Lionel Messi's feat of equaling the record for the most FIFA World Cup goals by completing a hat trick in Argentina's 3-0 win over Algeria in Group J set the Chinese social media ablaze on Wednesday.

When the graceful melody of traditional music fuses with rap rhythms and valiant sword movements light up the stage, a novel artistic form known as "pop performance chorus" quietly emerges, breaking down cultural barriers. Since its premiere on April 24 on iQIYI, Voices of Youth (Chao Ran Qing Chun De He Chang) has assembled 25 young artists from diverse backgrounds to pioneer this groundbreaking format. It transforms technical mastery into a platform for civilizational exchange, showcasing the cultural confidence and collective spirit of a new generation of Chinese youth to audiences worldwide.

The surprising result of World Cup debutants Cabo Verde holding Spain to a goalless draw during the ongoing tournament became a trending topic on Chinese social media on Tuesday.

With only five days remaining before the premiere of her Her Becoming, a Magnificent Culture production in Tianjin, playwright and writer Wan Fang is fully immersed in rehearsals.

During a recent farming and agricultural education program at the Dongtan agricultural park on Chongming island, Shanghai, Xu Zihan, a student from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE), was surprised by the level of precision involved in every step of cultivation.

With livestreaming 2026 FIFA World Cup matches on China's domestically developed CINITY LED screen, a cinema in Beijing's Chaoyang district is one of a number of movie theaters across the country creatively engaging football fans in the ongoing sports gala.

A terracotta figure with unusual posture has "sat" on display at the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum for many years, but only recently have its secrets begun to be revealed. Zhang Weixing, a leading archaeologist with the Collaborative Research Center for Archaeology of the Silk Roads who has been a core researcher on the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum excavations, told the Global Times on Monday that this terracotta figure's high-seated pose is a strong sign of authority, similar to statues of Egyptian pharaohs.

A drone photo taken on June 14, 2026 shows dragon boat teams taking part in a waterborne parade at Bijiang District of Tongren, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Various dragon boat-themed activities have been held across China to welcome the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 19 this year.

The 28th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has officially opened, with the opening ceremony held on Saturday night. This year's festival has received around 4,100 film entries from 125 countries and regions, with places like Ghana and Mozambique submitting for the first time. The number of films from the Americas and Africa has also increased significantly. Notably, both the main competition and documentary sections are, for the first time, featuring only world premieres.

The 18th Straits Forum recently opened in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province. As the largest and most inclusive public sphere of exchange between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan, the 2026 forum placed a special spotlight on cross-Straits audiovisual exchanges. From mainland TV dramas winning hearts across the island to film co-productions, film and TV are weaving a thread that is stitching people together through shared emotions and stories across the Taiwan Straits.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup witnessed a historic milestone for Chinese football refereeing on Saturday night as Fu Ming officially became the first referee from China to feature in this edition of the tournament.

At the 2026 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day event in Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei Province, on Saturday, China announced that it has owned 60 UNESCO World Heritage sites, one of the world's top countries, the People's Daily reported on Sunday.

The Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport was unusually crowded on Wednesday, as football fans holding banners reading "Welcome Home" had gathered there, while journalists lined the arrival gate of the terminal. The crowd's attention was not focused on a national team star or an established professional, but a 14-year-old boy named Li Haoyan.

Hong Kong-born singer-songwriter David Wong, known for Mandopop classics including You Got Me Drunk, has passed away at the age of 61, according to a statement released by his family's legal representatives on Sunday, multiple media reported.

From childhood visits to the Shenyang Imperial Palace, the only existing royal palace building complex in China other than the Forbidden City in Beijing, to a career at the Palace Museum, the two palaces have quietly accompanied Zhu Yong through much of his life.

In some remote corners of East China's Luxi Plain and Southwest China's Hengduan Mountains, there are schools where teachers and students are embracing poetry deeper. There, with a pen and a sheet of paper, students follow their teachers out to cornfields and rice paddies, listening to cicadas, breathing in the scent of rice, and writing quiet lines of poetry in the fresh air. This is their poetry lesson.

video online, netizens decide to start watching a new film or TV series, only to be disappointed. The clips looked amazing：The drama was intense, the editing fast, the stars glamorous.

