People who do not get enough vitamin A in their diet may develop night blindness. But in the developing world, a lack of vitamin A causes much more serious harm to children. The world Health Organization links the lack of vitamin A to as many as 250,000 child deaths every year.

    One excellent source of vitamin A is found in newly developed sweet potatoes with orange flesh. Orange sweet potatoes contain high levels of beta-carotene, which the body changes into vitamin A. Experts say orange sweet potatoes could help the Africans who are lacking in vitamin A. But, first, more people will need to be persuaded to eat them. Sweet potatoes need a better image in Africa. Jan Low with the International Potato Center says, “We do have an image problem with sweet potatoes. In many African countries, they are seen as a crop of the poor.”

    Ms. Low explains that sweet potatoes are mainly grown by poor women to feed their families in case another crop fails. The sweet potatoes commonly grown in Africa have white or yellow flesh. But they are low in vitamin A.

    Jan Low took part in a project to study how to market orange sweet potatoes to Africans best. She worked on an information campaign(活动) in Mozambique and Uganda. The campaign included radio messages about the nutritional(营养的) benefits of the orange sweet potato. They advertised its ability to “fight diseases, make you strong, clear you skin and make you look healthy”. In areas without radio, the campaigners spread the message through theater. The performances included singing, dancing and storytelling. And everywhere they went, the campaigners wore orange T-shirts and hats. They even drove orange cars.

    Dan Gustafson heads the Washington office of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He mentions the efforts in the past to increase the popularity of other nutritious crops. He says most of these efforts failed because organizers of the campaigns did not consider what people wanted to eat. People want to eat what they are familiar with. But Mr. Gustafson sees a better chance for the efforts to increase the popularity of the orange sweet potato in Africa. Except for the color, the orange sweet potato is almost the same as what people already eat. Dan Gustafson says, “I think this time the campaigners will succeed, because they have made enough advertisements and the difference between the vegetable they have advertised and what people already eat is not a radical one.”

    Top 5 smart wearable vendors in the world

    Market research company IDC's latest data showed that a total of 21 million smart wearables were shipped in the third quarter of 2015, up by 197.6% year-on-year.

    As a rather new area, market players change positions frequently. China's BBK, owner of a children's phone watch brand Xiaotiancai, outperformed Samsung and broke into the top five clubs, gaining a market share of 3.1 percent.

    Let us have a look at the top 5 vendors.

    No 5 BBK

    Shipment volume: 0.7 million

    Market share: 3.1%

    People can watch a video on the website of Guangdong Xiaotiancai Tech Company Limited to know more about its phone watches.

    No 4 Garmin

    Shipment volume: 0.9 million

    Market share: 4.1%

    Garmin's new fenix 3 multi-sport GPS training watch is displayed at the 2015 International CES, a trade show of consumer electronics, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan 7, 2015.

    No 3 Xiaomi

    Shipment volumes: 3.7 million

    Market share: 17.4%

    The Mi Bands, developed by Xiaomi's ecosystem company Huami Co Ltd, has a function to track the user's heart beat while in motion.

    No 2 Apple

    Shipment volume: 3.9 million

    Market share: 18.6%

    Customers try to use an Apple Watch in an Apple retail store in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, April 24, 2015. The watch went on sale on April 24 around the world.

    No 1 Fitbit

    Shipmen volume: 4.7 million

    Market share: 22.2%

    Various Fitbit devices were displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange on Jun 18, 2015, when the company got listed.

    During the past Spring Festival, many children may have received red packets from their families. But Xing Pu, a 40-year-old economist, is asking the government to give red packets to every Chinese citizen.

    Xing suggested the government give out 1,000 yuan to each Chinese since the government income has increased rapidly in recent years. He said his suggestion would allow everyone to directly enjoy the fruits of the country's economic success, help the lower-income groups deal with rising prices and increase consumption (消费) around the country.

    Recent years have seen the government carry out a series of pro-poor (扶贫) and pro-rural (惠农) policies, including increasing spending on public healthcare and calling off the agricultural tax. But the lower-income group still needs more help while being hit hard by an 11-year high in prices and recent snowstorms.

    Xing said while making the draft, he has borrowed many ideas from practices in countries like the United States and Singapore. Earlier this year, the governments of the two nations offered money to their citizens as the result of a surplus in government income. As for in China, "We can even encourage the rich to donate their 1,000 yuan red packet to the poor," said Xing.

    Although Xing's suggestion has gained wide support among ordinary Chinese on the Internet, many other economists criticized it as unpractical. Even Xing himself admitted he made the suggestion without any careful calculation. But they agreed with Xing's point that the growing economic pie should be shared among the people.

    "To better use the increase of money, handing out money is not a solution that holds good for all time. It could be better to improve the public service or cut the price of energy used in daily life," said QiaoXinsheng, an economic professor.

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    When I was a very little child, I remember watching TV and seeing other children suffer in other parts of the world. I would talk to myself, "when I grow up, when I can become rich, I'll save kids all over the world."

    At the age of 17, I began my career here in America, and by 18, I started my first charity organization. I went on to team up with other organizations in the following years, and met, helped, and even lost some of the most beautiful souls, from six-year-old Jasmina Anema who passed away in 2010 from leukemia (白血病)—her story inspired thousands to volunteer as donors, to 2012 when my grandmother lost her battle with cancer, which is the very reason and the driving force behind the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). We're all human. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education, a chance at a future, really. And at CLF, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one.

    People make it seem too hard to do charity work. The truth is, you don't have to be rich to help others. You don't need to be famous. You don't even have to be college-educated. But it starts with your neighbor, the person right next to you, the person sitting next to you in class, the kid down the block in your neighborhood. You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. And today, I want to challenge each of you to make a commitment to help one person, one organization, one situation that touches your heart. My grandmother always used to say, "If you've got a dollar, there's plenty to share."

    Ray Tokuda, a 54-year-old Japanese American, is proud of the title his school has given him. He is a Shifu, a Chinese word literally meaning a master, mentor or senior practioner of martial arts.

    Tokuda has reason to be proud. He has been involved with Chinese martial arts for almost four decades. After learning them at the martial arts school in New Mexico State, today he is among the most experienced kung fu teachers of the school.

    Practicing martial arts two to three hours and helping students improve their skills have become Tokuda's daily routine. He expects to practice and teach martial arts for the rest of his life. "I'm still learning. It's worth more than a lifetime to learn Chinese martial arts," he said." Once I started, I just couldn't stop. I think it's also the magic of Chinese culture."

    Tokuda was sent to the martial arts school when he was 10. He still remembers how unwilling he was when starting out." My father had always wanted to learn Chinese martial arts but never got the chance, so he put his kid in," he said. "I was so afraid at that time because I thought kung fu was all about fighting."

    But things changed after he learned that martial arts were more than punching and kicking.

    "One of the things martial arts teach me is overcoming adversity," Tokuda said. "As a little kid, my first lesson was like, oh, look, this is a thing that I can get through by diligence, perseverance(毅力)and dedication, and that was priceless for my life."

    Learning Chinese martial arts opened a gateway for him to better understand Chinese culture because he could hear a lot of ancient Chinese kung fu-related stories. "It is like in America, where we hear stories about knights in shining armor and King Arthur and noble deeds done," he said. "I feel martial arts preserve something of ancient China that can't be found in books. They are sort of an oral history."

    Tokuda has also been invited to various events in his home state to showcase traditional Chinese culture, including the dragon dance and lion dance, which he also learnt at the martial arts school. Because of this, he is now considered a cultural envoy (使者) in the eyes of the public.