Grain Rain is the     1     (six) of the Twenty-four Solar Terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, which this year starts from April 20. As the last solar term in spring, this period sees the temperature rise and rainfall increase,     2     (create) an ideal environment for plants and animals.

Grain Rain is still relevant     3     modern agriculture. It links grain with rain, reflecting an increasing amount of precipitation (降水), which is good for the     4     (grow) of crops. For farmers, it is a good time to sow.

It might not be so well-known that in Chinese tale an actual “grain rain”     5     ( record) in the story of Cang Jie,     6     invented the first Chinese characters. Prior to 2500 BC, in order to keep records more     7     (precise), Cang Jie originated a set of characters from observing the tracks of birds and mammals. After his groundbreaking invention, grains started to pour down from the sky.

The Grain Rain day has become a day     8     (honor) Cang Jie and the invention of the Chinese language, and April 20 has been designated as the annual UN Chinese Language Day since 2010. Chinese characters are a treasure of the     9     (spirit) homeland of Chinese people, the thousands of years of Chinese culture,     10     an important symbol of cultural identity.

Chinese people have a strong need for cultural consumption, and the need pushes people     1     work in the field of cultural relics and museum to explore    2    (effect) ways to make cultural relics popular, said Ma Xiaolin, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, at the third Members’ Passage interviews on Thursday.

In recent years, TV shows, performances and cultural products related to cultural relics     3    (go) viral one by one.

Ma, head of Henan Museum, analyzed reasons for the popularity, He said they    4    (create) by combining traditional Chinese culture and modern life. “For example, culture relics blind boxes    5     (produce) by Henan Museum combine the tradition symbolized by archaeological excavation (考古挖掘) and the fashion symbolized by blind boxes. As a result, people can get the surprise and satisfaction of    6    (discover) cultural relics, which arouses their    7    (curious).” said Ma.

Moreover, new ideas    8    technology come together to enable immersive experience of stories in the history, and social media helps the spread of new cultural products.

“With the joint (共同的) efforts of us, cultural relics will no longer remain in history, but enter the daily life in various    9    (form),” Ma said. “As a matter of fact, it is not just the traditional culture that has become popular, but our confidence    10    our history and culture has enhanced too.”

Sugar painting can be seen in temple fairs, market fairs or in parks. It is a kind of folk traditional handicraft,     1     is especially popular in northern China.

Boil brown sugar, white sugar and little malt sugar in a fire     2     a wire can be drawn from it. Then the artist scoops up (舀) a spoon of the melted sugar mix,     3    (cast) it quickly back and forth on a slab of stone to create a shape. The sculptures of characters and animals such as dragons, fish, birds, butterflies, Zhang Fei and others     4    (attract) children’s imaginations the most. After the     5     (accomplish), they scoop up the sugar painting with a wide flat blade and attach it to a bamboo stick.

Some say the history of sugar painting may     6     (trace) back to the royal court during the Ming Dynasty. It’s also said that     7     unique folk art was created by the great poet Chen Ziang in the Tang Dynasty. He     8     (promote) to You Siyi (an official name in the Tang Dynasty) by the emperor because of his special handcraft of drawing by melting sugar. In order to pay back the emperor , he took some apprentices (学徒) to pass on the technique after retirement. Spreading from hand to hand, the handicraft of sugar painting was passed down     9     the people. As one symbol of Chinese culture nowadays, sugar painting has been     10     (gradual) getting more and more attention and recognition.

Making velvet flowers(绒花) was an endangered folk craft, but things have changed with more young craftsmen devoting themselves     1     the art. Murong Yi, 21, a senior studying at     2     university in Beijing, is one of them. Recently, she was trending on Sina Weibo for her video about how to make velvet flower headwear shaped like a golden phoenix.     3     (inspire) by Wang Xifeng, a character in A Dream of Red Mansions, the artwork was made of 4, 000 pieces of cocoon fiber(蚕丝) in 12 days. Generally, it only takes two to three days     4     (make) a velvet flower. The video has received over 2.4 million views on Bilibili.

Velvet flowers     5     (call) ronghua in Chinese, meaning wealth and glory. It is a popular     6     (decorate) in festivals and weddings. In the beginning, Murong faced challenges in learning this handicraft. She tried to learn from others but couldn’t find many online teaching     7     (video). Finally, she watched a one-hour TV program, in     8     an inheritor(继承者) showed how to make velvet flowers in detail. New ideas     9     (natural) came up when Murong grew as a skilled creator. As a lover of Chinese     10     (tradition) culture, she said “I’ll learn more about different handicrafts and promote them among young people on social media platforms.”

The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a twelve-year cycle, each year in that cycle related to     1     animal sign. These signs are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, hoi-se, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. It is calculated according to Chinese lunar calendar.

There has been a relationship between Chinese people and the 12 zodiacal animals. It is believed that the years     2     (represent) by the animals affect the character of people in the way just     3     the western astrology(占星术) signs. The order of the animals is based on each animal’s character and living habits.

The animal year     4     a person is born is called his or her Ben Ming Nian. The unique way of calculating years based on the lunar calendar     5     (decide) that every once in every twelve-year cycle people will meet their birth signs. Although it sounds a bit superstitious, Chinese people take their year of birth     6     (serious). It is said that people in their own Ben Ming Nian would suffer a lot of misfortunes, such as     7     (sick) , economic loss, physical injuries and hardships at work. However, there are     8     (variety) ways to lessen the unlucky effects.     9     (wear) red underwear, socks or waist bell is one of the most popular     10     (tradition), for people believe red can bring good luck.

I’m not Chinese, but I love Chinese New Year. There are many fun New Year     1     (celebrate), but nothing quite matches the excitement of the lion dance which can wake up the spirit     2     (complete).

The sound of the drums,       3     you can feel throughout your entire body, is quite inspiring. The two performers are very flexible. But it is actually very difficult as the lion head is very heavy and being the     4     (low)part of the lion is tiring as he has to bend his back and also carry     5     person in front sometimes. The lion head is made with paper over a bamboo frame,       6     (cover)in gauze (纱布), and decorated with beautifully-colored materials.

The lion dance     7     (believe)to have first appeared in the Qianlong Emperor's dream during his Southern tour, and he ordered an animal     8     (make)in the likeness of his description and used in festivals from then on.

I love all about the lion dance. The other day, I saw a film about a left-behind teenager who insisted on pursuing his dreams despite difficulties and     9     (succeed)in lion dance. As Master Xu translates: “Heaven has made us talents; we’re not made     10     vain.”

One of the ways that early Chinese immigrant laborers who were held on the Angel Island in the US protested their ill treatment     1     (be) to write and carve poetry on their camp walls. The poems were almost lost to history until a former California state park ranger discovered them in 1970 when the park service was planning     2    (tear) down the building and reconstruct the site. With the news of the discovery     3     (spread) rapidly, their descendants, volunteer professionals and students launched a nationwide campaign to preserve the camps and the poems     4     (carve) within them.

Since the 1970s, various efforts     5     (make) to preserve the poems. Today, more than 200 have been discovered and documented.     6     majority of the poets were male villagers, often with little formal education, from China's     7     (south) rural regions. Most of their poems follow the Chinese classic poetic forms with even numbers of lines: four, five, or seven characters per line; and every other two lines in rhyme.

I had read the poems and about their history, but it was not until I visited the site of the camps in 2016 and saw those carvings on the walls     8     I could deeply appreciate the laborers' anger, frustration, and desperation. I can only imagine the     9     (hard) they suffered on the isolated island upon arriving at the so-called promising land     10     which they had long dreamed.