4 . On April 18—the International Day for Monuments and Sites, China Daily’s digital employee Yuanxi and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes’ official virtual cartoon figure Jiayao together introduced an interactive digital platform that hosts a virtual copy of the Mogao Grottoes’ Library Cave(藏经洞) to the world.

The platform was developed jointly by the Dunhuang Academy and the Chinese tech firm Tencent. It uses gaming technologies to show the historical scenes of the Library Cave in the digital world.

The Library Cave in Mogao Grottoes was discovered in 1900, with more than 60,000 cultural relics dating from the 4th century to the 11th century unearthed. It was one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the 20th century.

On the platform, visitors can role-play and “time travel” to ancient dynasties and talk with eight historical figures. The public can enter the platform through the Digital Dunhuang website and its WeChat mini program.

In the digital age, the model of “culture+technology” has been introduced to promote the development of Chinese culture. The digitalization rate of China’s precious cultural relics is now over 70 percent, according to the 2022 China Digital Collection Industry Research Report released by iResearch.

Institutions such as the Palace Museum have also started online digital services of their own. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology allows the public to view the interior of the buildings through the Palace Museum’s WeChat mini program.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has also encouraged the development and transformation of cultural intellectual property(知识产权) by digital means. China Central Television has created a series of digital collections with different Dunhuang themes, such as the Dunhuang divine deer(神鹿) Youyou. It was created based on the image of the nine-colored deer from Dunhuang murals(壁画). The public can see the divine deer on CCTV’s own digital platform.

Digital collections cater to the consumption habits of young people, who grow up in the information age. They not only protect the intellectual property of the collections but also bring the public closer to China’s “excellent traditional culture”, noted Dunhuang Art Institute.

Su Bomin, director of the Dunhuang Academy, told Xinhua that more efforts will be made to explore new forms for showing cultural relics and offer the public greater cultural experiences to develop Dunhuang culture.

5 . At first glance, Huaguoshan kindergarten in Zhuzhou, a city in the southern province of Hunan, looks much like any other schools for kids in China. But it has a year-long waiting list, because of its widely advertised guoxue.

Children at Huaguoshan are taught how to bow, and how to greet each other politely. In some rooms they learn ancient techniques. In others, they recite poems, perform tea ceremonies and play Chinese chess. The school says that mastering skills is secondary to building character. “For example, our children learn to respect their rivals (对手) and accept defeat in chess,” explains one of the teachers.

Of course, the school charges hefty fees. Actually, the guoxue trend has already created a huge demand for education in kindergartens across China. Frost & Sullivan, a data firm, estimated that the market for preschool children was worth $73 billion in 2020, almost doubled its value in 2018.

Strictly speaking, guoxue content has long been part of the curriculums from primary to high schools in China. In 2014, the number of classical texts to be taught in primary schools increased from 14 to 72. In 2017, the government put out new guidelines for more comprehensive guoxue curriculums in primary and secondary schools by 2025. In 2020, more guoxue content was added to the university entrance exam. In May, 2021, the education ministry approved more guoxue classes to strengthen “a sense of belonging to and pride in the Chinese nation”.

Guoxue is the ancient system of thought that emphasizes respect for authority and usually involves learning traditional morals, thoughts, and classical Chinese texts, especially those associated with Confucius, who thought that such values were essential to achieve moral excellence as individuals. He thought that such upstanding citizens would form the basis for social harmony and stability.

After decades of welcoming foreign trends, many Chinese people are now interested in Chinese traditions. Television shows include “Chinese Poetry Conference”, in which participators are quizzed on classical poems. Young people wear traditional clothes in public.

6 . It is no secret that China has an amazingly rich history and culture. My first exposure (接触) to Chinese culture came totally by chance. One day, I entered my grandfather’s personal library and took a book named Tao Te Ching from one of the shelves. As an 8-year-old, the book’s content completely confused me, but it provided me with an early connection to a beautiful and great philosophical (哲学的) tradition that still influences me today.

Around this time, I also came across several cartoons heavily inspired by traditional Chinese culture and martial arts such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. Both cartoons describe beautiful landscapes and buildings similar to those found in classical Chinese paintings. This further developed my love of the rich and beautiful culture.

At school I began studying Chinese. My interest in the language developed early on, combining my love of travelling with my love of meeting new people. Later on, my interest in the language developed into exploring widespread Chinese culture. I wanted to challenge myself in a totally new linguistic (语言的) landscape and listen to the lives and stories of others in their own language. I have been lucky enough to have lived in China for around three years. I loved every second I spent there and there is never a shortage of things to see and do, people to meet, and foods to enjoy.

It is safe to say that my journey to studying Chinese has only just begun and these first steps are only a drop in the ocean of lifelong learning, but as the Chinese philosopher Laozi says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

At his studio in Beijing, artist Zhang Xiaodong piles hundreds of sheets of thin top of one another until they form a complete image. When there is a slight air, the pages flow, giving life to the book     1     (it).This dragon scale bookbinding(装订),     2    (stretch)back more than 1,000 years to the Tang dynasty.

With few of the books     3     (survive)to the present day, the bookbinding technique was     4     the risk of disappearing before Zhang decided to research and bring it back to life. After half a year’s study, he finally learned     5     the ancient bookbinding worked.     6     (source)materials traditionally used in bookbinding Zhang also visited old towns and heritage (遗址)sites. Then came the     7     (crucial)-and difficult-part of the binding process: controlling the placement of each page. In order to create a complete picture, each sheet needs to be placed in     8     (exact)the right place. Zhang said that an error of just     9     hundredth of a centimeter can produce a huge, visible error when a book’s hundreds of pages are displayed together.

Zhang’s     10     (prepare)that went into producing this particular work shows the very modern way that the artist tries to understand the subject matter.