A total of 16 Chinese and Italian volunteers, wearing Hanfu, an ancient clothing     1    (traditional) worn by ethnic-majority Han Chinese,    2     (participate) in a parade launched in Venice on Feb. 17, 2023.

The clothing, transported from the Suzhou Silk Museum, was themed of Han, Tang, Song and Ming     3     (dynasty) respectively and well displayed Jiangnan culture and world-known Suzhou silk.

The show attracted lots of young people, most of     4     decided to participate in this initiative, thinking it could be a way to get even     5     (close) to Chinese culture.

The 24-year-old Irene Di Maio,     6     (major) in Chinese in Venice, went to Suzhou to attend a dragon boat festival five years ago. “The event was amazing, especially the part from Suzhou, a city I loved very much. This time I would like     7    (know) more about Hanfu.”

In addition to the clothing show, visitors can also enjoy a series of Chinese cultural activities, including the performance of guzheng,    8     traditional Chinese musical instrument, Hanfu try-ons and calligraphy demonstrations.

Suzhou, considered by the Italian explorer Marco Polo in the 13th century     9    “the Venice of the East”, became a sister city to Venice in 1980, and since then multiple activities of mutual historical and cultural exchange     10     (carry) forward.

The world’s biggest kite, shaped like a dragon and    1     (stretch) over 280meters, flew high on Sunday in the skies over the Chinese city of Weifang. The city in the eastern province of Shandong is     2     birthplace of kites and home to the Weifang International Kite Festival since 1984.

The highlight of this year’s edition was the “Chinese Giant Dragon”, four meters in    3     (high) and 3.6 meters in width. The kite has the head of a dragon and the body of a centipede(蜈蚣) and is the    4    (wide) of its kind in the world. “It took 28 experienced workers 48 days to design and complete the kite.55 people     5     (require) to fly it,” said Zhang Huagang, general manager of Weifang Tianshun Kite Productions and one of the kite makers.

According to Zhang, the giant dragon kite, using traditional Chinese techniques, “    6     (refer) to our nation’s wishes for prosperity and fortune”. The kite festival, now in its 38th edition, opened on Friday    7     the presence of hundreds of amateurs and professionals,    8     flooded to the city from near and far to display their creations at the event.

This year’s festival features a record 1,628 kites in     9    (vary) forms by 500 participants     10     (divide) into 188 teams from over 31 provinces and regions from across the country.

Thanks to our country’s efforts, traditional Chinese culture today is shining with a new vitality,     1     is     increasingly appealing to younger generations both at home and abroad.

Dressed up in an    2     (elegantly)traditional Chinese Hanfu, JongMay Urbonya, an American lady with brown hair, shares her understanding of ancient Chinese poetry    3     perfect Mandarin in front of the camera. So far her short videos     4     (attract) a flood of thumbs up and positive comments from Chinese viewers online.

This 28-year-old vlogger,     5     ( current) living in Beijing, started a company in April with an aim of promoting traditional Chinese culture on Douyin and Bilibili. Besides    6     (engage) in literature, she also focuses on other themes, such as traditional Chinese clothing and dancing.

JongMay was born in 1994 in Dalian, China’s Liaoning Province, where her parents worked as    7     (professor) of English. She returned to the United States at the age of six, and came back to China as    8     high school student in 2011. She studied Chinese dance in college and has stayed in Beijing ever since.

“When I was a kid, I was    9     (addict) to Costumes in ancient China and often threw sheets over my shoulders pretending to be an ancient Chinese lady,” she said. “So I thought I had to come to China    10     (learn ) about the culture more deeply.”

Bing Dwen Dwen, a panda in an ice shell    1    (choose) as the official mascot for the Beijing2022 Winter Games back in 2019.

According to Cao Xue, the chief designer of Bing Dwen Dwen, the idea first came from a traditional Chinese snack bingtanghulu — fruit    2    (coat) in syrup (糖浆), which turned into the ice shell in his design. Later, Cao’s team decided to incorporate (结合) an animal or plant, finally    3    (settle) on a panda. “What else can    4    (well) represent China than our national treasure? ” said Cao. “We don’t need to explain anything to have it understood across different cultures.”    5    , there were already too many cartoon    6    (image) of pandas out there so the mascot needed to be    7    (total) unique and innovative. They visited Wolong Sichuan, to look for    8    (inspire). Cao then decided that it should be a baby panda    9    determined the body proportions (比例) of Bing Dwen Dwen — its body is of the same length    10    its head.

Dragon Head-raising Day is celebrated on the second day of the second Chinese lunar month     1    (show) respect for the dragon and pray for good weather for farming and big harvest,     2     is considered as the start of spring and farming. Dragon Head-raising Day has relation with spring and farming. After the cold winter, spring comes and animals are     3     (wake) , but because of the winter, the weather is dry and farming lacks water. To this climate phenomenon, there is a folk saying that     4     will rain when the dragon raise its head.

On that day, there     5    (be) lots of conventional celebration activities. First, in the early morning, every family would light a lantern and go to a river or a well to fetch water and back home, then light     6    (candle) , burn incense (香) sticks and offer a sacrifice. Second, people would go to a temple     7     honour of the dragon. Third, it is to have a haircut, which     8     (view) as a sign of good luck. A saying tells that having a haircut on this day, you would be energetic in the whole year.     9     (final) , there is a thing about eating: eating long and thin noodles     10    (call) Longxumian (Dragon Beard Noodles) which has a symbolic meaning-a long life expectancy.