The Palace Museum is building a 100,000-square meter new exhibition hall in Beijing's suburbs. This is exciting news for global visitors and especially for enthusiasts of Chinese culture and history, which will be able to enjoy the Palace Museum treasures at a more spacious and modern venue in the near future, observers told the Global Times on Friday.

A crisis is in the air: The sun has become unstable and within 100 years, it will expand to consume the Earth. Within 300 years, the entire solar system will be gone. People are hesitating between the Moving Mountain Project, an alternative aimed at moving Earth away from the solar system and preserving human consciousness on computers through the Digital Life Project.

One netizen wrote a post saying that the first two episodes scared their child to tears. Some people criticized the show as "detrimental to children's healthy development," while many others questioned: Who said animation should only be made for kids? Parents are the ones who should guide their children how to perceive and discover things, and should not use "animation is for kids" as an excuse for their lack of family education.

A new exhibition on the research and digital achievements about the Great Wall kicked off at the Tianjin Museum in North China's Tianjin Municipality on Thursday, revealing more secrets of the great wonder: its hidden doors.

What makes a Spring Festival for Chinese? Ask 100 Chinese people, you may get more than 80 who would include the Spring Festival Evening Gala, and the more senior their age, the more likely they pick this choice.

Just as Chinese films are busy warming up for the upcoming Chinese New Year film season, Hollywood is also trying to ride this wave with the announcement of three superheroes films set for release in the Chinese mainland in 2023.

The 2023 UK "Happy Chinese New Year" (HCNY) events were officially launched at the Cultural Section of the Chinese Embassy in London on Tuesday.

As the Chinese New Year approaches, many countries have issued special stamps marking the Year of the Rabbit. Chinese cultural experts said that issuing the special stamps has become a tradition in many countries, and this move shows China's enhanced international prestige.

The Spring Festival is one of the most important holidays on the Chinese calendar. People living in China and around the world are looking forward to embracing the holiday with their hopes for a better future, especially at a time when the world is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Spring Festival is one of the most important holidays on the Chinese calendar. People living in China and around the world are looking forward to embracing the holiday with their hopes for a better future, especially at a time when the world is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to seek for the blessings of the new year, Chinese ancestors were said to hold sacrificial activities in temples or palaces by providing animal offerings. They would perform songs and dances near the sacrificial sites on one specific day. Though the sacrificial activities have disappeared, the tradition to hold other activities in temples have passed down across the country, later known as temple fairs to us all.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou's Full River Red is a highly anticipated costume film starring comedy actor Shen Teng and hit star Jackston Yee. The film is scheduled to be released on Sunday, and the pre-sale has reached 68.94 million yuan ($10.15 million) as of Wednesday, topping the pre-sale rank in the Chinese New Year film period, according to Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan.

Beijing, the cultural hub of China, will host thousands of cultural activities during the upcoming week-long Chinese New Year holidays, covering theaters, museums, cinemas, online programs, exhibitions and traditional fairs. Residents and visitors in the capital city are expected to enjoy a "cultural feast."

Opened on Wednesday, Ode to Spring is showcasing seven ancient Chinese relics related to the rabbit or hare as part of the museum's Spring Festival celebrations.

A joint China-Russia archaeological cooperation project has made great advances by using 3D portrait restoration technology to successfully restore the appearance of an 8- or 9-year-old Neanderthal boy who lived around 300,000-40,000 years ago.

Three-Body, the TV adaptation of Hugo Award-winning Chinese writer Liu Cixin sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, has continued to grab netizens' attention, earning overly positive reviews since its debut on January 15.

In the soft, warm light, a senior citizen gazes intently at Vincent van Gogh's Long Grass with Butterflies hanging on the wall. Stepping away, a young woman carefully takes photos of the faces of the characters in Raphael's The Garvagh Madonna. Accompanied by melodious string music played at the exhibition hall, visitors experience a rousing journey through European fine art history.

The Spring Festival is one of the most important holidays on the Chinese calendar. People living in China and around the world are looking forward to embracing the holiday with their hopes for a better future, especially at a time when the world is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. With a history of more than 2,000 years, the Spring Festival, or chunjie, is still celebrated by billions of people. The festival has been continuously enriched by the many ethnic groups in China, evolving over the centuries to finally become a common festival for the Chinese nation.

