I received the cultural delegation from South Australia in the first half of this year, a pleasurable routine that has lasted for 3 consecutive years. This year’s event featured a painting exhibition “Sights and Impressions from South Australia”, which included 10 paintings from 5 visiting artists from South Australian Living Artists Association and dozens of works created by Shandong artists after they paid a visit to South Australia in September last year, a small discussion between cultural representatives from South Australia with their counterparts in shandong, and a sketching tour in Jinan and Mount Taishan. Not only an echo to Shandong artists’ visit to South Australia last year, it also pointed to a collaborative painting exhibition as part of Shandong Culture Week to be held in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, next year.As a coordinator and interpreter for the cultural exchanges between Shandong and foreign countries since 2013, I have been fortunate to participate in a number of major events at home and abroad, but none of the partners have been as dedicated and passionate as our South Australian counterparts in incessantly exploring the potentials for cultural exchanges and collaboration between our two sides in depth and scope. In September 2014, a Shandong cultural delegation consisting of more than 100 artists in diversifying forms landed in Adelaide to attend “Focusing on Shandong” of the 8th OzAsia Festival, an annual international arts festival hosted by Adelaide Festival Centre. Shandong artists wowed the local audiences with an acrobatics show Dream of a Ghost Story, dance drama Red Sorghum adapted from the namesake novel by the Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, Exhibition of Farmer’s Painting from Rizhao, folk art workshops such as papercutting, woodblock new year pictures and so forth. The great success of “Focusing on Shandong” has displayed the vitality of traditional culture and the accomplishment of contemporary arts of Shandong in an unprecedented scale, and provided the local people close contacts with Shandong, its culture and people.And the cultural exchanges go beyond showcase. After the signing of the MoU between the two sides in Jinan in May 2015, a program for personnel exchanges had been formally launched, in which 5 staff working across the cultural sector in Shandong would be selected by both sides and would be working at corresponding institutions in South Australia for 3-6 months. As of December 2016, all five candidates from Shandong Museum, Shandong Art Museum, Shandong Performing Arts Group and Shandong Library had successfully finished their session at Adelaide Festival Centre, the State Library of South Australia and Artlab Australia respectively, which not only helped them gain a more direct and profound insight into the local culture, but laid a solid foundation for more in-depth exchanges in the future.As 2016 marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the sister relationship, South Australian Culture Week celebrating the 3-decade-long friendship was grandly openly in Jinan in April. Three musicians from Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, after having rehearsed with the Symphony Orchestra of Shandong Song & Dance Theatre, staged a concert at Lishan Theatre and was highly received by the local community. Meanwhile, a photography exhibition of South Australian landscape, movies about South Australian history and culture and so forth also enjoyed great popularity among our local people. In September, “Bridge”, a bronze sculpture jointly created by Shandong and South Australian sculptors was officially launched at the Consulate General of China in Adelaide and would be permanently exhibited there as a token for our relationship.Shandong-South Australian cultural exchanges and I have a special bond. I was born in 1986, the same year when this relationship was established. I was lucky to have been selected for the 3-month internship at Adelaide Festival Centre in 2015 after a very hard time in 2014, and was even luckier to have received the cultural delegations from South Australia three times in a row. Over the years, I’ve met a lot of wonderful South Australian counterparts, Douglas, Vincent, Dominic, Andrew, Penny, Tom, to name just a few. They are kind, sincere, thoughts-provoking and above all, passionate about what they are dedicated to. And they have spared no efforts in encouraging me with “Seriously, Chen, you’re the best” or “No. 1 interpreter”. As a matter of fact, to meet the bunch of South Australian friends and see how they were doing over the past year has become an anticipation for me in April or May each year, and we even joked that we saw each other more frequently than most of our friends at home. While I’m turning 31 pretty soon, still feeling frustrated and doubting about myself in face of new situations from time and time, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna walk along this road and one reason is because of them. They have made this job more interesting and meaningful and myself happier and more fulfilled. Finally I wish to express my gratitude for being able to be part of this special relationship with so many talented people involved, and to contribute my bit of share to its development. Together we have created an excellent model for the cultural exchanges between two province/ state that differ so much in size, population, history, culture, food, etc, and I believe together we are going to make more fruitful outcomes in the years to come. (This piece was supposed to have finished last year in memory of the 30th anniversary, but due to one reason or another, I didn’t complete it until the very last day of 30. But better late than never, right? Now I feel so relieved. I don’t think words have fully expressed what I wanted to say, but to sum up, you are one of the reasons why I’m here today. Thank you. )

