2 . Four best fall festivals in the United States

Fall might be America’s favorite season, when we celebrate the art of getting together. Here are four fall festivals too good to miss.

Trailing of the Sheep Festival

October 9-13 | Sun Valley, Idaho

This fall, more than 25,000 people from around the world will watch 1,500-plus sheep march down Ketchum’s Main Street. Even if nobody showed, third-generation farm owners would still tend their sheep through town to the grasslands on the Colorado River. It has become a reminder of a 150-year-old way of life.

Apple Butter Festival

October 12-13 | Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Copper kettles (铜壶) balanced over the fire have been used in Appalachia for centuries. In Berkeley Springs’ town square, the tradition is respected at the Apple Butter Festival: Competing cooks use long wooden sticks to mix the silky apple butter in copper kettles and sell it on site.

Nantucket Cranberry Festival

October 12 | Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

Every October, the island hosts the Nantucket Cranberry Festival, a free outdoor festival where visitors can pick cranberries (蔓越莓) in a traditional way and tour cranberry bogs (沼泽) on foot with local experts. Hourly public buses run directly from the ferry (渡船) landing to the bog, but book ferry tickets to the island ahead of time.

Kona Coffee Cultural Festival

November 3-10 | Kona, Hawaii

Festivities during Kona’s Annual Coffee Cultural Festival tell the 200-year-old story of the Big Island’s multicultural coffee history. The festival includes many coffee-related competitions. Visitors can also tour more than 30 of Kona’s 650 coffee farms.

4 . For the past three decades, Richard Sears, 71, has been focusing on one thing: Chinese culture.

His interest in Chinese language goes back to 1972, when he was a university student. “I had checked across Canada and the US. And I was on my way to Africa,” he says. “I wanted to see the world. But then 1 realized only 7 percent of the world speaks English as a mother tongue. So I wanted to know what it was like to speak another language.” Richard bought a one-way ticket to China to learn Chinese. At that time Richard supported himself by teaching English.

Two years later, he returned to the US to finish his study. He became a researcher after graduation and later worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. In 1981 he lost his job. He even had to work on a night job as a guard for several years so that he could study Chinese at night and get some rest during the day. “I didn’t earn much, but at least I had time to read Chinese books.” he says. At 40, he was already pretty fluent in Chinese.

In 1994 Richard suffered a heart attack. “I did not know if I would live another hour.” he says. “When I finally recovered, I had to think about my life, I had to plan as if I was going to die maybe in a year. So I decided to better know about Chinese with more efforts.”

Last September, Richard set up his studio in Nanjing as part of the local authority’s plan to promote cultural services. The studio focuses on telling stories of Chinese culture and character origins. They have made more than 60 such videos in both English and Chinese.

“We also want to make videos with a high educational value both for Chinese and foreign learners of Chinese characters. There will be a large number of videos, showing the origins of modern and traditional Chinese characters.” Richard says.

5 . To this paper-cutting artist, Shi Qinling, scissors are like what brushes are to painters, or what pens are to writers. Always having a pair of scissors on her also allows her to create art whenever inspiration hits. “Some people like to pen their feelings in diaries. I prefer to cut them out,” says the 35-year-old, who is currently working at the Fenglin community cultural activity center in Shanghai.

Shi developed an interest in handicraft when she was a child who often found herself alone at home. Out of boredom, she would play with paper, folding and cutting them into different shapes. This interest later developed into a passion, one that she decided to pursue by majoring in arts and crafts design during her time in university.

After graduation, however, she found herself working at a ship design company as she was unsure about what she wanted to do with her future. About a year later, the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Research Institute offered her a position in their paper-cutting department. Realizing that she still had a love for the craft, she switched her career.

In 2010, she started learning paper-cutting from Xi Xiaoqin, the national inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage for paper-cutting. Three years later, one of her works, The Fighting Fish, won third place at the Baihua Cup, a competition for Chinese arts and crafts. Six years later, Shi was named a Shanghai paper-cutting inheritor and become the city’s “youngest inheritor” of the paper-cutting heritage.

