French disaster epic Notre-Dame on Fire hits Chinese big screen

This April marks the     1     (four) anniversary of Notre-Dame in Paris being engulfed by the biggest blaze in its history.

NotreDame on Fire, now in Chinese cinemas, is a disaster epic     2     veteran French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud, who also helmed Wolf Totem(2015), a drama film     3     (adapt) from Chinese writer Jiang Rong’s eponymous novel. The film made its China premiere on April 6 in Beijing in the presence of France’s Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak and the director.

Presenting a blow-by-blow recreation of the gripping events that     4     (happen) on April 15, 2019 when the fire at the French medieval catholic cathedral rocked France and shocked the whole world, Annaud’s new film hails the heroic people who put their lives on     5     line to accomplish the awe-inspiring rescue. Annaud unveiled the filming details of the film to the audience     6     (attend) the China premiere.

“It was a     7     (danger) movie. The actors were actually very close to the extremely violent fire, 1,200-degree Fahrenheit fire. There are very few digital special effects. Almost all of what you have seen are     8     (identical) reconstructed sets that I set on fire,” he said.

“When I saw this movie in Paris last year, it took me a few hours     9     I could breathe and walk normally on the street,” said Malak at the film’s China premiere.

The French minister announced that 2024 will be the France-China Year of Culture and Tourism and she invited Chinese tourists to travel to France for the occasion, especially to see the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris,     10     , after almost six years of extensive renovations, is scheduled to reopen to the public in December of the same year.

A new branch of the Palace Museum is expected to rise on Beijing outskirts over the next few years to better showcase the     1     (museum) cultural relics.

After nearly a decade of preparation, construction of the new branch     2     (begin) last December. Located in Xiyehe, a village in Haidian District, the new branch will cover more than 100, 000 square meters, including     3     exhibition space of over 60, 000 square meters for cultural relics and more than 35, 000 square meters for relic     4     (restore).

At present, over 1. 86 million cultural relics     5     (house) in the museum. However, only about 10, 000 pieces are able to be displayed every year due to limited exhibition spaces     6     outdated offices.

Du Haijiang, deputy director of the Palace Museum, briefed the public on the project in an interview with CCTV on January 26th,     7     (explain) that calligraphy works and paintings couldn’t be put on display during rainy seasons, in winter or summer, because of strict temperature and humidity requirements. Some silk and cotton artworks     8    (current) cannot be exhibited at all for lack of the necessary environment.

On completion of the new branch, it will be possible     9     (display) between 20, 000 and 30, 000 individual relics each year. The new venue will be a modern exhibition space     10     multiple functions to provide relic preservation, repair work, and visitor services.

Hua’er, which literally means flower in Chinese, is known as a type of “mountain songs” and has been wildly popular in     1    (China) Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang for hundreds of years.

Growing up listening to Hua’er, Sa Lina, 36, has been engaged in this     2    (tradition) art for almost 20 years. After graduating from a secondary school in 2005, Sa returned to her home county of Haiyuan in Ningxia and became a member of a local art group. Soon she was given a chance     3    (sing) with Ma Handong, a famous singer of Hua’er.

“I had never sung Hua’er before, so I listened and sang along with the tapes, and     4     my surprise, I soon fell in love with it,” she said.

Since then, Sa has devoted     5    (she) to mastering the folk art from learning from Ma the techniques and skills used in performances, attending performances given by other well-known singers, practicing singing Hua’er whenever possible, to     6    (study) its origin and history.

“Maybe because I was born here, Hua’er is in my blood and bones and I     7    (learn) it quite fast,” said Sa. At the age of 27, she     8    (name) an inheritor(传承人) of Hua’er, becoming     9     youngest inheritor of this traditional art at the time.

“What people long for in their hearts can be best expressed by singing a song. Just     10     the old saying goes, Hua’er reflects one’s heart and people can’t help singing it,” said the artist.

China is famous not only for its national treasure, the giant pandas, but also for their staple food-bamboo. It grows     1     (large) in south Changjiang River, and     2     (consider) as a material for arts and crafts and a symbol of integrity, it has enriched the traditional Chinese culture.

Throughout the centuries, bamboo has inspired the imagination of artists, while men of letters have written poetry     3     (express) their admiration for the     4     (pure) and elegance of bamboo. They     5     (compare) the qualities of bamboo     6     those of man, and Su Dongpo credited his literary inspiration to bamboo. Bamboo was also     7     favorite subject of noted Chinese painters of past dynasties.

