Long Chenchen, the mascot for China’s upcoming Dragon Spring Festival Gala,     1     (release) recently, with a lot of design details showing the aesthetics of Chinese cultural elements.

    2     (celebrate) the year 2024, “Long Chenchen” has been designed as a cute yet lively dragon, colored orange and red and with a pair of doll eyes. The     3     (seem) cute-looking dragon takes inspiration from Chinese archaeological discoveries. The design of its nose was inspired by a dragon-shaped jade item that was discovered in the Erlitou Ruins,     4     major site in Luoyang, Central China’s Henan province that witnessed the rise and fall of the Xia and Shang dynasties. The fire shape pattern on its shoulder was inspired by a bronze piece with cloud patterns dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period,     5     multiple materials appeared and social changes were underway.

    6     receiving many likes, the mascot has also sparked criticism. Some netizen doubt the dragon character might have been synthesized (合成) by artificial intelligence.     7     (admit) that it has some “imperfections”, CMG, a design studio said it was created by designers “one stroke after another” and that “all the details about the dragon, including its patterns, colors and face, have been revised by designers through a lot of versions.”

Along with such verbal     8     (explain), a short video showing the design team working on the mascot has been posted on Sina Weibo by CMG. The media group’s response to the character’s design has become a     9     (trend) topic on Sina Weibo and has been viewed by more than 200 million netizen. “    10     it was created by AI or human beings, I think the mascot has successfully delivered the spirit of the dragon.” one netizen posted on Sina Weibo.

A traditional Chinese dance performed underwater in Luoyang, Central China’s Henan Province,     1     (go) viral on social media during the Dragon Boat Festival. The show led to renewed passion among audiences for traditional Chinese art and culture.

The     2     (impress) dance is named The Prayer, which was the opening performance of the gala (盛会) by Henan Television Station on Saturday. In the video on social media the underwater actress is seen dancing     3     colorful traditional Chinese costume. The short dance,     4     (last) less than two minutes, was seen as a     5     (combine) of contemporary art and traditional Chinese culture.

“The water made the costume even more lovely and the moves     6     (graceful)!” said one observer online. Netizens were left     7     (amaze) by both the beauty of the dancer and the creativity of the dance underwater. The dance featured a character from     8     famous ancient Chinese painting Ode to Goddess Luo, the daughter of a sacred king character Fu Xi in a Chinese tale who drowned     9     then became a goddess.

“The moves were captured underwater at 4.5 meters from the ground. The team spent a total of 26 hours underwater     10     (complete) the shooting (拍摄). The film team had to soak (浸泡) themselves in the water in each shooting session,” Chen Jia, director of the HNTV gala, said to local media.

Tea Art

It’s common to see people in coffee bars create coffee art, but it’s a whole different ball game doing the same thing with tea. Han Zheming has managed     1     (perfect) the skill, creating tea art in cups, or dian cha in Chinese, which used to be a ritual during the Song Dynasty.

Over the past six years, the 40-year-old Shanghai resident has used tea and spoons to create nearly 200 patterns based on ancient paintings. “It’s like     2     (add) bells and whistles lo tea, giving people a stronger sense of occasion, so drinking tea is     3     (fun) ,”Han says. “Dian cha enhances the taste of tea. It is similar to the foam (泡沫) on top of a cup of coffee,     4     that it is made of tea rather than milk.”

Chinese tea culture started to enjoy     5     (popular) during the Tang Dynasty and boomed throughout the Song Dynasty, when tea became     6     necessity for almost everyone, from nobles and scholars to common people, just like other essential items, such as rice, oil and salt, as suggested by Song politician and thinker Wang Anshi.

Different from the method of making tea during the Tang period, in the Song Dynasty, the popular way of having tea was through dian cha. The process begins with hot water being poured over fine     7     (powder) tea creating a mixture. Then more hot water is added slowly     8     the tea is constantly beaten by hand with a bamboo stick. It is believed that this method later spread to other parts of East Asia, including Japan,     9     similarities can be seen in the way matcha (抹茶) is prepared today.

This action of pouring hot water is called dian; hence the name dian cha     10     (list) as an intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) of Runzhou district, Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province, in 2019.

There are 43 Chinese items included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists     1     not only bear witness to the past glories of Chinese civilization, but also continue to shine today.

In 2001, when Kunqu Opera     2     (list) as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO, Yang Fengyi, artistic director and head of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, traveled with her performers to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to witness the historic moment. They showed the ancient art form through a short performance. One of the actresses received a note from     3     audience member after the show,     4     (tell) her how beautiful she was onstage     5     how beautiful Kunqu Opera was.

One of the     6     (old) traditional opera forms still performed in China, Kunqu Opera was born in the region of Kunshan in today’s Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It has distinguished     7     (it) by the virtuosity (高超技艺) of its rhythmic patterns and had a strong influence     8     all the more recent forms of opera in China, such as Peking Opera.

Like many traditional Chinese art forms, Kunqu Opera has faced competition from mass culture and a lack of interest among young people, but the     9     (recognize) by UNESCO put Kunqu Opera in the international spotlight at the same time as it began     10     (experience) a domestic revival.

International Workers’ Day,also    1     (know) as May Day, is celebrated on the first day in May. More than eighty countries    2    (celebrate) this festival since 1889. People may know that International Workers’ Day is about having a rest on that day,most of     3    don’t know the story behind it.

In the late 18th century,in order to make more money, the cruel capitalists forced    4     (employ) to work all day,but only paid low salaries. Due to the unfair payment,the workers knew that they had to stand up for their rights,or all of them would die young. Then the workers started to go on strike, and demanded that the     5    (reason) working hours should be 8 hours a day.    6     ,the capitalists did not pay attention to the workers’ demands. The workers had to fight for rights for    7     (they). On May 1st,1886,the United States’ and Canada’s trade unions     8    (get) together to start the biggest strike. After that day, the law passed the rules that the workers’ working hours would be 8 hours per day. International Workers’ Day aims to remember the spirit of bravery and show our respect    9     the former workers. Because they have made a great     10     (contribute) to today’s happiness.