6 . The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 closed on February 20. More than an event, the Games are also for exchanging goodwill and friendship. The design details of various elements such as the medals, emblem(图案) and mascots(吉祥物) serve this purpose. Let’s take a look at these Chinese elements through the designs.

Medals

The front side of the Winter Olympic medals was based on the ancient Chinese jade concentric circle pendants, with five rings representing “the unity of heaven and earth and the unity of people’s hearts”. The opposite side of the medals was inspired from a piece of Chinese jadeware(玉器) called “Bi”, a double jade disc with a round hole in the center.

Emblem

Inspired by the Chinese character “冬” for “winter”, the upper part of the emblem resembles a skater and its lower part a skier. The ribbon-like decoration in between mainly symbolizes the host country’s rolling mountains, Games venues, ski courses and skating rinks.

The blue color in the emblem represents dreams, the future and the purity of ice and snow, while red and yellow—the colors of China’s national flag – present passion, youth and vitality.

Mascots

Bing Dwen Dwen, the cute mascot of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, attracts attention with the panda’s full-body “shell” made out of ice. The inspiration came from traditional Chinese snack “ice-sugar gourd,” (tanghulu), while the shell also resembles a space suit—embracing new technologies for a future of countless possibilities. “Bing” is the Chinese character for ice, which symbolizes purity and toughness. Dwen Dwen is a common nickname in China for children that suggests they are lovely, healthy and clever.

9 . “This material is called xiangyunsha,” said Song Fei, while she introduced a traditional cheongsam(旗袍) to customers in a flagship shop. “Dyed with pure plant extracts (提取物) and unpolluted river mud, the time-honored silk cloth is named ‘soft gold’ in the textile (纺织的) industry.”

To everyone’s surprise, the knowledgeable Song, who has unbelievable insights into cheongsam, a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women, has practiced law for 10 years in Chengdu City. In 2017, she traveled to Suzhou to learn design and handicraft skills of cheongsam and traditional costumes, becoming a cheongsam designer.

At first, Song’s family and friends were not optimistic about her choice to switch from a distinguished career to an artistic field. Knowing little about clothing, Song met with a huge challenge. “The pain was unthinkable, but since I had chosen that profession, I had to stick to it. I want a career that I truly enjoy,” said Song.

Song returned to Chengdu with new skills and creative passion in 2019 and founded her design brand. “To be honest, compared with my previous job, this one is harder and leaves me with much greater financial pressure. But my sense of satisfaction is beyond comparison when my works are recognized and appreciated,” said Song.

“Traditional cheongsams are one-piece tailored dresses of Chinese origin that require making with natural materials by hand. However, modern cheongsams are often made with artificial materials and produced by machine,” Song said. “In the face of rapid social and economic changes, traditional cheongsams are receiving less attention due to the popularity of mass-produced cheongsams.”

To save the beauty of traditional culture, Song wants to blend people’s daily lives with time-honored handicrafts, believing that traditional culture should not be the zone of museums. She aims to pass on traditional Chinese culture, which is a meaningful type of work with social responsibilities.

10 . The 24 solar terms were created thousands of years ago in China to guide agricultural production. They also reflect China’s rich history through the seasonal festivals, special foods, cultural ceremonies, family gatherings and even healthy living tips that correspond with each solar term.    1    

Rain Water signals the increase in rainfall and rise in temperature. With its arrival, lively spring-like scenery starts blossoming: the river water defreezes, wild geese move from south to north and trees and grass turn green again.

    2    In northern China, the spring drought is common and the precipitation of this season accounts for only 10 to 15 percent of annual average rainfall. At this time of year, farmers begin to plough their fields. It’s the right time to prepare for spring sowing when the day gets warmer.    3    

During Rain Water period, extra care is needed to deal with a returning cold spell and humidity, which is the amount of water in the air.    4    It is strongly advised not to take off the thick coats too early and to keep warm, especially the elderly and children.

The wet and humid weather during Rain Water period is considered harmful for people’s spleen and stomach according to Chinese medical practice.    5    People in Beijing often eat porridge (粥) cooked with a kind of Chinese herb medicine to resist cold and wet weather. Honey, dates and Chinese yam are also very good nourishment (营养) to put in the porridge.