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    The “24 solar terms” originated and was firstly used in China. It was created thousands years ago on the basis of practical needs of agriculture. Ancient Chinese people used it to guide agriculture production, special climate signs and even healthy living tips. Last year, the 24 solar terms was added to UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list. Now, it has been brought to life thanks to a creative designer from Southwest China's Guizhou province.

    On the eve of this year's Qingming Festival, Shi Changhong released his version of re-produced and pack-aged characters for each solar term in the form of “moving art” of gifs. Since their initial release on Zcool on March 29, the gifs have won great acclaim among the general public and quickly engulfed social media with millions of hits during the festival period.

    To maximize publicity, Shi released his work in three forms: video, animation and picture, while, the background sounds add to the brilliance.

    “When I watch the short video, I can strongly feel the Chinese-style elements hidden in them. And it is really cool to rejuvenate Chinese traditional culture in such a unique way.” WeChat user Xiao Feifei said.

    “It is really a comfort to me to see so many people like my latest work. To be honest, it would really surprise me if the work does not arouse a sensation among Chinese people. The 24 solar items is a deeply mooted concept that encapsulates the essence of Chinese wisdom. However, only a small portion of people know all the names or the correct order of those terms. My intention is to increase Chinese people's self awareness to learn more about our traditional fine culture. Actually, the 24 solar items work is only a part of my whole design program ‘Charm China', which I started over a year ago.” Shi told China Daily.

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    Dutch masters exhibition in Beijing

    The 17th century Dutch Golden Age had several significant artists and a range of great pieces produced during the period—including Jan Vermeer's Young Woman at Virginal, Jan Lievens' Boy in a Cape,and Turban and Rembrandt's Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes.

    Some of the most refined examples of the time,including the three pieces mentioned above,will make their debut（首次亮相）in China as part of a world tour of The Leiden Collection.

    If you go:

    9 a.m.-5 p.m.,June 17-Sept 3 (closed on Mondays).National Museum of China,I Wusi Avenue,Dongcheng district.010-6400-1476.

Ticket: 50 yuan ($7)

    The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    The Age of Mechanical Reproduction,the latest exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum,features 41 artworks of US pop icon Andy Warhol,covering art installations,paintings and photographs.Warhol's well-known installation Electric Chair is a highlight of the show,which is also its debut in Asia.

    If you go:

    10 a.m.-5 p.m.,through August 28 (closed on Mondays).The Riverside Art Museum,Hongyan Road,Chaoyang district.010-5309-2062.

    Ticket: 60 yuan

    Back with a bang

    Beijing-based hand Escape Plan will hold a concert in Beijing this weekend.The band is most famous for the song The Brightest Star in the Night Sky.

    If you go:

    7:30 p.m.,June 17.Beijing Worker's Gymnasium,Gongti Beilu,Chaoyang district.400-610-3721.

Ticket: 280-980 yuan

Purple clay teapots

    Yixing purple clay potteries are a vital part of Chinese pottery culture and have been included in China's list of national intangible cultural heritage（国家非物质文化遗产）.A selection of more than 80 purple clay teapots will go on display at the Poly Art Museum starting Friday.The exhibit will include a range of delicate teapot works of Ji Yishun,Wang Xiaolong and Gao Lijun,who are all inheritors（继承人）the time-honored（历史悠久的）pottery handicraft.

If you go:

    9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.(closed on Sundays),through June 30.Poly Art Museum,New Poly Plaza,1 Chaoyangmen North Street 9.010-6500-8117.

Ticket: 20 yuan

    There are two great trends on parents bringing up children today．First，children are now praised to an unbelievable degree．As Dorothy Parker once joked，American children aren't raised；they are motivated．Children are constantly told how special they are．The second is that children are honed(磨砺) to an unimaginable degree．Parents spend much more time than in past generations on their children's development．

    These two great trends—greater praise and greater honing—combine in close ways. Parents shower their kids with affection，but it is intermingled with the desire to help their children achieve success．Parents are happy when their child studies hard，practices hard，wins first place，gets into a famous college．

The wolf of conditional love is hidden in these homes．The parents feel they love their children in all circumstances．But the children often think differently．They feel that childhood is a performance—on the athletic field，in school and beyond．The shadowy presence of conditional love produces a fear，the fear that there is no completely safe love．

    Meanwhile，children who are uncertain of their parents' love develop a great hunger for it. This conditional love is1ike an acid that affects children's criteria to make their own decisions about their own colleges，majors and careers．At key decision-points，they unconsciously imagine how their parents will react．

    These children tell their parents those things that will bring praise and hide the parts of their lives that won't. Studies suggest that children who receive conditional love often do better in the short run．They can be model students．But they suffer in the long run. They come to hate their parents．They are so influenced by fear that they become afraid of risk．

    Parents today are less likely to demand obedience(顺从) with explicit rules and lectures．But they are more likely to use love as a tool to exercise control. But parental love is supposed to ignore achievement. It's meant to be an unconditional support -a gift that can not be bought and cannot be earned．

    A nation's humor is linked to the historical development of the country. How funny somebody finds a certain thing depends on many things including ages, personal experiences, levels of education and locations. Therefore, humor is something that is not always transferable (可转移的) in another country.

