Month: August 2020

(Xinhua)10:43, August 19, 2020

A set of commemorative coupons marking the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, the now Palace Museum, were issued on Tuesday.

On the obverse of the coupon is the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian) in front of a birds eye view of the entire imperial compound, while the reverse depicts a dragon from the Nine-dragon Screen (Jiulong Bi), a porcelain screen standing in the courtyard outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy.

The coupons were jointly issued by the Palace Museum and the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation.

This year marks the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, an imperial palace of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, based on which the Palace Museum was built in 1925.

(Xinhua)16:53, August 19, 2020

Chinese archaeologists used new technology and tools to restore the tomb mural paintings of Li Daojian, which dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) period, according to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

The tomb was excavated in the southwest of Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, and believed to be that of Li Daojian, great-grandson of the first Tang Dynasty Emperor Li Yuan.

The single-chamber brick tomb with a long slope was robbed and sustained waterlogging several times, yet it is still rich in content. The restoration work began in 2017.

We found that the mural, which records images of officials and maids of the Tang dynasty, has serious dislocations and damages, said Yan Jing, a researcher with the institute.

Researchers used a nanomaterial to strengthen the fragments of the mural. The image restoration technique was used to repair and simulate the missing pieces of the mural, Yan added.

The restored murals would provide significant materials for the study of politics, art and culture of the Tang Dynasty, said Yan.

(Xinhua)09:34, August 20, 2020

Leading Chinese online streaming platform iQIYI said Wednesday that it will continue to produce the CG-animation series Deer Squad Season II.

The cartoon has received gratifying response from international viewers since it was aired on Aug. 3 on Nickelodeon, a U.S. entertainment brand for kids.

Deer Squad is an animated adventure rescue series about four loveable, enthusiastic and heroic young deer friends — Kai, Lola, Rammy and Bobbi, who protect the animals of Central Forest and the humans who inhabit Platinum City, a futuristic metropolis surrounding their woodland home.

When there is trouble, the deer summon their planetary powers and transform into a team capable of solving problems.

We are very glad that such a platform airs our story Deer Squad to international audience, said Yang Xiaoxuan, vice president of iQIYI.

According to Yang, iQIYI has adopted a new way of making cartoons to ensure international broadcasting. When the company drew up the outline of the story in 2017, it introduced Nickelodeon to the team for creative guidance and supervision.

Yang said it is the first time that a Chinese animation producer has taken the route in order to show its works to global audience.

It is also the first time that Nickelodeon has introduced an original Chinese animation from the conception phase.

When we cooperate with an international network from an early stage, the misunderstanding and divergence that may appear in the process of international broadcasting can be handled in advance, said Yang.

Deer Squad premiered first on iQIYI on July 15, before its launch on Nickelodeon in Asia in August. Nickelodeon also plans to roll it out internationally later this year.

(Xinhua)09:39, August 20, 2020

Speaking in front of a live camera, Du Yongwei presented a blue guitar with exquisite patterns of phoenix and peonies, woven into the instrument as cultural elements from Dunhuangs Mogao Grottoes, a renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest Chinas Gansu Province.

The images imitate elements from the murals of the Mogao Grottoes, which imply their specific meanings in the Chinese culture, Du, a 60-year-old inheritor of Dunhuang-painted sculpture craft, told the audience.

Tmall, Chinas internet giant Alibabas online marketplace, collaborated with the Dunhuang Museum on Sunday to hold a livestreaming activity at the replicated grottoes in the museum.

The two-hour livestream, which attracted more than 10,000 online viewers, introduced the Dunhuang culture, and unveiled the stories and background of the Dunhuang-themed cultural and creative products.

Weve found that young people are keen on Dunhuang culture and theyre also willing to contribute their own power to cultural inheritance, said Liu Chang, manager of the online flagship shop of the Dunhuang Museum on Tmall.

According to Liu, since the shop opened on Tmall on May 18, it has received some 500,000 visits, with 40 percent of visitors younger than 30.

T-shirts and skateboards with patterns of flying apsaras, mooncakes in the shape of the nine-colored deer, as well as other featured products, including phone cases and key chains, won their favor with new fashion elements.

I couldnt imagine this millennium-old culture presented on products in fashionable designs, read a real-time comment.

As museums, monuments and historical sites across China embrace the digital age, a new upsurge in online exhibitions and livestreaming has added popularity to cultural and creative products. Many have joined hands with livestreaming platforms to offer online sales of their products to the public.

So far, more than 60 museums and cultural and creative stores, both at home and abroad, have opened online shops on Tmall with more than 700 million collective visits, said Liu Qian, who is in charge of the cultural and creative business on Tmall.

Dunhuang culture is a treasure for the world, and 200 million users of Tmall are from Generation Z, so we hope to create more opportunities for young people to know about Dunhuang, she said.

The Mogao Grottoes are home to collections of Buddhist artwork — more than 2,000 colored sculptures and 45,000 square meters of murals — in 735 caves carved along a cliff by ancient worshippers.

They were first constructed in 366 A.D. For more than 1,000 years, the site was a popular travelers stop and a religious shrine on the ancient Silk Road.

(Xinhua)16:21, July 14, 2020

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) — A growing number of Chinese university graduates are leaving first-tier cities for second-tier ones for lower living costs and easier access to local hukou, or household registration status, Tuesdays China Daily reported.

In 2019, 20 percent of college graduates chose to work in first-tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, down six percentage points from 2015, the newspaper cited data from the Chinese Four-Year College Graduates Employment Annual Report (2020).

While the proportion of college graduates who chose to work in one of the top 10 second-tier cities, such as Hangzhou in east Chinas Zhejiang Province and Chengdu in southwest Chinas Sichuan Province, rose to 26 percent in 2019 from 22 percent in 2015.

A similar trend was also spotted among Chinese vocational college graduates, the newspaper said, citing a separate Chinese Three-Year Vocational College Graduates Employment Annual Report (2020).

While graduates from first-tier cities had the highest job satisfaction rate, with Shanghai topping the list with 76 percent and Beijing ranking second with 75.8 percent, second-tier cities like Hangzhou also had a high job satisfaction rate of 75.2 percent, figures from the report show.

The reports, released by MyCOS, an education consulting and research institute in Beijing, were based on a survey of 274,000 graduates from 30 provincial-level regions.