I am honored to give a presentation about Chinese culture to international students at your invitation.

Sincerely yours,

Li Hua

The 13th United Nations Chinese Language Day under the theme of “Chinese Language: Together for a Bright Future” has taken place,    1    includes a series of events in celebration of the third International Chinese Language Day. Beijing Dance Academy     2    (launch) an online event to mark the day on April 20, featuring six original dance works of different    3    (style), such as ballet, contemporary dance and classic Chinese dance.

Six art schools from five countries joined in the online event with dance works     4     (specific) created for the special occasion. One of the highlights is     5    new dance piece, titled Tong, or Together, which was created and performed by Beijing Dance Academy and dancers from Brazil, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Poland. It was inspired by the classic Confucius philosophy of datong,     6     (refer) to great unity and grand harmony.

Language Days at the United Nations seek    7     (promote) equal use of all six official languages throughout the organization as well as to celebrate multilingualism and cultural     8    (diverse). Under the initiative, UN duty stations around the world celebrate six separate days, each devoted     9       one of the organizations’ six official languages. The date for the Chinese day     10     (select) from Grain Rain, which is the sixth of 24 solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendars.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known     1    Qingming Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday that falls on April 4th or 5th each year. It is a time     2     families gather together to pay respects to their ancestors, by cleaning their tombs, offering food, burning incense, and performing other rituals.

The holiday has a long history,    3     (date) back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Tomb-Sweeping Day is now     4     public holiday in China, and many people take time off from work     5     (visit) their ancestral graves.

During the holiday, families will     6     (typical) bring offerings such as fruit, flowers, and other food items to the gravesite. They will also burn incense and paper money, and may perform a variety of     7     (ceremony).

In recent years, Tomb-Sweeping Day     8    (become) a more commercialized holiday, with many companies offering products and services     9     (relate) to tomb-sweeping, such as online tomb-sweeping platforms, and other products.

Despite these changes, Tomb-Sweeping Day remains an important     10     (culture) holiday in China, and a time for families to come together to remember and honor their ancestors.

Located in Wuyuan county, Jiangxi province, an old Huizhou-style mansion has been given a unique twist with a British garden, a cozy fireplace, and a bar counter,     1     (remain) in harmony with traditional Chinese style despite the Western decor.

The elegant house     2     (own) by British citizen Edward Gawne and his Chinese wife Liao Minxin,     3     native of Jiangxi. In 2015, the couple purchased the old mansion and decided to transform it     4    a bed-and-breakfast.

    5     (dot) with historical sites and ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wuyuan has 30 traditional villages. In 2012, the county government adopted     6     (measure) for their protection and development.

“There are trees, bridges, flowing water, and beautiful Huizhou-style houses. It is how I imagined traditional Chinese culture would look,” says Gawne, one of the first foreigners to adopt an old building in the county. The Qing Dynasty-era house,     7     was over two centuries old, had fallen into disrepair. “The house was uninhabitable, and the stairs had even collapsed,” Liao recalls.

After nearly two years of renovation with the help of     8     (globe) designers and architects, their Chinese-English-style B&B     9     (start) operations in 2017.

About 90 percent of their guests are foreigners, and they can     10     (thorough) enjoy the beauty of Chinese traditional villages and learn about the culture and folk customs of Wuyuan and Jiangxi.

10 . Sneakers (运动鞋) have come a long way from when they were first invented in 1860s England for the upper-class playing croquet and tennis. But what transformed sneaker culture into a true phenomenon was the 1985 release of Nike’s Air Jordan 1.

In 1984, Michael Jordan was a talented new player who had yet to play in a professional game. Despite that, Nike — better known then as a running shoe company — saw Jordan as the future of their brand. The bet paid off. As Jordan proved to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time, the sneaker’s popularity skyrocketed.

Sneaker culture began to take off beyond the basketball court too. When the influential hip-hop group Run-D. M. C. released their single My Adidas in 1986, it earned the group a first-of-its-kind endorsement (代言) deal with the brand. Soon after, Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana made Converse a symbol of rebellion and youth.

Meanwhile, another cultural shift was taking place as white-collar businesses introduced casual Fridays. Suddenly, men were allowed to put aside their suits and wear something one day a week that showed people who they really were.

Nowadays, sneakers are also how people express their beliefs — for instance, when NBA player Dwyane Wade wore hiscustom-designed, limited-edition “Black Lives Matter” Li-Nings or NFL placekicker Blair Walsh wore anti-bullying sneakers covered in the words “Speak Out.”

“It’s like art,” says Akio Evans, a Baltimore creative who specializes in turning shoes into wearable artwork. “Even though it is a sneaker that is on the shelves or inside of a box inside a store, the very first thing you are doing is admiring what you see. You look at all the pieces and decide which one appeals to your emotions.”

Decades after their first introduction to the fashion industry, sneakers are finally getting their due as part of our cultural heritage.