I'm back. Finally.And more.I'd been preparing for my third trip to Europe in April since the end of February, facing all kinds of problems and getting more and more agitated each day, while knowing that I must go. And after I came back, vulnerable physically and mentally, I had to, on the one hand, try to adjust to a new working environment (believe me, the environment, in the real sense of the word, verges on being unbearable), and on the other, start the long miserable self-healing process once again: cleaning the office, continuously visiting family and meeting friends, watching Friends, surfing the Internet randomly, etc, as long as they could keep me occupied so that I had no time to think about anything else. Then books came to my rescue during the Dragon Boat Festival, and I was touched by the exquisite sentimentality conveyed in Tender Is the Night and The Last Tycoon, like the first time I picked up The Great Gatsby. Meanwhile, I began to take a brisk walk or go jogging with my mom or by myself in Quancheng Square for an hour almost every night, which was beyond my initial expectation and was so worth it.Quancheng Square at night is a scene of great gatherings or parties of people from all walks of life. On the east side, hundreds of people arrive early, so as to occupy a favourable place for the grand musical fountain show starting at 8:00. Little kids run back and forth, while couples sit quietly under the sunset. Then as you move westward, you'll be attracted to different groups of dancers in various styles: pas de deux or group dance, folk dance or modern dance. Be it teenager or elder, each one is showing himself and enjoying life in a distinctive way. And the most noteworthy performers are the couple playing the saxophone and singing at the entrance of the square every night. A blind man himself, he could play the saxophone and sing to the music as good as professionals, while his wife hold a microphone beside him as support, or sing herself at intervals. They would stand there for hours and their beautiful melodies touch right into your soul. So each time I felt sluggish and wanted to just curl up in the sofa and watch TV serials, I would think of them and told myself: "They're there!" Then I'd get changed, and began my one-hour exercise of sweat and looking-around, after which peace and tranquility prevail.The other day, Angela (the protagonist in Believing in Love) asked me how I felt when I was running, and I answered: "It's like the whole world belongs to you". So I'm cured, different from all previous times thanks to the magic of exercises. I finally went through the phase of feeling "all this was meaningless", and enjoy my present life of working hard, eating happily, exercising a little bit, reading avariciously, cherishing family accompany, planning trips just for myself, and picking up writing essays and continuing with travelogues. I am a free and whole person again. This feels so great!

As usual, I paid a visit to my grandparents at a small village of Jiangji town, Ningyang county in Tai’an on the third day of the first lunar month, which fell on February 10. It was the time of the year when kids enjoyed a month-long holiday, adults took a few days off their business and filed work, and everybody was immersed in the festive mood of family reunion and accompaniment.After having greeted all the relatives and neighbors in the village first, every woman took a hand at the preparation of a sumptuous lunch. Be it local specialty as shredded chicken, meatballs soup and fried fish , or cold dish and fresh vegetables, everything were filled with the distinctive flavor that was Spring Festival all over.Meatballs soup at my grandparents' in NingyangMaking dumplings was the order of the day. As my aunt was in charge of making the dough, my mom mixing the stuffing and rolling the pastry, I was left to make dumplings solely. Started as a little helper since a little girl, I was now an expert and quickly finished the 100-odd dumplings without break.Making dumplings at my grandparents' in NingyangAfter lunch, my aunts and uncles were eager to show their skills at the cards-playing table into full play. Sometimes they fought fiercely over 5 points, while sometimes they burst into laughter when their team earned great scores. Everyone was enjoying the game as much as they could, as it put their worries far behind and gave them a complete rest from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Playing cards at my grandparents' in NingyangHow about the seniors and minors? We’d decided to take some fresh air and exercise our muscles at the newly-built fitness square! Though still a little barren in the background, we had a great time taking exercises while chatting about the great changes that had taken place in this village and our family in the past decades and looking forward to better lives yet to come.Taking exercises at the fitness square in NingyangAnd this year was especially joyful for everyone, as a little new life-- my nephew, joined our family. Holding him in your arms and trying to make him laugh would make you realize the magic of life and what the family meant in the first place: the continuation of life.My grandparetns and my nephews at my uncle's in NingyangIt seems that the flavor of Spring Festival is gradually losing among people of all ages: the elders grieve over the fleeting of time and declining of health, the middle-aged shoulder too much pressure from work and family, while young people are agitated by the constant urging of their relatives. But Spring Festival is more than rich meals and a few days’ rest. It is about family reunion and accompaniment, of sitting down with all your beloved ones, looking back at the past and looking forward to a new year with happiness and prosperity. As long as there’s love, Spring Festival will always be there, summoning all of us home with joy forever. Family photo at my uncle's in Ningyang: wishing everyone a very happy 2016!

