The 38th Qinhuai Lantern Festival Lights Up China

On the evening of February 2, the 2024 “Light Up China” event, the 38th annual China Qinhuai Lantern Festival lighting ceremony,     1    (begin) at the Bailuzhou Park in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The Qinhuai Lantern Festival,     2     is also known as the “Jinling Lantern Festival”, is a folk cultural activity spread in Nanjing in history. It is usually held during the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival every year. It is the most famous lantern festival in China and it is included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.

With the Bailuzhou Park, the Confucius Temple Scenic Area and the Laomendong District serving     3     main display venues, this year’s Qinhuai Lantern Fair has set up 7 exhibition areas with 330 lantern installations.

    4    (compare) to previous years’ lantern festivals, one of the major highlights this year is the remarkable “the Year of the Dragon” theme. For instance, at the front of the Linxing Gate of the Confucius Temple in Nanjing, the lantern display features twin dragons winding around pillars, blowing out dragon pearls, symbolizing auspiciousness (吉祥) and reunion. Meanwhile, the Bailuzhou Park takes     5    (inspire) from the “Illustration of Lanterns in the Shangyuan Festival” as its creative theme, showing     6     total of 68 sets of lanterns in various sizes and forms, recreating the splendid scene of observing lanterns during the Ming dynasty as described in the ancient artworks.

The Lantern Festival in Nanjing this year not only celebrates the traditional customs of the Lunar New Year but also highlights the city’s cultural heritage and     7    (innovation) spirit, drawing visitors from across the nation     8    (participate) in the joyous celebrations.

A local elderly person said to a news reporter     9    (proud), “It has the reputation of No. 1 Lantern Festival in the world and the Qinhuai Lantern Festival     10    (be) the best in the world. It is the only large-scale comprehensive lantern festival in China that integrates lantern exhibitions, lantern festivals and lantern markets.”

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In recent years, Chinese consumers’ sense of identification and     1     (proud) with traditional culture has been growing, leading them to prefer products with cultural heritage and significance. Mamianqun, traditionally     2     (wear) by the Han people, is one of the main representative styles of Hanfu.

During the just-ended Spring Festival holidays, Chinese people wearing traditional clothing can almost     3     (see) everywhere, reflecting the revival of China’s rich culture and serving as a strong new driver for retail spending.     4    , few people know that the     5     (large) Hanfu production base in China is Caoxian County.

Caoxian started to produce Hanfu in 2018 and benefited a lot from the growth of e-commerce. Today, Caoxian accounts     6     40 percent of Hanfu sales nationwide. In 2023, sales of Hanfu in the county     7     (reach) 7 billion yuan.

Caoxian is     8     (current) home to 2,282 companies related to the Hanfu business and 13,989 online Hanfu stores. Meanwhile, close to 100,000 people are involved in the Hanfu industry. It has developed     9     complete Hanfu industrial chain including original research and development, design, production, copyright protection, and other     10     (aspect).

A brief meeting about the “China-France Year of Culture and Tourism in 2024” was held at the Palace Museum in Beijing on Thursday,     1     has released a variety of upcoming activities featuring cultural legacy and arts.

2024 marks    2    60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France. The meeting’s place, the Palace Museum, was chosen for a reason. Starting from April 1, an art show co-planned by the Palace Museum     3    the Palace of Versailles (凡尔赛宫) in Paris, will debut (首次亮相) on site. A pocket watch that once     4     (witness) the friendship between France’s King Louis XIV and the Emperor Kangxi of China’s Qing Dynasty will     5     (display) among 181 other items.

The rare objects will introduce visitors       6       the cultural interactions that took place between the two countries       7     (date)back to the second half of the 17th century through the 18th century.

Compared to       8     (field) such as painting, music and film, “cultural legacy” is a rather novel field in China-France cooperative exchanges.       9     (they) efforts in areas like legacy conservation will inspire the world to see how the growth of humanity is independent from different cultural contexts.

Besides shows in China, more than 10 programs will be       10     (specific) launched in France to bring Chinese culture to locals in 2024. More than 20 Tang Dynasty treasures will be selected and then exhibited at the Guimet Museum in France in November.

Qinqiang opera is widely considered to be the forefather of all styles of Chinese opera. The name “Qin”     1     (original) comes from the fact that Qinqiang opera dates all the way back to the Qin Dynasty and its heritage stretches back over 2,500 years,     2     (make) it one of the oldest forms of opera in China.

Supposedly Qinqiang opera     3     (start) in the fields and farms of the northwestern provinces, when locals would shout to one another from across the fields. Eventually these locals developed a system of     4     (shout) songs to communicate with one another and this is where Qinqiang gets     5     (it) distinctive “shouted out” style of singing. Thanks to this unusual singing style, Qinqiang opera is considered one of the “ten strange wonders of Shaanxi province”.

Qinqiang was also one of the earliest forms of opera     6     (focus) on the expression of human emotion. Most Qinqiang operas describe stories of ancient wars of resistance     7    foreign invaders (入侵者), battles between good and evil. They were designed to reflect the honesty,     8     (brave) and diligence of the common people of Northwest China.

Qinqiang is not just about the singing; it is     9     complete performance art and includes dancing, acrobatics (杂技) and martial arts into every performance. Furthermore, it boasts such unique performing skills as spitting fire     10     hat dances by the performers.

In 2006, it was listed as a National Intangible Culture Heritage by the Chinese government.

With the globalization, our traditional culture is being lost,     1     can be easily found in our life. For example, our traditional culture has lost     2     (it) important role in education. More and more young people in China seem     3       (know) little about classical Chinese literature. However, western culture is becoming popular. More and more parents tend to send their children for overseas studies. Meanwhile, western festivals are becoming     4       (extreme) popular in China while some traditional festivals are being forgotten.

As for the     5       (lose) of some traditional Chinese culture, there are many reasons. For one thing, we haven't attached enough importance     6     our traditions. For another, some people think traditional culture lacks novelty (新奇) and can't keep up with the pace of modern life, while the western culture is more     7     (interest).

However, the traditional Chinese culture, after thousands of years' development, I believe， can never    8     (replace). Therefore, it's time for us Chinese to take some effective     9       (measure). First of all, it's necessary that we should have a clear and deep understanding of its value. Meanwhile, we must do     10     we can to protect and spread our traditional culture. It's convincing that we will keep our traditional culture alive with our joint efforts.