Stars provide hope

Star couple Sha Yi and Hu Ke recently appeared on a teaching stage and gave a lesson about dreams at the Anheuser-Busch InBev Hope School. They are the ambassadors of the just-built school in Suqian, Jiangsu province, which was jointly donated by the couple and the beer maker, on the site of an old school built in 1967. The couple read aloud from novels and shared their dreams with students. They said they believe spiritual education is more important than the facility and that they hoped to convey positive energy through the lesson.

Chinese New Year everywhere

Art troupes have teamed up with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China's State Council to entertain overseas Chinese around the globe for the coming Spring Festival season. Performing artists will spread out into 11 teams and travel to major cities with large Chinese populations, including London, New York, Sydney and San Diego. In each city, they will present a gala with ticket sales available to locals. The tour, called Culture of China, Festival of Spring, will debut in London on Feb 10, the first day of Lunar New Year, and end in Macao on March 6. The event, which began in 2009 and has since become a well-received annual tradition, has attracted many Chinese performing artists, including China's top soprano Song Zuying and Peking Opera artist Yu Kuizhi. For the coming season, as a contribution to the event, Song will host four solo concerts, in New York (Feb 16), Washington (Feb 19), Los Angeles (March 1) and San Francisco (March 3).

Wind and brass

Students and teachers from the primary school attached to Chaoyang Normal College gave a symphonic concert on Saturday afternoon at the Peking University Hall. It's the ninth year that the student orchestra gave a New Year concert, performing music for wind and brass instruments by composers including Shostakovich, Phillip Ronald Cowherd and Alan Menken and arranged pop music by Jay Chou. The school specializes in wind and brass orchestral training, inviting music coaches and conductors from conservatories to give classes. Students start to learn the instruments from their second year. The school formed a marching band in 1999 that has performed in Japan and Singapore.

Jade wonders

A total of 131 relics of the Liangzhu culture, which dates back to between 5,300 and 4,200 years ago, are on display at the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Sponsored by Jinsha Site Museum, Liangzhu Museum and Yuhang Museum in Zhejiang province, the exhibition will last till April 18 and most of the exhibits are jade objects. Located on a peninsula formed by the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay, Liangzhu culture was the last Neolithic jade culture in China's Yangtze River Delta. The culture is characterized by finely worked large ritual jade. The most exemplary artifacts from the culture were its jade cylinders, with the largest weighing 3.5 kg.

Fairy-tale year

To kick off its Chinese Classical Fairy Tale Year 2013, China National Theater for Children will stage The Adventures of a Little Rag Doll, a fairy tale that has been translated into eight languages and it will be the first time it goes on stage. The fairy tale was written in 1961 by Hans Christian Andersen Award nominee Sun Youjun. China National Theater for Children will present three to four plays adapted from Chinese classical children's literature this year.

China Daily

(China Daily 01/31/2013 page20)