Torch festival of the Ethnic minority

The Torch Festival, the grandest festival of the Yi people, is held around the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. The Yi people think fire possesses a superhuman power    1    can drive away evil and frighten off ghosts. They have    2    a special relationship with fire that they call themselves the “fire nationality”.

During the festival, torches, 20-30cm     3    diameter, a replaced upright in front of houses. At the entrance to the villages, a grand “torch tower”, standing more than 20 metres high and    4    (make) of pine branches and dry firewood,    5    .(decorate) with fresh flowers and fruits.

At last, with expectation and wishes    6    (come) the long-awaited moment. After dinner, as darkness casts its shadow, young and old,    7    (dress) in their most ceremonial and splendid costumes decorated with sparkling ornaments, rush    8    (excite) to the “torch tower” square. Cheers and screams of delight burst from the crowd, while the soaring flames brighten the darkness of the night and warm everyone present at the scene.

On such a brilliant and marvelous night, the    9    (participate) are overjoyed by the grand spectacle and the atmosphere of celebration. Young men and women sing and dance hand in hand around the bonfire    10    (express) their gratitude for a life of plenty and good wishes for the coming year.

3 . Having spent more than a decade on the dance floor, ROME — Niccolo Filippi, a 23-year-old Italian dance performer, recently decided to explore Chinese culture and its traditional dance forms and believes that this experience will not only boost his career, but also broaden his horizons beyond the world of dance.

His interest in diversifying his skills grew after he stumbled upon a short video of traditional Chinese-styled dance on YouTube. “I saw it as an art that combines tradition and modernity, which was mostly the reason why I liked it,” says Filippi.

Ever since, he has been closely following Chinese dance performers and watching numerous videos to learn more about the traditional style that he admires. “I prefer the traditional style because of its light movements. It also reflects my personality with elegance,” he adds.

Filippi’s chance came when he was invited to perform for a Chinese New Year celebration in the central Italian city of Florence. He has since fully committed himself to the art form, learning several pieces and putting his newfound passion into practice.

“The biggest difference that I found (compared to other disciplines) is the change of mood and emotional expressions among dances,” says Filippi, adding that he needed to shift from the dynamic moves of hip-hop to the graceful and fluid movements of Chinese dance. Despite various obstacles, Filippi’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Two of his friends shared videos of his performances on social media, and the response was overwhelming. One video garnered 500,000 views, while the other received 200,000 views.

Filippi believes that learning about different cultures is priceless, and he sees it as a means of personal growth. “I like to think of a person as a book,” he says. “Embracing different traditions and cultures, such as Chinese culture and many others, is like adding new chapters to my book, making it more diverse and wonderful.”

如今，中国武术越来越受欢迎。不仅一些成人经常练习武术，而且它还颇受青少年甚至外国人的喜爱。中国武术拥有悠久的历史，它被视为中国文化的代表之一。

练习武术对人们身心皆有积极影响。 一方面，从小习武能发展平衡能力、力量和柔韧性，这样能帮助人们强身健体、保持身材。另一方面，武术还能起到护体、防敌的作用。练习武术也有助于人们提高自信，从而带来新的精神面貌。

Chinese Martial Art

Currently, Chinese martial art is becoming increasingly popular.

Chinese Paper-cutting

8 . Countries around the world ring in the new year with unique customs and traditions, often carried out at the strike of midnight. We rounded up ways to bring international New Year’s Eve experiences to you.

Shiwasu is the end-of-the-year period in Japan, filled by many traditions like traveling to see family and thoroughly cleaning your home. To celebrate New Year’s Eve, people eat toshikoshi soba, which can symbolize having a long and lucky life along with a clean break from the year.

The tradition of eating grapes for good luck began in Spain, but it is now practised around the world. When the clock starts ringing at midnight, eat one grape with each ring. It’s even luckier if you’re wearing special New Year’s Eve underwear while eating your grapes. A pair of red underwear can bring you a new year of love, while yellow may bring joy and good luck.

In Denmark, one does not simply let the new year happen. You go on the offense(讨厌的东西) and jump into it. Just before midnight, stop what you’re doing and get on a chair to do the jump like a Dane would. Should you forget to jump, it’s said that you’ll bring bad luck for the following year, so please, we are begging you—do not forget to jump.

After a year of unrealized dreams and plans, set your sights on a fresh start with this Russian tradition. Before midnight, write down your wishes for 2023 on a piece of paper, then light the paper on fire. Once it’s stopped burning, sprinkle(洒) the wish-filled ashes into a glass of wine and drink up after the clock strikes midnight.

10 . A small accident led to profound changes in the life of Yang Li, an artisan (手艺人), who is from the Miao ethnic group. In 201l, Yang, from Tongren city in Guizhou province, created leaf vein (脉络) embroidery (刺绣) three months after a leaf cut her hand.

The work is a perfect combination of traditional embroidery patterns and the natural textures (纹理) of the leaves. It has a unique aesthetic appeal of traditional embroidery matched with the characteristics of contemporary craftsmanship.

As a native Miao woman with an inborn love of embroidery, Yang opened a folk culture products shop with her sister in 2011. “People are becoming less familiar with traditional handicrafts, and I want to contribute all I can to change this situation,” Yang says. At first, the small shop did not earn a significant income as there were many similar products on the market. She gradually realized that it was important to establish her own brand and launch products with distinct features.

That’s when she was inspired by the cut. In July 2011, Yang accidentally cut her hand on a thorny leaf when she was hiking in Fanjing Mountain. A bold idea came into her head: “There are leaf-vein bookmarks and leaf-vein paintings. Why has nobody created leaf-vein embroider yet?”

Obviously, the reason behind this is that embroidering on leaves requires delicate skills that few possess. The biggest technical challenge Yang faced was improving the flexibility of the leaves and making them as soft as cloth. On Oct 16, a day she will never forget, Yang finally created a shiny, thin and unbreakable piece of leaf vein. Her idea of leaf-vein embroidery came to completion after hundreds of experiments.

Two years later, Yang opened an embroidery processing factory and offered jobs to more than 500 laid-off female workers, rural women and people with disabilities. “I will keep doing the leaf vein embroidery for the rest of my life because it is meaningful,” she says.