A friend of mine recently broke up with her Polish boyfriend. This three-year, cross-cultural, and long-distance (with they two staying in China and England respectively for two years) relationship has stirred no small ripples in her family, friends and colleagues, and dramatic scenarios never ceased taking place: she flew to Poland to spend Christmas with his family and he came back twice to visit her in China; her mother so disapproved of her from the moment she got to know they were dating that she not only refused to see the guy, but knelt down to beg her daughter to end it; her friends kept on persuading her to give up, as they couldn’t get married within a short time under the current circumstances and that was especially important for girls. Among all the people she knew, I was the only one supporting her to stick to it, as I could always see light in her eyes whenever she talked about her beloved one, and I knew how much they had been through, and how much more she loved him and wanted to share the rest of her life with him. But due to the huge pressure from almost everyone, she yielded at last. “I don’t have love any more. Chen Ning, do you still believe in love?” She asked me.“Of course. Why not?”“I knew you would say so. You, you’re the only one I know who believe in love!”And I knew what she accused of me is true. As a twenty-nine-year-old woman, I’ve seen almost all my good friends get married successively in the past few years. Some married to their high school or college sweethearts and are now having their happy and cozy family of three, while the others went on lots of blind dates before they finally met the one. I know they are together for various reasons, and for whatever reasons I sent and will always send my most sincere wish to them, as only you yourself know best of what you truly want.So what has loving someone given me? Boundless tears, uncontrollable sadness, unresolved questions and long waiting. For quite a long time I became so sentimental, sensitive and vulnerable that I avoided any positive contacts with people and was about to slide into depression. But again, what has love given me? Courage, determination, strong sense of happiness and profound love for life. I still remember when the man said “I love you” to me in the most earnest way, I was feeling that was the happiest moment in my entire life. Although it hadn’t developed the way I expected, I knew I would say yes without hesitation again if I had been given another chance. During the long and gradual period of self-recovery, I became more inclusive, patient and understanding. I now cherish time more and enjoy every moment spent with my family and friends. I’m eager to become a better person, be stronger and more independent, take exercises regularly and learn new things, and above all, always smile without complaints. I’ve always been lucky to be surrounded by people that gave me unconditional support and encouragement, wherever I am and whatever life period I am in. One of my roommates in high school once told me: “You have to be patient, as you prince is coming all the way for you. But as he has to crosses over the mountains and fight against the monsters, it’d take a while.” And I have some friends who feel I’m “too good to marry randomly”. I know they are mostly comforting me so that I won’t rush for it and regret it later on, but I always feel grateful they think that way. I’m always idealized. I believe that love is the most beautiful and natural feeling beyond reason and logic. It is spontaneous and intuitive, and gives you infinite powers to face any difficulty. When you are with the man, you never think about whether he has a car or a house, whether you two are suitable for each other in terms of background, or whether you are matched in other people’s eyes; all you feel is that time is fleeting, the rain is singing and dancing for you, and you couldn’t help smiling and giggling all the time. Just like someone often uses “I’m not smart enough” as an excuse for not trying hard, many people keep saying that once you enter marriage after a few years, all the love will gradually fade away and turn into living, so it just doesn’t matter whom you marry to. But I’m determined to try it and find the answers myself. I know I’m being selfish this way, and I’m constantly tortured by the fact that all my family are worried about me and are eager to see me get married, but this is my last insistence and I will try as hard as I can.I’m here for the man with whom forever is not enough. This is my belief in love.

“Chen Ning, I have a question to ask you.” One of my colleagues talked to me seriously while we took a walk after lunch one day.“Oh, what is it?” I was surprised and curious.“You know I’ve been receiving dental treatment continuously for more than a year, and that has cost me a lot of money. Right now I’ve ran out all my savings. I could have taken some money from my parents, but since I have graduated for three years, I decided to borrow money from my friends and colleagues rather than putting any burden on my family. Do you think that sounds stupid?”“Of course not. You’ve done a right thing! And you’ll always have my backing financially and spiritually.”“Then it’s good. I’ve been thinking about this for quite a long time.” And she looked quite relieved.I was glad that she had this kind of idea and I was also happy she turned to me and I could help. The post-80s and 90s generations have grown up and gradually entered society to earn their living. But unlike the generations of our parents, who fought hard and won almost everything by their own efforts, the vast majority of our generation always complain. They complained they couldn’t afford a house in the city because the price was too high and their parents not wealthy enough; and when they managed to buy a house finally, they complained it was not big enough and they had to pay a monthly mortgage because their parents were not billionaires or high-ranking officials. It never occurred to them that as they were adults, their parents owed them nothing and had no responsibility to maintain an ideal living for them. If you want nice things, why don’t you try to earn it by yourself?And this reminded me of chatting with a 26-year-old Chinese man graduated from Adelaide University last October. He had graduated for almost a year, but as it was quite hard for a Chinese majoring in Engineering to find a decent job in Adelaide, a little cozy city renowned for art and wine, he just took random volunteer jobs once in a while. We were about to show our empathy before we were told that he rented a whole flat, which he sublet to another Chinese student, drove a fancy Audi, and never cooked at home! And when we kindly suggested he sought jobs in Melbourne and Sydney where there would be more opportunities and much higher daily expenses of course, he rejected it, as “it would be impossible to maintain his current living quality.” But how could one talk about the quality of life when he couldn’t even earn himself a living and make himself financially independent first? I know he is not alone and is quite typical of the single child in China. As the centre of the whole family ever since they were born, they take it for granted that all the wealth of their parents represent theirs and thus take it naturally from them no matter how old they are. I’ve been avoiding talking with anyone who boasted of their fancy cars or grand apartments, when they themselves only earn a barely 2000 yuan monthly income and have to depend on their parents on daily sustenance. To them, personal striving and feeling grateful are the least thing to