Fire-safety monitoring experts in Puer city, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, have released footage of a wild Asian elephant herd napping among the reeds.

The highly anticipated TV adaptation of Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin's award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem finally aired on Sunday evening.

Twenty urban spots in Shanghai have now become “major metaverse application scenarios,” according to a recent announcement from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.

In the beginning of the year of 2023, a young man's wedding turned sour in Central China's Hubei Province as the original betrothal gift of 150,000 yuan ($22,147) he and his bride had agreed upon was suddenly raised to 200,000 yuan by her family.

To watch or not to watch, that is never a question in China when it comes to chunwan, also known as the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. The TV show that airs on the China Central Television annually has become a tradition for tens of millions of Chinese families to welcome the Chinese Lunar New Year and is a must-have "seasoning" for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.

As China has reported declining numbers of fever patients and critical COVID-19 cases nationwide as both peaks have passed less than a month after the country optimized its epidemic response in early December 2022, the ski/snowboard market has skyrocketed as people's “retaliatory” skiing/snowboarding consumption has risen since New Year's Day.

Diplomats from countries like Benin, Russia, South Korea and Japan visited Chinese artist Wu Shuang's latest exhibition at Beijing's Today Art Museum on Friday.

Blueprint Beijing, an architectural exhibition that acted as the finale for the 1st Beijing Biennial, is now open at the M Woods Art Museum in Beijing.

As the Year of the Rabbit is just around the corner, the ancient way of writing the Chinese character tu (rabbit) has piqued the public's interest.

“According to the survey carried out by our team, 80 percent of college students plan to have two children ideally, and a few people want to have three. Only 4 percent of them don't want to have any kids,” Li Ting, a professor from the Renmin University of China, said.

An aroma of Chinese foods wafted through the air as people gathered in a festive spirit. With the Year of the Rabbit right around the corner, Nigeria's Chinese community held a carnival celebration in Abuja on Saturday.

Three-Body, the Chinese TV adaptation of Liu Cixin's Hugo Award-winning sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, debuted on Chinese Central Television 8 and Tencent Video during prime time on Sunday night.

A new discovery has been revealed at the Shimao Site, a major area of research in investigating the origins and early development of Chinese civilization: a well-preserved cemetery.

An epitaph relic, which was engraved with calligraphy written by renowned master Liu Gongquan of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), has been discovered in Shaanxi Province.

Asian actress Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng won the best actress award for Everything Everywhere All at Once at the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday local time, becoming the second Asian actor to win the award. Her speech on the stage revealed years of racism against Asian minorities in Hollywood.

The local government in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, is about to introduce new regulations over the maternity allowance.

It was a big day for Liu Jing, an overseas Chinese student in Paris. She has been working with her friends for three months on an ­exhibition, which opened on Thursday, to promote hanfu - traditional Chinese attire - including mamianqun (horse-face skirt), as their latest efforts to raise the world's public awareness of Chinese culture.

Curated by Yan Yan, the exhibition at Today Art Museum features various art pieces from Chinese artist Cai Wanlin.

The Chinese-made TV series adapted from The Three-Body Problem is set to premiere on January 15, while the adapted version made by Netflix is also scheduled to launch in 2023, which is expected to become a hit. But the negative word of mouth linked to an animated version of the sci-fi masterpiece might throw cold water on the enthusiasm of producers to adapt the work.

The Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum on Thursday published the latest significant discoveries found in the No.1 pit of the mausoleum during the third excavation, including rules for the formations of Terracotta Warriors army, ruins in the tunnel adjacent to the pit and the process used to assemble the warriors.

Dorophy Tang who had been living in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province has finally returned to her home in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Thursday after the border reopened following three-year suspension.

A source in the entertainment industry told the Global Times that several South Korean stars have been approved by Chinese authorities to perform in China in 2023, which is a latest sign of the warming cultural ties between the two countries. But despite this positive trend, there have been a few scholars and organizations publishing biased remarks, stirring up emotions among South Korean netizens and interfering with the friendly process of cultural exchanges.

An incident involving fans of Chinese-Canadian idol Yu Jingtian which led to a scrum at a Shanghai airport quickly began trending on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo with over 300 million views, and has once again highlighted the urgency for correcting unhealthy obsession and worship of celebrity idols.

