China is a country with a long history. It has great traditional culture, especially Chinese characters. Chinese characters usually have more than one meaning and some of them are very interesting. Here are six ones. We use "pinyin" here because “pinyin”is the Chinese spelling way for the characters. For example, "fu" is the “pinyin” for good luck in Chinese. “pinyin”"fu”is only the phonic part of the character and if you want to know the meaning of good luck “fu”, you must read Chinese character 福 because “fu” also represents(代表) other Chinese characters that sound the same.

“fu”means blessing, good fortune, good luck. Chinese character “fu”is one of the most popular ones used during Chinese New Year. Chinese people often put up "fu”upside down on the front door of a house or an apartment. The upside down "fu" means good luck comes since the character for upside down in Chinese sounds the same as the character for “come”.

“lu”is used to mean official's a pay in old China. “shou” means long life, age or birthday. "xi" is happiness, The doubled character "xi” means double happiness. It is usually put up everywhere at Chinese weddings. "cai" is weath or money. Chinese often say “ money can make a ghost turn a millstone”. It is to say money really can do a lot of things. But, money can't buy everything. "he" is an important part of Chinese culture. It means good relations with other people, when you have “he”, things will be a lot easier for you.

The top six lucky Chinese charaters. “fu”"lu”"shou”"xi"“cai" "he”,are particularly loved by Chinese people.

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Soap operas from South Korea have been popular in China for more than twenty years now. So it is not the first time for the soap operas made in China to feel less popular. But this time, they are facing more difficulties, for The Heirs (继承者) and My Love from the Star (来自星星的你) really made a full success, which even attracted some top officials.

A senior official said he sometimes watched soap operas from South Korea, as well as House of Cards (纸牌屋), an American opera about politics (政治). These operas made both in South Korea and in America have a lot of lovers in China.

Many people agree that China's soap operas can't be much loved by most Chinese, because they are not as interesting and exciting as those operas from South Korea and America, such as My Love from the Star, a Korean love story between a time traveling professor and a famous movie star.

    However，Korean shows not only provide soap operas but also some programmings (综艺节目). Dad, Where Are We Going? is not an original (独创的)Chinese show. We learned it from South Korea although not many in China realize that fact.

Actually, China has a closer culture with South Korea. Shows from this neighbor seem to do better with their exciting stories on the Cinderella theme (灰姑娘主题). Yet they have created many popular shows whose stories tell there's no difference between men and women even though in their country men are certain to play a more important role.

    There is a new novel called The 33rd Student. It's very unusual because 32 students wrote it together.

    Students from Class 1, Grade 2 of Hangzhou Qingchun Middle School began to write the novel last October. This March, they finished their 330, 000-word story.

    It was Zhou Hui, the class's Chinese teacher that had the great idea. Some students thought writing was boring. Zhou wanted to change their minds. The class had fierce（热烈的） discussions about the storyline and main character.

    The novel is a story about Nan Yao, a student new to Class 1.Nan is a tall boy with tanned（晒黑的） skin. He is from Hebei.

    Each student was assigned（分配） one part to write. Together, there are 32 stories about Nan's life since he came to Class 1.Students tried their best while writing the story. Huang Yiying, 14, said she got up at midnight to write down the idea for her story. Chen Tianbai, 14, wrote about a birthday party. He found it hard to imagine. So he held a party for his 14th birthday, wrote down what happened and turned it into his story.

    Zhou said most students revised（修改） their stories three times." Now, none of them are afraid of writing. They have written so much themselves!"

    The novel will be printed（印刷） and each student will get a copy. "It will be a very precious（宝贵的） memory for them." said Zhou.

    As we know, there are differences between western culture and Chinese culture. We can see differences when we pay attention to the way words are used. Let's look at the words about animals and plants. Most expressions in Chinese about dogs, for example, a homeless dog, a mad dog and a dog catching a mouse, have negative meanings. But in western countries, dogs are thought to be honest and good friends of humans. In English, people use the dog to describe positive actions. For example, you are a lucky dog means you are a lucky person. And every dog has its day means each person has good luck sometimes. To describe a person's serious illness, they say sick as a dog. The word dog-tired means very tired. However, Chinese love cats very much. But in western culture, cat is often used to describe a woman who is cruel.

    The rose is regarded as a symbol of love in both China and some western countries. People think the rose means love, peace, courage and friendship. And the rose is the national flower of England, America and many other countries.

    The words about plants and animals are used in positive or negative ways in different cultures. We can learn about many differences in cultures by comparing how some words are used.