think about.But amid this prevalence of vanity, there are always good examples to reinforce your belief. One of my classmates in high school bought a small house in the suburb of Beijing three years ago, using up the savings of her and her husband, while not taking one penny from their parents, who lived in the countryside of Shandong. On the contrary, they got to support not only their parents, but their brothers, aunts and uncles from time to time. They were both at the beginning stage of their career and were not earning much, but they were determined to provide a better life for their family at any cost. I always spoke highly of her, saying that just by this she had stood superior to most of our peers and had shown the quintessence of independent living.As for me, my parents have been the best models ever since I was a little girl. Twenty-nine years ago, we were sharing a small single-storey house with another family, as my parents had to send the bulk of their salary to my grandparents while keeping only a small amount to cover the daily expenses of our family. It was when I started to go to primary school that we had a house of our own. My grandfather has been receiving medical treatment since then, but I never saw once they hesitated in taking out their savings, no matter how hard our life was. They started from grassroots, and have earned whatever they have now all by themselves. I’m proud of them.And they influenced me to no small extent. I began to take a few random part-time jobs such as shop assistant and tutor since college and my annual scholarship were spent on the gifts of my parents and grandparents. During my postgraduate study, I began to do more part-time jobs and internships, which enabled me to become financially independent since then. For me, it not only meant more material things for my beloved ones, but value and worth, of an independent being.Life is all about making choices. We could always choose to rely on our parents and make it easy. But since life is only once, why don’t we choose to fight it our own way and see how the journey will be like? Perhaps it may not be smooth, and sometimes it could really be discouraging and devastating, but one thing for sure is that it will be so worth living. Wish every young person have the courage and determination to embark on that journey and enjoy the views along the way.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when one travels, he always wants to bring home some local specialty as gifts for family, friends and himself. Be it embroidered handkerchief and blue calico in the Yangtze River Delta, handmade cappa in Southwest China, or food from the time-honored brands, these little pieces have added great pleasure to the journey itself and are often kept as reminder of the memorable experiences on the way.So you could imagine how excited we were when we spotted rows of stalls selling fresh green mangoes, carambola, and other tropical fruits at a reasonable price along the Circular Road in Xiamen during the New Year holiday of 2015, as they were either extraordinarily expensive or rarely seen in some remote areas of the Northern province of Shandong. To our surprise, the vendors even offered free-courier service in order that our packages could be directly delivered to our family and friends, and thus reduced our inconvenience of dragging an over-weight suitcases to the airport. Totally satisfied with all this, we began to pick the fruits, put them into the boxes, filled in the courier forms, bargained a little bit and paid for them. Though my friend took a few photos of the stall in case that we couldn’t receive the packages, all the time the vendor couple were nice and patient and told us a lot about the local flavor, which assured us that it would be fine.A few days later, my aunt received my package and though the fruits were fresh to them, they didn’t quite enjoy the taste. But my friend was not that lucky. She received only eight green mangoes, while what she initially ordered and paid for was twelve, and the ones she did get were all a couple of sizes smaller. This was unacceptable to both of us and I began to think about submitting complaints to local authority. So I searched information on the Internet, and it turned out the mango vendors along the Circular Road in Xiamen were indeed quite notorious and had triggered quantity of grudges among tourists and local residents for a long time. Some local people, regarding what the few people had done as jeopardizing the image and reputation of the city and residents, even urged the regulatory authority to set up loudspeakers repeatedly broadcasting “don’t buy the mangoes” in the downtown area and along the Circular Road. However, so many years passed, the mango vendors, instead of becoming well-behaved and serving as one of the unique landscapes, are turning increasingly shrewd and calculating, while the regulatory authority stays passive in the name of “lacking in resources” and so forth. This disappointing experience gradually faded away, and except for writing the whole incident on one travelling website and constantly informing my friends who went to Xiamen, I did nothing more. But last month I met a new colleague who studied in Xiamen for three years and began to chat about it.“I once travelled to Xiamen.”“Oh, did you like it?”“It was OK except for being crowded and untidy in some places. But do you hear about the mangoes along the Circular Road?”“Sure, but don’t you tell me you bought some yourself?”“I didn’t. But my friend did and she only got part of the mangoes she paid for and they were small and stale.”“Of course they were. The vendors were just ripping off the tourists. We all knew that. You two hadn’t done enough homework.”“But isn’t it the responsibility of the local authority to do something about it, like informing the tourists?”“How could they possibly do that?” she yelled with a sort of surprise, giving me an impression that “it was me instead of the local authority that should be blamed for, as it was none of their business and it was totally my fault that I hadn’t prepared well”.I was speechless and even felt a little sad. So there existed and still exists a prevalent mentality among many well-educated young people that when you meet with an unfair and unjust situation, instead of pondering about the underlying causes and having your voice heard, you only have yourself to be accused of, because “nothing would help, and everyone else is accepting it”. If you got ripped off, it was your fault you hadn’t done much homework; if you lost your wallet or cellphone at the train station, it was your fault you were not careful enough; if you got harassed on the bus, it was again your fault you wore too little. Not the ones who had done wrong, but you yourself to be blamed all the time. Hence most people would choose to remain silent and accept it, whenever this kind of disturbing incident happened to them. Hence the increasing mistrust in our society, which has been deteriorating the incredibility system each passing day.So it’s high time that the regulatory authority looked into this matter and the alike, and took effective measures to prevent them from happening again. Given the areas and people it involves, it wouldn’t be easy and it would take quite a long time, but nothing truly benefiting the people and the society is easy and it is worth the joint efforts of everyone. Only when we start from now, can we gradually regain our losing faith in the incredibility system, and only if we carry it out step by step, will our posterity be living in and benefiting from a society of fairness, justice and honesty.

