There's no doubt that our character has a profound effect on ourfuture. What we must remember, however, is not merely how powerful character isin influencing our fate (命运), but how powerful we are in shaping our own character and, therefore, our own fate. Character may determine our fate, but character is not determined by fate.

    It's a common mistake to think of character as something that is fully formed and fixed very early in life. It calls to mind old proverbs like“A leopard can't change its spots” and “You can't teach an old dog new tricks.”

    This perspective that our character is “etched in stone” is supported by a great deal of modern psychology emphasizing self-acceptance. As Popeye says, “I am what I am.” The hidden message is: Don't expect me to bemore, better, or different.

    Ultimately, these views of humanity totally under value the lifelong potential for growth that comes with the power of reflection and choice.

    How depressing it would be to believe that we can't choose to be better, more honest, more respectful, more responsible, and more caring. Noneof us should give up the personal seeking to improve our character. Not because we're bad, we don't have to be sick to get better, but because we're not asgood as we could be.

    There are so many things in life we can't control, whether we're beautiful or smart, whether we had good parents or bad, whether we grew up with affirmation or negation. It's inspiring to remember that nothing but moral willpower is needed to make us better.

    No, it isn't easy. But if we make a great effort to become moreaware of the habits of heart and mind that drive our behavior, we can begin to place new emphasis on our higher values so that we become what we want our children to think we are.

Creative Writing Summer School

2-15 August 2015

Study at one of the world's leading universities

About the Creative Writing Summer School

    This programme is for those wishing to develop their existing creative writing skills, either for eventual professional use, or out of personal interest.Workshop courses take place twice a day.In a series of plenary(全体出席的)lectures (each morning, and on some evenings), novelists, poets and writers of creative non-fiction discuss their own work and the art of writing.Plenary lectures are designed to expand students' understanding of their own creative options.Students will expected to complete daily writing tasks outside classroom hours; the resulting work will form the primary focus of the workshops.

What will I be studying?

    Workshop courses focus on practical writing skills and critical reflection; there are specialist options in fiction; creative non-fiction and poetry, and writing for stage and screen, as well as a more broadly-based writing course.

Who can apply?

    The programme is open to university students, literature teachers, professionals and those with other life experience; gap-year students preparing for university may also apply (students must be accompanied by a parent/ guardian if under 18 when the programme starts).Participants must also meet the language requirements specific to this programme and will be asked to provide a 300-400 word piece explaining their reasons for applying.

Who will be teaching me?

    Courses are taught by a combination of published writers associated with the School of Continuing Education, Peking University and by guest subject specialists from beyond the university.

Where will I stay?

    Participants can stay in the School of Continuing Education, Peking University, close to the teaching sites and city Coventry.

How do I apply?

    You can download an application form or apply online.

    Find out more: www.sce.pku.edu.cn

    What are American high schools like? Well, I'm happy to tell you what I know.

    When I started school here, it had already been a week since the school opened. At this school, freshmen usually go on a trip for about three days at the beginning of school. Unfortunately I missed that wonderful trip, which would have been the best time to get to know my classmates. I was really sad. I wished I'd known about it earlier.

    Despite the disappointment, however, I gradually adapted to my new life and school.

    There is a space in the basement of the teaching building where students chat and meet each other. As we do not always have the same classrooms and classmates, the school wants us to get to know each other there. Students usually come to school early, sit in that space and have fun. Around the space, there are many lockers for students to leave their books in, so that students do not have to carry a heavy schoolbag everywhere.

    It really surprises me that we have almost no textbooks. We only have textbooks for World History and Algebra 2 and they are big and heavy, like bricks. For other classes, we only need binders (活页夹) with paper in them. Without textbooks, students learn things freely and actively. For example, my humanities teacher just teaches us what is in her mind at the time. We never know what we will learn.

    Another difference between American schools and Chinese schools is that American schools care about students' morality more than their academic studies. For example, if you do not finish your homework, you will just be asked to do it later, but if you cheat or lie, you will get a warning or even be kicked out.

    I think that most students here are good at schoolwork as well, but compared to Chinese students, they can make learning a more joyful experience. I think we should take the good points from our two different kinds of education to perfect our approach to studying.

    Lying alongside mountains of smelly garbage under the South American sun, Cateura is a long way from the conservatories of Prague or Vienna. Yet the township, which grew out of Paraguay's largest dump(垃圾场), is gaining a reputation as a hothouse for musical talent and for its youth orchestra(管弦乐队) that plays instruments made from garbage. "The world sends us garbage. We send back music," says Favio Chavez, leader of the "Recycled Orchestra," during a recent visit by the group to Los Angeles. Orchestra members, poor children from Cateura, play violins fashioned from oven trays and guitars made from dessert dishes. The orchestra provides the youngsters an outlet and an escape, a chance to go beyond the mess of their slum(贫民窟) through the music of Mozart, and even Sinatra. "In the beginning, it was difficult to play," says the l0-year-old violinist Celeste Fleitas." But Favio helped me learn over time. From Favio, I have learned to be more responsible and value the things I have."