With the appearance and popularity of smart television sets in the market, it is becoming more common to own such a smart TV for each family. But the fact that viewers must pay monthly fees to unlock most of the TV programs is making smart TVs a decoration rather than an actual family facility. Its "stacking dolls-style membership," meaning one needs to purchase a series of memberships in order to watch a TV program, is making such a simple activity become complicated more than ever.

A total of 100 paintings, ink drawing manuscripts and sculptures have been on exhibition at the In Space of Meet You Museum in Beijing, which focuses on art from the second half of the 19th century to that of contemporary and modern times and covers various categories such as fauvism, cubism, surrealism, expressionism, abstraction, pop art and others.

An exhibition shedding light on the spirit of Chinese craftsmanship kicked off at the China Millennium Monument in ­Beijing on Tuesday.

From Confucian classics to folk customs, traditional Chinese culture is taking center stage in the web novels compositions, according to the results of a most recent Chinese top 12 web novelists list released on Tuesday.

It must be the bravest and romantic story in Chinese mythology Classic of Mountains and Seas that the main character giant Kuafu, who indefatigably chased the sun, is not only named on China's first satellite specially designed to carry out comprehensive probes of the sun, but also has inspired China's numerous modern writers, artists and directors including director Zhou Jun.

Under the theme, The People's Victory: Exhibition of Cultural Relics in Huaihai Campaign Memorial Hall, a show that celebrates the victory of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the Huaihai Campaign, has launched on Tuesday at the Museum of the War of People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing.

As the grand 40-day Chinese chunyun, or Spring Festival travel rush, gets underway, discussions over this first-ever annual large migration within the country since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 has spread all over Chinese social media.

“Your eyes are wide open as bells, and your ears are straight as antenna...”

The flexible golden lines stretch across the canvas, showing a strong sense of vigor and vitality… In the ongoing exhibition Border Free on display at Beijing's 798 art zone, Italian artist Jacopo Della ­Ragione's work titled with Conquista has attracted many visitors.

The new Chinese animated series Yao-Chinese Folktales suddenly went viral online, gaining a 9.9/10 rating on Bilibili, one of China's leading video-sharing platforms.

A total of seven films are set to hit cinemas during the seven-day 2023 Chinese New Year holiday, the most lucrative period for domestic movies. Looking at the rich variety of genres about to hit big screens nationwide, it is clear that this will be the spark that lights the fuse leading to a strong resurgence for Chinese cinemas and the film industry in 2023.

According to Thai PBS World, Thailand officials including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health of Thailand Anutin Charnvirakul welcomed a group of nearly 300 tourists from China in Thailand on Monday. This “heroic welcome” comes after China officially eased restrictions on overseas travel on Sunday.

The China Ice and Snow Overseas Tourism Promotion Season was held in Singapore on Sunday, aiming to introduce ice and snow tourism, especially in the northern part of the country, to Singapore's residents.

Known as China's Top Gun and starring Chinese actors Wang Yibo and Hu Jun, new military movie Born to Fly is set to be released in the May Day holidays. The film focuses on the modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, said the movie's Sina Weibo account on Monday.

The newest season of China's variety show Go Fighting debuted on Dragon Television on Saturday, kicking off 2023 by drawing audiences closer to China's environment protection efforts.

China's first-ever set of provisions to regulate the use of deepfake technology officially take effect on Tuesday, with the aim to prevent the misuse of this technology while adapting to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

An archeologist cleans the last layer of sediment with a brush and gingerly removes the fossil of a human skull out of the earth with both hands. The fossil, around 1 million years old, will soon be sent to an archeological academy for further research and restoration, where it is sure to contribute to the study of human evolution by providing further insight into the origins of mankind.

China's first national breakdancing team was officially revealed after the end of the second qualification trials held at the Lishui Extreme Sports Hall in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province on Sunday. Eight breakdancers (four men and four women) stood out during the trials.

A little-known Hong Kong actor has frequently trended on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo recently after he appeared on a variety show named Memories Beyond Horizon. While audiences have been impressed by his skills and dedication, this has also sparked debate as many netizens feel that many Chinese mainland entertainers don't come anywhere close to his level but are even more famous and well paid.

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, known for his role in the UK TV series Sherlock, recently found himself in the center of controversy after media reported that his family may be on the hook for paying reparations to Barbados, as the actor's ancestors got rich from slavery on the island.