※ Allianz Arena, Munich, GermanyIt would be a loss if you go to Germany without watching one soccer match. But as the tickets for Bayern Munich were sold out long ago, I decided to try my luck at the arena before the game started. So one Saturday morning in October, I took the train from Nuremberg and arrived in Munich with a crowd of young men and women attending the Oktoberfest in traditional costumes and got off at the Arena Stop with ardent fans dressed in red. I thought there would be scalpers selling tickets everywhere, but to my great surprise, all I saw was a gigantic architecture standing erect and people coming in twos and threes. No scalpers. So I changed my strategy. I approached another man with yellow face holding a sign “for two tickets” (in German) and after ceaseless negotiations and he getting his tickets, he gave me the sign. In the follow one and a half hours, you’d see an Asian girl holding a sign for one ticket under the scorching sun and kept chuckling despite herself from time to time. Most people passed by without looking at me; some cryptically shifted sights between me and the sign and couldn’t help laughing or murmuring something to his partners; and a few did come to me, saying: “I’ve got an extra ticket. 100 Euros. What do you say?” “Sorry, it’s too high for me.” When I began to feel helpless and exhausted, an elderly gentleman came to me, put one ticket in my hand and left. Before I realized what happened, he came back: “You have to go to see the game. You can’t sell the ticket.” “Sure” I nodded my head. “I have travelled so long to see it. Thank you so much.” So I came in, cheering, applauding and dancing with the excited fans together and experienced what was the authentic soccer craze. More than that. During the interval, the amiable gentleman came to talk to me again. “I can see you quite enjoyed the game.” “Yes, I did.” I truly did.※ Museum Square, Amsterdam, the NetherlandsThe last day before I left Amsterdam for China, I wandered around the Museum Square where stood the iconic I AMSTERDAM. Out of nowhere came a young man with a bicycle, smiling to me: “Hi! Do you have time for a drink or something?” As I had no interest in this kind of romance at all, I directly rejected him: “Sorry, I don’t have time. I have to rush for the train station.” “It won’t take much time.” “Sorry, I really got to go. I’m leaving tonight.” So I left quickly and deliberately chose the main roads with more people. When I felt I was finally safe, to my astonishment, he appeared again. “Hi, it’s you! Can we have a drink, please?” “Sorry, I’m really sorry.” I quickened my steps, leaving him murmuring: “Sorry, always sorry...”※ Train Stations, New Delhi& Agra, IndiaThe train tickets system in India is perplexing. You have to book them online a long time before travelling, but often couldn’t be sure whether you’ve got them or not until the last moment.When I was waiting for the train for Agra that had been delayed for two hours already, I started to talk with a young lady nearby. Knowing I hadn’t get the ticket, she took me, among swarms of people and through an archway, until we finally arrived at the women-only ticket window. There she helped me get a general ticket, and explained patiently how I could change it into a valid ticket after getting on board. She had brightened my travelling day.The next afternoon I left Agra for Jodhpur by train once again with no ticket. After having failed to get a general ticket at the ticket window, I had no choice but to try to get on the train first. While I was waiting in the Staff’s Office for the delayed train, one man working there told me where I could get a ticket. So I went to another office and it turned out to be quite efficient. One officer asked for my destination, checked my passport and handed me one ticket, saying: “Here, 1350 Rs.” “Thank you very much.” I felt so grateful and gave him 2000 Rs, which he quickly put into his pocket. Then he continued to talk with his colleagues, never turning and looking at me again.Do you have any interesting story of travelling alone?Soccer craze at Allianz Arena

I haven’t watched domestic TV series for a long time, given that all the family disputes between mothers and wives and the pretentious struggling of the young in wealthy families made your working days even more tiresome. But on my last trip home, I chanced upon Yanko, a TV drama about the anti-Japanese war in Yantai, Shandong province back in the 1930s to 1940s and shed tears at certain scenarios despite myself. So when I came back, I began to watch it every day and have just finished this 79-episode the day before yesterday.It is not an excellent TV drama artistically: the lines and scenes were repetitious and clunky (that’s why it couldn't be finished within 30 episodes), climaxes appeared almost in every episode, and the heroes and heroines were too flat to be true, etc. But in spite of all these flaws, it has captured the spirit of our predecessors fighting dauntlessly for such a great course and finally winning the peace we are having now.Here are some of the scenes that moved me into tears: “The platoon leader of the Red Amy was severely hurt in one fighting and had to stay in a stretcher when the whole team was forced to move to another battlefield. Knowing he would be a burden, he deliberately commanded the team to somewhere near a ravine, where, he forced the rest of the soldiers to jump between the two rocks over the ravine, while he himself, too feeble to move any more, stayed where he was, used up all his bullets and enticed the enemies to approach. When they did arrive and were about to catch him alive, he, holding the grenade in his hand, died with all the enemies.”“In order to wipe out the investigation team of Kuomintang who stood side by side with the Japanese invaders, the Red Army sent one soldier to be undercover in the investigation team. He had successfully won their trust and guided them to an island where an ambush was made ready. However, a traitor in the Army began to fire all of a sudden, which made the investigation team realize that their guide was a Communist member. Before he could jump into the sea for escape, the investigation team shot him simultaneously on the spot. He died, with dozens of bullets in his body.”