Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) has been renowned for his versatility, particularly in music. There are many anecdotes about the talented emperor.

“Today there are nearly 300 million people learning to play guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither) in China, but the number of people learning konghou is less than 500.”

In 2000, when I first arrived in Paris, there were limited French products seen on the Chinese market, and vice versa. Fourteen years later, when I started Bonjour Brand, French products had deeply penetrated the Chinese high-end market. As an organizer, volunteer or visitor, I’ve participated in many initiatives to promote Chinese culture in France.

The first edition of the Modern Dutch-Chinese Dictionary was published in 1995 and an updated edition was published by the World Affairs Press in 2020. More than 8,700 new entries have been added to the dictionary compiled by a senior Chinese diplomat. The whole book contains a total of 67,000 entries and nearly 100,000 definitions, covering vocabulary from 60 different industrial fields. It is currently the largest Dutch-Chinese bilingual dictionary in China.

Pipa is a Chinese version of the European lute, with a history of more than 2,000 years. Pipa made its first appearance in China during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), reached its peak of popularity in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and then became an indispensable element of Chinese folk music.

Once upon a time there was a kingdom that flourished in ancient China called the Nanzhao Kingdom (738-902). It prospered and was influential throughout Southeast Asia, during the years of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Various ethnic groups thrived in the kingdom, but the one that held the most power in government was the Yi people. They governed the large region containing hundreds of rivers and integrated the political, economic, military strengths and folk customs of other ethnic groups.

“My life in China is great. Beijing is my favorite Chinese city. It is so developed and the people I meet here are nice and hospitable,” said Eric Allen, who is an English editor for New World Press, a Chinese publisher in Beijing publishing various books, including English books introducing China’s culture, history, and social systems.

Legend has it that in the 13th century, Kublai Khan (1215-1294), who established the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), discovered an exquisite kind of handicraft when fighting around Arabia in the Eurasian continent. The war was brutal, but Kublai Khan was so impressed with the craft he found that he spared the lives of the craftsmen and took them back to China. These skilled individuals were then ordered to make the exquisite handicrafts for Mongolian nobles. What they made was cloisonné, an ancient metalworking technique.

On December 17, 2020, Taijiquan (also known as tai chi) was inscribed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The traditional physical practice, which originated in China, is “characterized by relaxed, circular movements that work in concert with breath regulation, and the cultivation of a righteous and neutral mind” according to a description from the UNESCO website. It is an expression of China’s unique traditional culture and not only improves physical fitness, but also cultivates the mind.

This winter, Kong Junbo identifies himself as a penguin. The primary school student from Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong Province in east China, is among the thousands of students who have been playing ice hockey, skiing or sledging as winter sports become an indispensable part of physical education.

Two thousand years ago, there lived a Chinese musician named Yu Boya. He loved making music but sadly no one could truly appreciate his music. One day, a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi listened to Boya’s music and told Boya how he saw high mountains and flowing water expressed in his music.

When Ma Hu was chosen for a baseball training camp in Beijing, the 12-year-old didn't have the slightest idea how baseball was played or even what a baseball field looked like. The son of a migrant worker in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, northwest China, he didn't have enough warmth of family with one parent away working in the city and another having left soon after he was born. At school he was a headache for the teachers, acting up in the class and provoking fights with classmates during break time.

Two thousand years ago, there lived a Chinese musician named Yu Boya. He loved creating music but sadly no one could truly appreciate his music. One day, a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi listened to Boya’s music and told Boya how he saw high mountains and flowing water in his music. Yu was ecstatic over finding someone who shared mutual feelings with him, and then took Zhong as his soulmate in music. On the day Zhong died, Yu smashed his instrument, as he knew never again would he find someone who could so instinctively understand his music. The musical instrument which Yu played was guqin, a seven-stringed zither. It is a classical Chinese instrument dating back to more than 5,000 years ago. According to legends, the first guqin was made by one of the first kings of ancient China.

In a dimly-lit courtyard, as the overture begins to play, actors sitting behind a white curtain in front of a bright light begin to perform plays using small leather puppets mounted on the end of sticks. Audiences on the other side of the curtain see silhouettes flip around, walk or talk like real human figures. Both children and adults sit riveted to their seats amused by the fascinating legends or moving classic love & hate stories acted out by the shadow puppets. Everyone’s attention is glued to the curtain, and the small world is immersed in the shadow puppet art.