It's rare that the protagonist in a Chinese movie wins the audience's hearts with an emotionally uplifting message, rather than by showing off his or her good looks. But Wolf Warrior II is putting China in the global spotlight. It's also the first film to taste success both in terms of box office earnings and promoting Chinese values.

    Kung fu artist Wu Jing both starred in and directed the action movie. Since its release on July 27, it's earned an unimaginable 4.5 billion yuan, setting a record for domestic movies at the box office. The success of the film has surpassed the anticipations of all, including the production team.

    The film focuses on a rescue operation in Africa, led by former special forces soldier Leng Feng-played by Wu. Leng helps Chinese workers and local Africans flee a war-torn and plague-ravaged country. Wolf Warrior II links art to reality, and reminds people of the massive evacuation of Chinese people from Libya when civil war broke out there in 2011, and from Yemen in 2015, as well as the challenges the Ebola virus created in West Africa from 2013 to 2016. The film describes how the Chinese government aims to protect overseas Chinese citizens. Just as the message at the end of the film reads: “Citizens of the People's Republic of China. When you encounter danger in a foreign land, do not give up! Please remember, at your back stands a strong motherland.”

    Thanks to China's increasing participation in global affairs, now could be considered the right moment to introduce a modern Chinese hero.

    “Holding up a banner of peace, friendship and responsibility, Wolf Warrior II should be seen as a brave effort to promote Chinese values around the world,” columnist Zhu Ping wrote in China Daily.

    “It's time Chinese filmmakers produced films that tell good stories and carry the right spirit. Let us assume Wolf Warrior II has started that trend.”

    It is that time of year when people need to lock their cars. It's not because there are a lot of criminals running around stealing cars. Rather, it's because of the good-hearted neighbors who want to share their harvest. Especially with this year's large crop, leaving a car unlocked in my neighborhood is an invitation for someone to stuff it full of zucchini（西葫芦）.

    My sister-in-law, Sharon, recently had a good year for tomatoes. She and her family had eaten and canned so many that they began to feel their skin turn slightly red. That's when she decided it was time to share her blessings. She started calling everyone she knew. When that failed, she began to ask everyone in the neighborhood like a politician, eventually finding a neighbor delighted to have the tomatoes. "Feel free to take whatever you want," Sharon told her. She felt happy that she could help someone and that the food didn't go to waste.

    A few days later, Sharon answered the door. There was the neighbor, holding some bread. The neighbor smiled pleasantly, "I want to thank you for all of the tomatoes, and I have to admit that I took a few other things and hope you wouldn't mind."

    Sharon couldn't think of anything else in her garden that had been worth harvesting and said no. "Oh, but you did," the neighbor said. "You had some of the prettiest zucchini I've ever seen."

    Sharon was confused. Zucchini in her garden? They hadn't even plated any zucchini. But her neighbor insisted that there really were bright-green zucchini in her garden. The two of them walked together into the backyard. When the neighbor pointed at the long green vegetables, Sharon smiled, "Well, actually, those are cucumbers that we never harvested, because they got too big, soft and bitter for eating or canning."

    The neighbor looked at Sharon, shock written all over her face. Then she smiled, and held out the bread that she had shared all over the neighborhood, "I brought you a loaf of cucumber bread. I hope you like it."

    Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Professor Strickland is one of the recipients(受领者) of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester in New York state. Together they paved the way toward the most intense laser pulses ever created.

    Professor Donna Strickland is only the third woman ever to have won a Nobel Prize in physics. She and her fellow winners were honored for what the Nobel Committee called ground-breaking inventions in laser physics. Professor Strickland devised a way to use lasers as very precise drilling or cutting tools. Millions of eye operations are performed every year with these sharpest of laser beams.

    "How surprising do you think it is that you're the third woman to win this prize?"

"Well, that is surprising, isn't it? I think that's the story of Maria that people want to talk about — that why should it take 60 years? There are so many women out there doing fantastic research, so why does it take so long to get recognized?"

    Physics still has one of the largest gender gaps in science. One recent study concluded that at the current rates it would be more than two centuries until there were equal numbers of senior male and female researchers in the field.