“The enemy troops invaded the village while two medics were concentrating on the operation of one of their comrades. The operation went quite well and the soldier was saved and shifted quickly to another place. The medics, instead of moving with the militia, chose to stay in the battlefield to fight against the enemies. They had known each other for over three years and had strong feelings for each other. Now they finally got the chance to express their love, and it was one of the most exciting and touching things to have your love returned. With the bullets run out, they died, hand in hand in the heavy gunfire, with smile on their faces.”I knew some of the scenes in this TV drama were exaggerated and fabricated, but I’m even sure what they actually experienced was a much more dangerous and harsh situation beyond imagination. While watching them, I can not help asking myself: if I were in that position, what would I do? Could I be that bold and determined to fight against the enemies for our motherland and our people without hesitation? I knew the answer may not be a definite yes, indeed I don’t think any of us could earnestly pledge we’d do the same if it were to happen again, and that’s the very reason why we should cherish the hard-won peace we are having now. Peace is a supreme word, without which, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are mere talk without significance. Although the vast majority of Chinese people are enjoying peace, we should not ignore the fact that the gaining of it is never easy and that a large number of people throughout the world are still suffering from all kinds of human wars and conflicts. From the two World Wars to the Korean War, Vietnam War and Gulf War, from 911 Terrorist Attack to the atrocities of the Islamic State recently, the wars and conflicts between nations and regions, races, and religions have never really departed us and be it a just cause or not, it is millions of ordinary people of both sides that become the victims, either dying in the battlefields, or becoming homeless and suffering agonizingly afterwards. I remember reading an article involving an interview with a man survived from the atomic bombardment in Hiroshima during the Second World War. Every day he was suffering from severe wounds outside and inside. While the physical scar could be healed some day, the terror, guilt and loneliness may never be cured. So in human wars there’s no winning at all. It is failing of the mankind.History is a mirror for reflection. In A Global History, the author Leften Stavros Stavrianos, apart from telling us the history of the human beings from prehistoric time until the contemporary period in his lucid and logic way, kept reminding us: what can we learn from the history to avoid the recurrences of human tragedies? It is true that compared with our ancestors living in the caves and hunting for food each day, nowadays we deem ourselves especially developed in science and technology, in the scope of knowledge and indeed in everything else, but isn’t it true that when the Europeans started to conquer and oppress other people in America, Asia and Africa in the 16th century and continued to do so till the outbreak of the First World War, they also counted themselves superior and were thus endowed with the privilege and responsibility to “cultivate the lower races” in every conceivable way? So what we truly need is not to carry out any “justice course” in the name of gaining peace for any specific group of people, region or country; what we need is to discard any sense of superiority and any form of prejudice and discrimination upon any race, gender, religion, nation and so forth, accept who they are, and treat them as members of our family, the big family of the human beings. We’re all brothers and sisters living on this planet and everyone should and must have the same right for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and on top of that, peace.Together let’s cherish the peace we are having now. It is hard to win, but easy to lose.

Travelling has become a buzzword in recent years, as more and more young people took gap years for global travelling to gain richer and more varied experiences, or resigned from work in the name of “going out to see this big world”. In the meantime, the significance of travelling has been put forth and confused a lot. So, why do you travel?It never really occurred to me until recently as travelling came naturally to me as part of family hobbies, and indeed one of the few good habits my father ever taught me besides keeping accounts. Before I was ten, we usually travelled to our neighboring cities and counties and the memory is so vague that only the old photos could dimly remind me of those family trips in my early childhood. Then as I grew older, we began to visit more places in summer, most of which were mountains, such as Mount Tai in my hometown Shandong, Mount Huang in Anhui and Mount Lu in Jiangxi. Though a little fat girl at that time, I enjoyed climbing mountains a lot, as we usually started at six in the morning, took a rest every one hour or so, cheered each other up by chatting or singing, until we finally reached the top after five or six hours. The last hundreds of stairs would be the toughest as your physical strength was on the brink of exhaustion while the stairs were always the steepest, so you got to hold your breath and make it until the last moment.Often we sweated a lot, our legs became stiffened, and the destination seemed so far away, but the beautiful scenery alongside was more than rewarding: dense forests, tinkling streams, chirping birds, graceful welcoming pines and stones resembling images of objects and people. It was the time when you were in full communion with nature and all the fatigue seemed worthwhile. I love climbing mountains.Then with I getting financially independent and gradually happy again, our travelling team got changed and became stable, consisting of my mom, my aunt, my cousin and me since 2009, and each summer we travelled to one province or two for five to ten days. I’d plan several months ahead, making up itineraries, booking tickets and hotels, searching for information, etc, and despite little fights and accidents now and then, each trip was more enjoyable than expected. I remember we took a random stroll along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, and recited the namesake poem together when we chanced upon the Black Dress Lane. I remember our humble but hearty meal at a courtyard halfway up one of the hills at Zhangjiajie Park