Last week, the official Sina Weibo account of Sony (China) Co Ltd, known as Sony China, was banned from posting on the platform. Although the official reason given was that the Sony China account "violated related laws," Chinese netizens said that the ban was punishment for a 2022 post that many people saw as insulting Chinese heroic martyr Qiu Shaoyun.

Written by British author Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It is now available on bookshelves in Chinese.

Two significant archaeological discoveries in Central China's Henan Province were revealed on Sunday at the 2022 Henan Archaeological Work Achievement Exchange Conference, according to the provincial cultural heritage administration.

A new Chinese animated folktale series earned more than 10 million views during the first three days of January 2023, becoming the newest big hit. Experts and critics are calling Yao-Chinese Folktales, which debuted on January 1 on Chinese streaming platform Bilibili, a classic reborn, while noting that excellent works based on the essence of Chinese culture will always be able to find an audience and perform well in the market. The show currently holds an average rating of 9.6/10 on Chinese review platform Douban from more than 60,000 reviews.

Anti-drug authorities in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday slammed a web novel romanticizing a drug dealer, which misled readers to post comments slandering anti-drug police and saying they "deserve to die."

China Post on Thursday began officially selling a set of postage stamps to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit. The two stamps, designed by Chinese master artist Huang Yongyu, feature a traditional white rabbit on one stamp and a blue bunny with red eyes on the other.

Whether or not an employee who doesn't stay late at work deserves to be criticized has become a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms like Sina Weibo.

While the opening of Egypt's landmark Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) just around the corner, one of the country's most famous treasures, the Rosetta Stone, is still being held by the British Museum. Zahi Hawass, former minister of state for Egypt's antiquities affairs, has complex feelings concerning this sad state of affairs.

Chinese netizens have paid tributes to renowned composer Joseph Koo Ka-fai who passed away in Canada on Tuesday at the age of 92.

As Chinese New Year is right around the corner, good movies for the holiday will be vital to regain audiences' confidence in cinemas. With the optimization and adjustment of the country's COVID-19 policy, the Chinese film industry is expected to come out of its slump and return to its former peak. The key is to present audiences with high quality films that can attract them and make them fall in love at once.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minister of state for antiquities affairs, has taken to the world's largest petition platform, change.org, to condemn the British Museum and ask it return Egypt's Rosetta Stone. The petition has gained a prominent number of signatures by people from numerous cultures and races and put the UK's pride cultural spot under a spotlight of shame.

More than 1,700 paintings dating from China's Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are now on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing, presenting a vivid image of the development and evolution of Chinese art over the centuries to visitors.

Sci-fi web novels saw an uptick in quality in 2022 and the online literature industry has been booming over the past few years, according to a Tuesday report about the Chinese online literature industry in 2022 from China Literature, a subsidiary of tech giant Tencent Holdings.

Germany and China will have another 50 years of friendly, close relations, German Ambassador to China Patricia Flor said on Wednesday while attending Night at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), an event held at China's national museum marking the close cultural exchanges between the two countries in recent years.

An eye-catching giant black rabbit covered in mysterious graffiti suddenly pops into view on an LED screen overlooking a crowded street in Shanghai's Hongyi Plaza. The rabbit, called Heart Hunter, captures the attention of passersby, who stop and take photos of it.

Artists from 20 countries around the world are currently taking part in the 1st Beijing Art Biennale, which kicked off in the capital city on Friday. Introducing the theme of "Co-existence" to bind people of different races and cultures, the event is the first international art fair to light up the 2023 cultural scene in China.

A total of five domestic films are set to be screened in Chinese cinemas during the Chinese Lunar New Year film season. Film critics said high-quality films with box office appeal can effectively accelerate the recovery of the industry, and predicted that the total box office for the season will exceed 7 billion yuan ($1 billion).

With only more than two weeks left till the 2023 Spring Festival in mid-January, people around the country are starting to prepare the year's first biggest feast – the Chinese New Year's Eve family banquet – with a preference for “delivery” rather than cooking for themselves. The trend is especially popular among young Chinese. According to ele.me, one of China's most competitive food delivery platforms, up to 60 percent of customers who searched for “family banquet” were born after the year 2000.