    The destination for more than 1,500 tons of waste each day, the community has no safe drinking water and little access to electricity or sanitation(卫生设施). Illiteracy is severe, and the children of the township often fall into drugs, violence and crimes.

    Favio Chavez, a musical talent, came to Cateura as an environmental technician in 2006 and started a youth music school. He knew shop-bought instruments were beyond the means of villagers whose sheds are worth less than a violin, so he approached a carpenter to make some out of waste from the dump.

    The orchestra caught the eye of Paraguayan filmmaker Alejandra Amarilla. She uploaded a short piece of the orchestra to YouTube in 2012, hoping to secure crowdfunding for what would become Landfill Harmonic, a documentary released across the United States this month and promoting the youngsters on a tour of the world's music halls later on.

    Eco-friendly Vauban, lied in the southwest part of Germany, has everything－tree-lined streets, perfect houses－but it's missing one urban feature of the last 100 years or so: the car. And Vauban residents(居民) don't mind one bit. Vauban doesn't ban cars entirely. Rather, it just tries to reduce the use of cars by creating “parking-free” and “car-free” living. In Vauban, parking spots are a no-no private property(私人财产). Cars can only be parked in public parking lots, so living without a car saves residents the cost of parking in the public lot. Cars also are prevented from using certain roads and must stick to strict speed limits. With these limitations, fewer than 20 percent of residents own cars. Without cars, bikes are almost religion in this small town. Kids pick them up even before they can ride one. Vauban is about much more than just using two wheels instead of four. In Vauban , residents ride bikes and even receive money from the electric company for selling electricity back to the power grid (电网系统). It's an environmentally-friendly city of the future, with organically grown food, renewable energy, and carbon-neutral homes. And now, with a population of 5,500, it's attracting attention from around the world. Can an eco-friendly city like Vauban be a model for Americans to stop their over-reliance on the cars?

    Sometimes when I watch a news report what's in the back of my mind is what isn't being reported or stressed. While this eco-friendly city is inspiring in that it shows residents getting exercise and fresh air through the majority use of bicycles, as well as good old fashioned walking, common sense would tell you that even for a place like Vauban, Germany, it owes its existence to the cars.

    Do you think that bicycles were able to transport all the construction materials that were needed to build and maintain the eco-friendly homes and businesses in Vauban? It took cars to help build this utopia. It's one of the paradoxes of life that sometimes in order to get away from relying on something like the car, you actually have to rely on that very thing at the beginning and into the foreseeable future to some degree.

    I myself haven't owned a car for more than 14 years, and mostly get around town running, walking, or using public transportation. There are times I wish I had one, since it would make many things easier, but overall I'm glad not to have to deal with the headaches of owning a car, which caused me to get rid of it in the first place. And all the walking and running has helped to keep me fit and healthy.

    To get even close to being like eco-friendly Vauban, Americans will need to absolutely change the way they live. Commuting(乘车上下班) patterns will have to change, public transportation will have to be invested in, and so on. And though ending our love affair with the car will be impossible during my lifetime, we may at least start to see more Vauban-like areas in the USA.

    We can hope that Americans will consider using their feet more to get around, cutting down on pollution, and giving themselves some more exercise.

    WeChat, the Chinese social media smartphone app, saw an increase in user numbers of 41 percent year on year to 500 million at the end of last year, in a sign that parent company Tencent is extending its reach for the mobile Internet. As one of the largest Internet integrated service providers in Chinaand one of the most Internet users in China, Tencent's profit grew 24 percent to RMB 20.98 billion per year, slightly higher than forecasts, driven mainly by online gaming profits. It is unclear how much WeChat contributed to Tencent's profits but the app's growth is a strong indicator of the company's long-term health as it tries to adjust its business to be more suitable for mobile devices.

    "We extended our leadership in games and online media, and made breakthroughs in emerging platforms such as online security and mobile payments." Ma Huateng, Tencent chairman, said in a statement. WeChat is the second highest ranked social app in China, behind QQ, Tencent's another chatting app, which claimed to have 815 million registered monthly users at the end of 2014.

    Tencent has been unwilling to earn money through WeChat by flooding it with advertising, which could influence the users' experience. But this is expected to change. Some analysts anticipated(预期) that advertising would be introduced on a large scale later this year. Early attempts to test ads on the service have not always gone smoothly. After a BMW ad was introduced on some users' feedbacks in January, many users who were not targeted by the brand's marketing complained of "discrimination" by Tencent's data mining algorithm(数据挖掘算法). They claimed it unfairly treated them as not wealthy or successful enough to view the BMW ad.