in Hunan after a whole day’s exhaustion and that we got up at four o’clock next morning, waited for the sunrise and yelled with other tourists when the sun finally came out. I remember we finally came to Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan, the most beautiful scenery in my mind for years, and instead of taking eco-cars and got off at every major valley as other tourists did, for two days we chose to walk along the plank paths into the depth of the forests, and felt the great serenity and supreme beauty of each valley suddenly appearing in front of you like little drops from heaven. And I remember we rode horses at a prairie in Shangri-La, Yunan for the first time and all of a sudden a rainbow came out and formed a perfect picture with everything. It is said that travelling is the best test for a couple, as if they could get along well during the trip when each other tend to show their plainest or even worst sides, they’ll probably able to tolerate each in daily life, and it rings true to a family as well. It is during travelling that we understand and care more about each other, from sharing food, carrying luggage to putting others’ interests and demands on top, and it is when you share the beautiful scenery with your most beloved ones that they stop being mere objects but vivid pictures touching your soul. That’s why, we, after so many years, still stick to the family trip every summer, and will keep on with it in the years to come, as long as we can.2012 means a lot to me as I travelled abroad for the first time. I participated an exchange project and visited many cultural institutions in Berlin and other three cities in Germany for a month. I enjoyed the friendly smile from strangers when I went jogging in the morning, and loved it when I took a rest on the meadow in front of museums, and it is the great accomplishments of the human beings in the past and their different lifestyles in the present that appeal to me most. From that time on, I began to dream bigger, and made good use of every holiday available. This year I’m planning to pay visits to Greece, Britain and Egypt and I know my journey of exploring the world will never end.Nowadays many young people take travelling as escaping, escaping from the mundane life they’re facing every day and fancying everything’s gonna be better once they return. But returning is even difficult than starting off, as travelling is never the cure. As a matter of fact, you have to make yourself be in the right track in study, work, relationships and so forth, before you could fully enjoy yourself on the way, or your life would remain a mess wherever you go. So there’s actually no significance in travelling; travelling is among the experiences adding joy to your way of life already there. So just enjoy it.Again, why do you travel?At Zhangjiajie, Hunan, 2013At Jiuzhaigou Valley, Sichuan, 2014At Yulong Snow-capped Mountain, 2015

I loved watching TV when I was a kid. Twenty years ago there were a few mainland TV serials and still fewer entertainment programs. Instead, Hong Kong TV serials, widely known as TVB plays, were filled with our scanty channels day and night and were immensely popular among children and adults alike. The first one I still remember vividly now is I Have a Date with Spring, in which four girls met each other when working at a discotheque in the 1920s and became close friends. They used to play cards at the apartment they rented together and enjoyed a lot of fun cooking and chatting. It was screened at our local channel every noon in the early summer of 1998, my last year at primary school. My best friend came to my home every day so we could go to school together; and she, after seeing me so fascinated with this play, just sat and watched it with me. I also had another good friend, and all I wished at that time was that I should have another good friend so when we grew up we could play cards and mahjong together at our apartment!During my middle-school years, TVB produced a series of gangster dramas, such as Interpol, Detective Investigation Files (I-IV), Armed Reaction (I-IV), and so forth, each of which I watched attentively and couldn’t move my eyes off from TV even one moment. Hong Kong policemen and policewomen, so different from the police well-known in our neighborhood, had become heroes in our adolescent years for their wisdom, wit and boldness. Besides, the ancient costume comedies are as appealing, such as Taming of the Princess and Happy Ever After, both of which starred by one of my favourite actor Ouyang Zhenhua, the amusing appearance, ways of talking and behaviors of whom would keep you laughing. In recent years, more TVB serials of various subjects are produced, and family series Fathers and Boys and Daddy Good Deeds are among my favourite ones. Be it about modern or ancient themes, all those TVB dramas feature well-designed plots, down-to-earth dialogues, excellent performing of the actors and actresses, and most importantly, the touching sentiments existing everywhere, which are also the reflections of the core values of Hong Kong society. Hong Kong residents attach great importance to family. Due to the increasingly unaffordable housing price and other reasons, two or even three generations may share one small apartment; however, you’ll see most grown-up children get along well with their grand-parents, parents, uncles and aunts under the same roof and happily enjoy the typical Hong Kong dessert after dinner. Hong Kong residents are born optimistic with strength. The typical TVB line “Well, the most important thing of living is being happy” appeared almost in all of the dramas whenever someone met an obstacle and is too familiar to forget. Hong Kong residents cherish love. They enjoy sharing with their neighbors and friends, treating them like family, and the love stories are never overtly dramatic like those in South Korean dramas; they are simple, pure and fall right into the place. Seemingly a little bit naive and childish, I believe they are true reflections of Hong Kong and the seed of visiting the unique city of Hong Kong someday to view the scenery I had watched again and again was already sown at that time. Thus began my life-long love affair with Hong Kong.Ten Years was a hit in 2004, and made Hong Kong singer Eason Chan instantly popular in the mainland. Though easy to sing, I didn’t like this song very much, and regarded him a random