    What about when both countries speak the same mother tongue? Does that mean they will then share the same sense of humor, or can differences still take place? Let's take the example of Britain and America. Time and time again, people say that Brits and Americans don't "get" each other's sense of humor. It is often argued that one of the most common differences between the British and American sense of humor is that Americans don't understand irony (反话). Simon Pegg explores this topic in depth in his article What Are You Laughing At? He concludes that this statement isn't true and I agree with him.

    In fact, Brits use irony on a daily basis while Americans don't. I think Americans understand British irony (most of the time anyway); what they don't understand is the need to use it so frequently. When Americans use irony, they tend to say that they are "only kidding". They feel the need to make a joke more obvious than Brits do. Maybe this comes from a fear of offending (冒犯) people.

    The American sense of humor is generally more slapstick (闹剧的) than that in Britain. I think this arises from a cultural difference between the two. Their jokes are more obvious and forward, a bit like Americans themselves. British jokes, on the other hand, tend to be more subtle. This may stem from the fact that British culture is more reserved (矜持的) than American culture.

    Alison Malmon was ending her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. US, when she got the news: Her older brother Brian, a student at Columbia University; was suffering from mental illness.

    Inspired by this, Malmon formed a group at her university to organize students to talk openly about mental health. It soon blossomed into a national organization that today has more than 450 campus chapters. Leaders with the organization spend their time talking with college students about the pressure that today's young people face.

    "What you hear often is just a need to be perfect," said Malmon, "and a need to present oneself as perfect." A new study in the UK proved that this need for perfectionism is simply part of today's society. In the study, two researchers studied more than 40,000 students from the US, Canada, and the UK. They found that what they called "socially-prescribed (社会定向型的) perfectionism" increased by a third between 1989 and 2016.

    Lead researcher Thomas Curran said that while so many of today's young people try to present a perfect appearance online, social media isn't the only reason behind this trend. Instead, he said, it may be driven by competition in modem society, meaning young people can't avoid being sorted and ranked in both education and employment. That comes from new normal situation like greater numbers of college students, national examination and parenting that increasingly emphasizes success in education.

    For example, in 1976, half of high school seniors expected to get a college degree of some kind. By 2008, more than 80 percent expected the same. The researchers also said changes in parenting styles over the last two decades might have had an impact. As parents feel increased pressure to raise successful children, they in turn pass their "achievement anxieties" onto their kids through "too much participation in their child's activities or emotions

    Those in the mental health community like Malmon say they're concerned about the impact the culture of perfectionism has on mental health on campuses. "Mental health has truly become this generation's social justice (公正)issue," she said. "It's our job to equip them with the tools and to let people know that it's not their fault."

The hens look up at me from their nesting boxes. They seem slightly annoyed but unsurprised. A child runs up, pushes one of the chickens aside, and snatches two eggs. Around me, a half-dozen more children and adults collect eggs while a half-dozen others hand-feed dried mealworms to birds flocking around our ankles. I reach for an egg from an empty nest. There is something perfect about the way it fits warmly in the palm of my hand before I transfer it into a pretty wire basket provided to me by my hosts. 

The egg harvest is a brief, carefully designed agritourism experience offering an experience of the labor rather than just having a bite of food. Snatching a few eggs and uprooting a few vegetables on the farm tour donˈt constitute a full dayˈs work, but it is also a useful reminder that food doesnˈt just magically appear on restaurant plates and grocery store shelves. Of course, visitors can take those eggs home or bring them to the on-farm restaurant, Clay, where a chef will use them to prepare breakfast. 

A few centuries of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization have collected people into cities, but the attraction of the countryside has always remained. In the new urban-centered world, enterprising farmers have found plenty of opportunities to sell their rural lifestyle along with their crops. Italy promoted the modern model for combining agriculture and tourism in the wake of World War Ⅱ, when the national government encouraged rural populations to continue producing food rather than move to urban areas in search of more profitable jobs. 

Agritourism acts as an umbrella term for a wide variety of activities that take place on farms, including farmstays, where guests sleep on-site. For varying investments of time, energy, and money, anyone can engage in our farming system, giving consumers a peek behind the farm-to-table world.