    The last woman to win a physics Nobel was German-born Maria Goeppert-Mayer for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. Before that it was Marie Curie, who shared the 1903 prize with her husband, Pierre. This year's winners hope that breaking this half century hiatus will mean the focus in future will be on the research, rather than the gender of the researcher.

    BELJLNG—Eating at a Beijing restaurant is usually an adventure for foreigners, and particularly when they get the chance to order "chicken without sex life" or "red burned lion head".

    Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes. And their complaints are often valid, but such an experience at Beijing's restaurants will apparently soon be history.

    Foreign visitors will no longer, hopefully, be confused by oddly worded restaurant menus in the capital if the government's plan to correctly translate 3, 000 Chinese dishes is a success and the translations are generally adopted.

    The municipal (市政) office of foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations. "It provides the names of main dishes of famous Chinese cuisines in plain English," an official with the city's Foreign Affairs office said, "Restaurants are encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory." It's the city's latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers in China.

    "The book is a blessing to tourist guides like me. Having it, I don't have to rack my brains trying to explain Chinese dishes to foreign travelers," said Zheng Xiaodong, a 31-year-old employee with a Beijing-based travel agency.

    "I will buy the book as I major in English literature and I'd like to introduce Chinese cuisine culture to more foreign friends," said Han Yang, a postgraduate student at the University of International Business and Economics.

    It is not clear if the book will be introduced to other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo.com, China's most popular micro-blogging site.

    I'd done it before, and so I had no reason to believe that this time would be any different. I was sure that when I returned home from my mission trip. As always, I'd bring back nothing more some mud on my boots. A hole or two in my jeans and, of course, a lot of great memories.

    The summer before my high school graduation, I went to West Virginia with others as volunteers to repair the homes of those in need. Arriving at our destination, my group was assigned the task of rebuilding sections of a home that had been damaged by fire. No sooner had we parked on the home's dirt driveway than we saw an excited little girl, no more than six years old, standing in the doorway of the family's temporary home. Shoeless and wearing dirty clothes and the biggest smile I'd ever seen, she yelled, "Ma, Ma, they really came!" I didn't know it then, but her name was Dakota, and four more days would pass before she'd say another word near me.

    Behind Dakota was a woman in a wheelchair — her grandmother, we'd soon learn. I also discovered that my job that week would be to help change a fire-damaged dining room into a bedroom for this little girl. Grabbing our tools, we went to work. Over the following days, I noticed Dakota peeking at us every now and then as we worked. A few times, I tried talking with her, but she remained shy and distant, always flying around us like a tiny butterfly but keeping to herself.

    By our fifth and final day, however, this was about to change.

    Before I went to work on her home on that last morning, I spoke for a moment or two with the grandmother. I was especially pleased when she told me how much Dakota loved her new room — so much, in fact, that she'd begged to sleep in it the previous night, even though it wasn't quite ready. As we talked, I noticed something I hadn't seen before — Dakota was hiding behind her grandmother.

    Cautiously, she stepped into view, and I could see that just like her clothes, her face was still dirty. But no amount of soil could hide those bright blue eyes and big smile. She was simply adorable. I wanted so much to hug her, but respecting her shyness, I kept my distance.

    Slowly, she began walking toward me. It wasn't until she was just inches away that I noticed the folded piece of paper in her tiny hand. Silently, she reached up and handed it to me. Once unfolded, I looked at the drawing she'd made with her broken crayons on the back of an old coloring book cover. It was of two girls — one much taller than the other — and they were holding hands. She told me it was supposed to be me and her, and on the bottom of the paper were three little words that instantly broke my heart. Now almost in tears, I couldn't control myself anymore — I bent down and hugged her. She hugged me, too. And for the longest time, neither of us could let go.

    By early afternoon, we finished Dakota's bedroom, and so I gladly used the rare free time to get to know my newest friend. Sitting under a tree away from the others, we shared a few apples while she told me about her life. As I listened to her stories about the struggles she and her family went through daily, I began to realize how boring various aspects of my own life were.

    I left for home early the next morning. I was returning with muddy boots and holes in my Jeans. But because of Dakota, I brought back something else, too-a greater appreciation for all or the blessings of my life. I'll never forget that barefoot little butterfly with the big smile and dirty face. I pray that she'll never forget me either.