2 . At Beijing’s Palace Museum, it sometimes seems that time stands still, but the clocks keep ticking at a small workshop there. This is where clock conservator (文物修复员) Qi Haonan works. .

As part of the fourth generation of conservators to repair and restore antique (古老的) clocks at the museum since 1949, Qi has returned more than 100 clocks to their former glory.

After having majored in mechanical automation during his university studies, Qi joined the cultural relics restoration department at the Palace Museum in 2005. “In the beginning, everything in the palace was new to me. It made me excited to even think about repairing antique clocks,” the 41-year-old told China Daily. But reality soon weakened his warmth. There is a rule at the museum: For the first year you can look, but not touch. From 8 a. m. to5 p. m. every day, he checked and took apart watches and clocks collected from his friends to practice. After a year of repeated work, he could finally get his hands on the clocks in the museum and get a better understanding of the job. To him, restoring such clocks doesn’t mean making them look brand-new. Through cleaning and restoration, he tries to keep them in their original form, bringing back their former function.

Qi still remembered the excitement he felt when the hands of his first repaired clock began to move. It was a French clock, which took him a month to restore. “What amazes me most about these clocks is that they combine the scientific advances, technological precision (精确) and trends in decorative art of their particular times,” Qi told China Daily.

Although the antique clock repairing special skills at the Palace Museum were listed as a national intangible (非物质的) cultural heritage in 2014, it was still a little-known skill and the specialty was in short supply of professionals. Until 2016, a 3-part TV documentary, Masters in the Forbidden City, made it possible to the public.

Qi started posting videos about the antique clocks on social media in 2019, giving viewers a look into the work. “With rising attention and influence, antique clock restoration can not only be further developed, but also expanded to more museums which house antique clocks and watches,” Qi told China Daily.

4 . As the year 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit in China, many brand have rolled out an array of rabbit-themed goods. Wang Chuchun, an 18-year-old freshman from Xiamen University in Fujian, bought a pair of shoes from the rabbit collection made by Holli, a domestic brand, during the Spring Festival holiday.

“I would like to see Chinese culture be more incorporated into consumer goods that carry a variety of beautiful connotations(内涵).” Wang told journalist.

Guochao, the combination of Chinese traditions with modern designs, has become a keyword for this year’s Spring Festival product consumption, according to statistics from Vipshop(also known as weipinhui in Chinese), an online retailer(零售商). The sales volume of 361 Degrees, a sports equipment company, saw a rise of 188 percent on a year-on-year basis during the Spring Festival with their rabbit collection.

Who is behind the surge of sales for guochao products? According to a report released by data service provider Aurora, the proportion of young people interested in the guochao products accounted for more than 70 percent of consumers.

Thus the target market of the guochao products is China’s 400 million-strong army of young consumers, Tom Harper, a lecturer in international relations at the University of East London, said to The Conversation.

Like their peers in Western countries, China’s Gen Z consumers are enthusiastic users of social media; but that is where the similarities end.

This generation has grown up during China’s rapid economic development in the 2000s and 2010s, which is a marked contrast to their peers in the West, who came of age, in the shadow of the2008 financial crisis. As a result, they have been characterized as being more confident and better educated than previous generations.

“Complex and profound social and cultural factor have contributed to the rise of guochao. But it all comes down to decades of stable development in China. As our country enters an era of prosperity(繁荣), our cultural confidence gets boosted as well,” said Wang.

5 . On the fourth Thursday of November every year, families in the US get together to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. It falls on Nov. 26 this year.

Thanksgiving Day is a time for communal (群体的) thanksgiving and lavish feasts (丰盛的宴会). Like China’s Spring Festival, preparing a big meal and bringing the family together at home is a long-standing tradition of Thanksgiving.     1    

Though I couldn’t have a reunion with my family when I was an exchange student at Newton South High School near Boston, I spent my Thanksgiving with my friend, Emily and her family.

    2     Ever since Thanksgiving was made an official holiday in 1863 in the US, turkey has always been on the menu.     3    

Emily’s family also kept the tradition. Emily’s mother prepared turkey in the early afternoon. She filled up the turkey with bread cubes, onion slices and papers. A few hours later, we could eat delicious food. Many other foods also came with the main dish. Pumpkin pie is a popular dessert for the day.

Some of the traditional colors for Thanksgiving are orange, yellow and brown, as they stand for pumpkin, corn and turkey.     4     After dinner, we went to a community party, where I met some of Emily’s neighbors. People dressed up for the holiday, and there were Thanksgiving decorations all over the place.

Even though I was thousands of kilometers away from my home in Beijing, I still found a home in the US with Emily and her family.     5