guy. However, in the years to come, I always stopped to listen to his song whenever it was broadcast by radio of our campus and paid attention to his news out of no reason. I became infatuated with his magnetic voice until in July 2009 I watch a live concert of him in Beijing. I sang every song with him and couldn’t help weeping all the time. I fell in love with him. In the following months I listened to all his 1000-odd songs , most of which are Cantonese, and learnt them by heart. In those beautifully melodic songs like Shall We Talk, Best Friend, Unparalleled in the World, and Boastful, etc, family, friendship, love and personal striving are told from a more poignant perspective in the implicit Cantonese with its special pronunciations and diction, making each song a magic piece totally different from its Mandarin counterpart. And it was then that I made the wish of watching his live concert in Hong Kong Coliseum someday, the most prestigious concert venue in Hong Kong and seeing him at his best, not the one being forced to sing Mandarin songs most of the time to cater to the audiences in the mainland, but choosing whatever excites and touches him. Adding to this Hong Kong complex is the little cute cartoon pig called “Mcdull”. I chanced upon him in one of my listening classes in 2006, when my teacher played one of the most popular Mcdull episodes, where Mcdull kept asking for fishball and noodle in his innocent voice. Henceforward, I’ve watched all the Mcdull series: My Life of Mcdull, Mcdull, Prince de la Bun, Mcdull, Kung Fu Kindergarten, Mcdull, Pork of Music and Mcdull, Me& My Mum, the last three of which were watched at cinema. Mcdull is never smart. In fact he’s a little bit slow, lazy and stubborn, never good at school even when he tried hard, like the ordinary us, the real us, instead of the one that our parents or teachers taught us to be. But he is kind, kind in the real sense of the word, to his friends, teachers and strangers. He loves his mother and would do everything for her, like participating steamed stuffed bun competition and practising Kung Fu , even when he hated it and it was at that time that his potential was fully tapped and he could also make small wonders. And no one could ignore the beautiful voices of him and his classmates in Mcdull, Pork of Music, which subtly touched the softest part of our soul. Once I took Duoduo to watch the newly-released Mcdull, Kung Fu Kindergarten in the summer of 2009, and to my surprise, he didn’t like it. In fact, he told me he couldn’t understand it. So Mudull is essentially a cartoon for the grown-ups. It is for all those who still cherish love and innocence, and are stubborn enough to believe miracles would happen to them despite all the obstacles confronted in life. I’m among the Mcdulls.McdullWith the timing being perfect, I finally set my foot on Hong Kong with my family in August 2012 for the first time. Like other tourists, we walked through the avenues and alleys, were amazed by the grandeur of the lighting show along the Victorian Bay, had a lot of fun at Disneyland, Ocean Park and Madame Dussauds Wax Museum and I did watch Eason’s concert, not at Hong Kong Coliseum though. But accidents came along all the way: we experienced the super-fast subway, where the door was shut down immediately after my aunt stepped into the carriage, which took her away, leaving all three of us standing still perplexed; I did a lot of homework about Hong Kong food and were ambitious enough to have a taste of all, only to find that my stomach was not that cooperative and the last several days were lived through with dessert only; my mother fell ill on the third day, so our primary mission on the following day was to buy inexpensive coat in 35°; being a little bit heavy for his age, Duoduo broke the brittle bed board in the hotel when he abruptly sat on it. More than that. The time I breathed the humid air, viewed the colossal skyscrapers and little stores along the crowed alleys, and came into the building where more than a dozen apartments were suited on the same floor, with some being gymnasium and the barber’s shop, the others occupied by local residents, I knew this was Hong Kong all over. For me it is never a place just for shopping or entertaining; it is a city of robust energy, of constantly struggling for a living, and in nowhere else can you see more perfect combination of tradition and modernity. All you need to do is slowing your pace, roaming around the streets, stop by a local restaurant or taking a walk in the park. They’ll tell stories by themselves.My first trip to Hong Kong was not an easy one, for the things confronted in four days may never happen if travelling somewhere else. It has not only fulfilled my long-time wish, but is memorable enough to make me visit it time and time again. So I did. In the spring of 2014, I came to Hong Kong again during a transfer for a few hours. This time I went to the Gold Bauhinia Square to watch the flag-raising ceremony. It was a small square and only a few tourists from the mainland were there watching it as one of the scenic spots organized by travel agencies. But surprises are everywhere. Upon arriving at the airport, I came across a little counter selling Mcdull products, which I searched in vain in 2012, and had a really good harvest before happily returning home. Last year I met a girl Anna from Hong Kong and we became good friends. Besides learning a few Cantonese, I also got to know more about Hong Kong. Young people, like us, are under great pressure finding jobs that suit their interests and talents and pay well. For example, a starter in the cultural sector may earn about HKD 8000 per month, while the salary of workers in the service field is well above HKD 10000. Besides swarming to Hong Kong for milk powder, more and more mainlanders are choosing Hong Kong doctors for treatment, adding more pressure to the medical service of the local residents.So like all the cities in the 21st century, Hong Kong is facing unprecedented challenges in resources, education, environment and so forth. But Hong Kong residents, like the protagonists in TVB dramas and little Mcdull, are endowed with perseverance to overcome any difficulty and will become stronger. For me, I will keep visiting Hong Kong in the years to come and will continue recommending Hong Kong as the unique city in China, whose beauty and wonder await you to explore by yourself.