Zheng Banqiao, a celebrated Qing dynasty painter, devoted his whole life to painting bamboo. In his later years, he painted The Bamboo and Stone,     8     there are no bright colors and only simple lines are shown. With all     9     (necessary) details removed, the elegance, beauty and strength of bamboo     10     (see) most effectively on paper.

Qingming is the perfect time for Chinese people to pay respects to ancestors. Meanwhile, it allows us    1    (appreciate)the cultural connotation(内涵)of Qingming．Adventures on Qingming Festival 2023,aired on Henan TV and Elephant News on April 4,features    2    (celebrity) from the circles of music, dance, and culture. They take the audience on    3    magical springtime journey.

Inspired by The Creeping Grass, a famous poem from The Book of Songs, the dance Spring Riverside Beauty     4    (shoot)in March in Xiandu Scenic Resort, Lishui of Zhejiang. In this splendid performance, dancers flutter their broad sleeves and sway softly with moves of classical Chinese dance, recreating the scene     5    women in ancient China joyfully began a springtime outing. The musical skit(音乐短剧)Adventure in Early Spring brings famous Song dynasty paintings     6    life. By    7    (organic)weaving many elements together, the skit puts on a humorous show that suits both refined and popular tastes.

Since the Spring Festival Gala in 2021,Henan TV    8    (improve) its shows based on Chinese festivals, bringing out the cultural connotations of traditional festivals     9    innovating new ways of presentation, leaving the audience eagerly awaiting what comes next. Adventures on Qingming Festival 2023 showcases the art and culture of Qingming,    10    (tap) deeper into the dynamics and hope of Qingming and the emotional value that is unique to the festival through a multitude of songs, dances and instrumental performances.

Incense (香) is material that releases fragrant (芳香的)smoke when burnt. Yang Jinqing, an inheritor of Qingyuan traditional incense making, has a burning desire     1    (develop) popular fragrances. For decades, Yang has committed himself     2     the traditional incense craft in Qingyuan,     3     was named a national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council in June 2021.

The country boasts a profound incense history     4     (date) back to before the Qin Dynasty. The craft and its culture thrived during the Song Dynasty. It found wider     5     (popular) during the Ming and Qing dynasties when it was used to fend off diseases, insects, mosquitoes and preserve people’s health.

Qingyuan saw many incense workshops set up during the Song Dynasty, thanks to its close geographical location to abundant herbal resources     6    (hide) in the Taihang Mountains.

Nowadays, with the     7    (increasing) expanding market, more than 50,000 people     8    (engage) in the incense business in more than 500 local incense businesses.

Yang Jinqing has helped to establish an engineering center for herbal incense in Hubei that specializes in studying ancient recipes     9     developing new crafts based on the fragrance. “We might think incense culture is very elegant and, therefore, far away from us, but it is actually very close to our lives.” he says. “When drinking tea, playing chess, reading or writing,     10    (light) an incense stick can help calm the nerves and concentrate the mind.”

“I want future generations to appreciate the charm of China’s incense culture and craft.” he adds.

Diaojiaolou is a traditional residence of several ethnic minorities in China such as the Miao, Zhuang, Buyi and Tujia people. You can find a group of these houses     1     (locate) beside a river or in the mountainous areas of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hunan and Sichuan. The history of Diaojiaolou     2     (stretch) back 1,400 years.

The traditional residence, typically two to three stories high, is a wooden house built on stilts (柱子). The unusual structure is considered     3     masterpiece of clever carpentry. The high hanging floors of the structure     4     (hold) up by wooden stilts, which give the house an unsteady appearance from afar. But a Diaojiaolou is, in fact, firmly fixed because its stilts are further reinforced by stone blocks at their bases. Even if one of the stilts were destroyed, the building would still have a strong foundation. The ground floor tends     5     (use) as storage space for firewood and farming equipment. Livestock stay on the ground floor, while people always live     6     it.

One of the     7     (benefit) of Diaojiaolou is that,     8     in ancient times, these stilted buildings would provide protection from fierce beasts. Nowadays they continue to provide protection from venomous snakes and insects that are not uncommon throughout China. These buildings also help prevent humidity-related diseases that are common in southern China.     9     (additional), the cool breeze blowing through the windows of the upper levels acts like a kind of natural air conditioner. In mountainous regions, the level of humidity on the ground during summer is almost     10     (bear) and potentially dangerous, so elevated living spaces are particularly necessary.