼). To most non-Sweden there are probably few smells more repulsive — the fish has been described variously as smelling like sour cat litter, or even droppings-like. In determining which smells people find pleasant or not, surströmming suggests culture must play a size able part.

New research, however, suggests that might not be the case. Artin Arshamian, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and Asifa Majid, a psychologist at the University of Oxford, began with the expectation that culture would play an important role in determining pleasant smells. This was not just because of examples like that of surströmming. They knew from past experiments by other researchers that culture was important in determining which sorts of faces people found beautiful.

To study how smell and culture relate, the researchers presented ten smells. These smells varied from herb to isovaleric acid, the chemical responsible for smelly socks. More in-between smells, which the team thought might split opinions, included octanoic acid; and octenol, an carthy smell found in many mushrooms. The cultures doing the smelling varied widely too, including hunters, farmers and city folk.

All 235 participants were asked to rank smells according to pleasantness. The researchers found that pleasantness ran kings were remarkable consistent regardless of where people came from. Isovaleric acid was hated by the vast majority, only eight giving it a score of l to 3 (I was very pleasant and 10 was very unpleasant ). On the other hand, more than 190 people gave herb a score of l to 3. Overall, the chemical composition of the smells explained 41 % of the reactions that participants had. In contrast, cultural upbringing accounted for just 6 %

Even so, while culture didn't shape perceptions (感知) of smells in the way that it shapes perceptions of faces, the researchers did find an “eye of the beholder” effect. Randomness, which the researchers suggest has to come from personal preference learned from outside individual culture, accounted for 54 % of the difference in which smells people liked.