After missing Chinese influencer Li Ziqi for more than 500 days, her fans are finally getting some good news.

Before the New Year's Day of 2023 arrived, 15 giant panda cubs were born in 2022 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and visitors were delighted to see the vitality of the cubs.

Revered Chinese translator Wang Zhiliang passed away in Shanghai on Monday night at the age of 94, according to a report from the Beijing Daily.

As the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, approaches, the images of rabbits are appearing everywhere. In Chinese culture, the rabbit is not only a symbol of good luck, but also connected to longevity and fertility. Associated with the moon, the rabbit has appeared in numerous legends and classic literature works. In this three-article series, the Global Times will explore why Chinese people love this auspicious symbol and how it is staying relevant today.

The 18th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, came to an end on Monday. This cultural feast attracted the wild participation of various provinces and regions to display traditional Chinese handicrafts, cultural and creative products, ecological tourism products and routes, and key cultural and tourism projects.

Selling 30,000 tickets every day during the holiday season at the end of December 2022, China's world-famous Palace Museum is just one of the many cultural centers that has been packed by crowds of visitors after the country introduced optimized COVID-19 control measures on December 7, 2022. The new surge in consumption has been a shot in the arm for the cultural industry and a preview of a bright beginning for 2023.

The suspense genre has always been an enduring part of China's film and TV productions. Be it Chinese-style horror or layers of suspense that put people on edge, these works have seen great ­success in the Chinese film and television market in recent years.

As the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, approaches, the images of rabbits are appearing everywhere. In Chinese culture, the rabbit is not only a symbol of good luck, but also connected to longevity and fertility. Associated with the moon, the rabbit has appeared in numerous legends and classic literature works. In the following two issues, the Global Times will explore why Chinese people love this auspicious symbol and how it is staying relevant today.

The box office of James Cameron's sci-fi sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, or Avatar 2, reached 1 billion yuan ($144 million) at the Chinese mainland box office on Monday after three weekends on screen, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. However, compared to other top-earning films in the market, the film is moving slow, even when taking the pandemic into consideration.

Selecting one or more "Chinese characters of the year," or yearly buzzwords, has been a tradition in Asia.

On Change.Org, the world's largest petition platform, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass's petition for the return of the country's priceless Rosetta Stone and Dendera Zodiac have been signed by over 142,000 supporters. Hawass, Egypt's former minister of state for antiquities affairs told the Global Times that to 'stop the practices of imperialism,' was the goal of his petition.

According to public data, ancient costume shows are the most popular Chinese dramas so far overseas. For this reason, Chinese studios have been only focusing on this genre to expand their market, thus limiting the content of Chinese dramas. Enriching the themes and genres of Chinese TV shows is key to breaking free from such a pale and thin situation.

Living in Hangzhou, a city crowded with internet influencers in East China's Zhejiang Province, Ma Aishu is a 27-year-old illustrator who vlogs about cycling to promote what she sees as a green lifestyle.

With the strengthening of China's overseas influence and the deepening of international exchanges and cooperation, more and more Chinese film and television works have entered the families and cinemas in other countries. In a recent survey by the Global Times, audiences in 10 countries said that action movies are still their favorite genre of Chinese film and television, and they hope to learn more about Chinese history, culture and society through these works.

Chat attack scholarship / 奖学金 /

Crossword for teabreak

Chenghe Ruins: Yangtze River city established thousands of years ago Under endless farmland in Shayang county, Central China's Hubei Province, an ancient city dating back to 5,000 years ago remained buried until its discovery in 1983. Since then, archaeologists have been working on reconstructing the site, known as the Chenghe Ruins, bit by bit.

China's top cultural fair, the 18th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF), is showing how high technology is reviving traditional Chinese culture.

The year 2022 has challenged a lot of brick and mortar bookstores, but also forced them to enter a new era by reforming and creating flashy and innovative activities. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how Chinese readers interact with their local bookstores, but has also negatively impacted the very individualistic atmosphere for a community of bibliophiles who constantly read and think about literature. Seeking a new path toward the future is the biggest priority for today's brick and mortar bookstores.

Chat attack cat's cradle / 翻花绳 /

The new TV series Dawn of the Orient just released on December 23. Set in Shanghai during the first year following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the series presents a city looking to recover and develop its economy and achieve a better life under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).