What's On?

Electric Underground

7:30pm－1:00am   Free at the Cyclops Theatre

    Do you know who's playing in your area? We're bringing you an exciting evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract (合同)? If so, come early to the talk at 7:30pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He's going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce your music.

Gee Whizz

8:30pm-10:30pm   Comedy at Kaleidoscope

    Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He's the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7:00pm for drinks and snacks (快餐).

Simon's Workshop

5:00pm-7:30pm    Wednesdays at Victoria Stage

    This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years' experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.

Charlotte Stone

8:00pm-11:00pm Pizza World

    Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta (面食). Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.

    When Mark Levine, an English-language instructor at Beijing's Minzu University of China, was first invited to attend a Chinese colleague's wedding in Jiangsu Province in 2016, his second year in China, the California native was ready to present a small decorative gift for the new couple as he used to do in the United States.

    However, his gesture suddenly seemed inappropriate as he realized the Chinese at the ceremony had red envelopes filled with cash to present rather than a packed gift.

    "It's a little bit embarrassing when you present something that people didn't expect to receive on certain occasions," Levine told China Daily recently. "In the US, people do that as well but only for close relatives. People would normally give things as presents, while here in China red envelopes are more commonly welcomed."

    It was the first time that the 66-year-old had discovered the Chinese rules in gift giving. He was not alone.

    British Minister of State for Transport Baroness Susan Kramer presented a watch in January to Ko Wen-je, mayor of Taipei, when she visited the city, immediately sparking headlines as she broke a long-held tradition in Chinese culture.

    A clock or watch, or zhong in Mandarin, represents "the end" in Chinese, and many associate it with death. Therefore, giving someone, especially an elder, a clock or watch implies "your time is up".

    Kramer later apologized for the mistake, but Ko also came under fire for his response as he told reporters that he had no use for the watch and would sell it for cash.

    However, some foreigners in China stand by Ko in this particular debate, such as Mark Dreyer, a British citizen who has lived and worked in China since 2007."After all, 'don't give clocks or watches to your hosts' is on page l of most China travel guides. I'm embarrassed by the lack of respect shown by the British for not even reading about the customs beforehand."

Low-Cost Gifts for Mother's Day

Gift No. 1

    Offer to be your mother's health friend. Promise to be there for any and all doctor's visits whether a disease or a regular medical check-up. Most mothers always say "no need," but another set of eyes and ears is always a good idea at a doctor's visit. The best part? This one is free.

Gift No. 2

    Help your mother organize all of her medical records, which include the test results and medical information. Put them all in one place. Be sure to make a list of all of her medicines and what times she takes them. "Having all this information in one place could end up saving your mother's life," Dr. Marie Savard said.

Gift No. 3

    Enough sleep is connected to general health conditions. "Buy your mother cotton sheets（床单）and comfortable pillows to encourage better sleep," Savard said. "We know that good sleep is very important to our health."

Gift No. 4

Some gift companies such as Presents for Purpose allow you to pay it forward this Mother's Day by picking gifts in which 10 percent of the price you pay goes to a charity (慈善机构). Gift givers can choose from a wide variety of useful but inexpensive things —many of which are "green" — and then choose a meaningful charity from a list. When your mother gets the gift, she will be told that she has helped the chosen charity.

    Flying for a long time, you finally arrive at the place where you can relax—your hotel room. Now you throwyour bag on the bed, turn on the TV and watch an international news programme on a satellite channel probably from UK or the USA.

    The main international broadcasters are BBC World and CNN. With an audience of over 1.5 billion people, these are popular channels that offer good-quality news programmes. In both companies, the journalists are experienced writers that produce journalism of a high standard.

    However, there are alternative news channels which people watch because they want a less traditional or non-Western view on world events. Russia Today and Al Jazeera International, an Arabic company, are international channels that broadcast in English. Both companies say they give a fresh view on big stories, and their experienced journalists often report from places where Western journalists do not work, and so they give us stories that we don't normally see.

    The Internet offers more variety. OneWorldTV is an Internet site where you can find stories about the developing world and human rights, rather than the usual stories about US politics and business. The writers for this company are often local people who write the stories for free. This non-professional journalism is increasing, and it certainly offers more choices.

    This increase in citizen journalism means that you can write the news, too. Main news broadcasters often use photographs and stories that members of the general public send to them, especially when there is a dramatic breaking news story. Besides this, some blogs are popular sources of news, and the website NowPublic lets you write stories using information you can get from anywhere, including sites like Youtube, Flickr and Twitter.

    Nancy Ballard, 60, went for a routine checkup that turned into something extraordinary. She had just completed her master's in botanical illustration. In fact, she was canting a painting of a plant she'd done when she arrived at her doctor's San Francisco office. “It would be great if we had artwork like that for our chemotherapy(化疗)rooms, ”the nurse said. Ballard asked to see one.

    She was shocked by what she found. The walls were bare, and the paint was chipping(剥落).She could tell where old artwork had hung because of the naked nails. It was a depressing room for a depressing routine—patients had chemo drips for perhaps several hours, often with nothing to look at other than those sad walls. She couldn't imagine how anyone could even think about getting healthy in a room like that. As it happened, Ballard's physician, Stephen Hufford was ill with cancer himself, so finding time to decorate the rooms was low on his to-do list. So Ballard made it her mission to brighten up the place.

    She wrote to 20 local interior designers and asked whether they would donate their time and money to transform just one of Dr. Hufford's rooms each. Six of them wrote back almost immediately. Each of them ultimately chose a theme: The dragonfly room, for example, now features bright artwork and dragonfly wall ornaments. Most rooms got new paint, light fixtures, artwork, and furniture. Each room cost about $5, 000.

    Dr. Hufford was delighted.“ All the patients feel soothed by it.” he noted. He even said that his own tone of voice was different in the rooms and that he was better able to connect with his patients.

    Ballard was so encouraged that she created a nonprofit to raise money and decorate more spaces. Since then, she has worked on 20 projects, including one in Pennsylvania. She once went to Philadelphia for a ribbon cutting, and a woman there was on her third battle with cancer. When she saw what Ballard had done, she said, “I'm gonna beat it this time.I thought I wasn't going to, but now I know I'm gonna beat it.”

    Going back to school can be an anxious time for many students. But one institution in Texas is doing its part to make sure middle schoolers are returning refreshed and inspired to learn.

    Through a process called the "bathroom inspiration project," teachers and administrators at Warren Middle School, spent their summer beautifying the school's restrooms by painting motivational murals (壁画) on each of the stalls (小隔间).Forming messages like "Your mistakes don't define you" and "Scatter (撒播) kindness," the brightly colored words are exactly what a young student needs to see when having a rough day-or any school day for that matter. And now that classes are officially in session, people are already noticing a positive impact.

    Since posting photos of upgrades to the school in July, Principal Joshua Garcia says that the alterations have aroused a great response.

    "Students have been talking about the murals from the moment the pictures had been posted. Some even took the time to find a reason to come up to the campus to see the murals," he says. "I think what makes this small little action so valuable is that it has set the tone for our campus."

    And not only is that important to students, parents, and fellow staff, but it is also vital for the school's new principal, who is trying to gain the trust of the community during a time in which trust is so necessary for schools.

    "Being new to the campus, I think the parents were able to see how much I value their children and have their best interest at heart," Garcia continues. "I have had many parents tell me how they can just feel a difference in the campus climate and how much they are enjoying seeing their children wanting to come here. These murals have put trust back in the campus and its teachers, and by doing so we are able to build a culture in which our students want to be here and learn."