The 32nd Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), a major cultural gala attracting over 1,700 exhibitors from 82 countries and regions worldwide, will welcome the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the guest of honor this year, the event's organizer said.

An artifact from the upcoming exhibition On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas is seen during a special unboxing event at the Shanghai Museum on June 11, 2026. Four key exhibits are unveiled that day. Photo: VCG

The expanded 48-team World Cup kicked off on Thursday. For fans worldwide, the central question remains unchanged: Who will lift the trophy? Alongside the pre-tournament artificial intelligence (AI)-generated predictions about the ultimate winners, football is quietly undergoing another transformation brought on by AI.

Hosting BEIJING28, a new event that brings together four International Skating Union (ISU) World Championships in a single city, will help strengthen the winter sports culture in China's capital city, a sports observer told the Global Times on Thursday.

Two ambassadors to China who were awarded the Outstanding Diplomat Medal shared with the Global Times their feelings of receiving the honor, as well as their observation of Chinese modernization, noting China's experience offers valuable reference to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region.

The Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye in China hosted a hospitable Turkish breakfast on June 7 on the occasion of World Breakfast Day. As part of the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Türkiye, Selçuk Ünal, Turkish Ambassador to China, and his wife Lerzan Kayıhan Ünal highlighted at the event the shared values of “reunion, sharing, and hospitality” in both China and Türkiye.

Across China's workplaces, a growing number of young office workers are embracing what many call "cyber wellness," turning health management into a data-driven daily routine. Smart watches track their heart rate, breathing and sleep quality around the clock, while AI-powered apps analyze everything from tongue images to daily calorie intake.

About a 40-minute drive from downtown Ningbo leads to the Hemudu Site, a Neolithic settlement dating back 7,000 years. Next to the site, the Hemudu Site Museum tells its unique rice-­cultivating story.

At Fudan University, a group of research teams has spent years using cutting-edge technology to restore the faces of China's fallen soldiers. After successfully reconstructing the appearances of 10 martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), they have now achieved another breakthrough: recreating the face of an unidentified Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldier who sacrificed his life decades ago.

Covering an investigation area of 5,500 square kilometers, a recent archaeological survey focusing on China's Hongshan culture in the West Liaohe River Basin has unveiled its latest findings. The project stands as "the first survey nationwide ever undertaken specifically on the regional development of Hongshan culture," Sun Jinsong, a key figure of the project and also director of the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, told the Global Times.

Ask me what I remember most from the 2018 World Cup, and I won't say France lifting the trophy. I'll say Luka Modric, the Croatian captain, standing alone in the Moscow rain on July 15, 2018. As French players celebrated their triumph, Modric slowly walked toward the podium to receive the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player for captaining the Croatian side to the final after a month-long journey that felt almost impossible.

When the lights came up after the pre-screening of the upcoming movie Crossing at Guiyang's Yuejie Cinema in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, many people in the audience had tears in their eyes.

The second World Conference of Classics in Athens, Greece, held on June 9 and 10, has a significance that goes far beyond academia. It is not only a gathering of academics, archaeologists, cultural experts and historians. It is also a timely dialogue between two ancient civilizations, China and Greece, whose intellectual and cultural heritage continues to inspire humanity today.

Dialogue between Greek and Chinese civilizations is more important than ever amid escalating global governance challenges and eroding international trust, Nikiforos Diamandouros, president of the Academy of Athens, said in a recent interview with the People's Daily.

Li Yize, who previously participated in a training camp for China's U18 men's national youth basketball team, has been suspended from competition for three years for competing under a falsified age declaration, according to a statement released by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Wednesday.

A total of 89 Beijing swifts have undergone banding during a routine annual "health check" at Beijing's Summer Palace.

Surrounded by water on all sides and covered in dense greenery, the archaeological site of Huanghuacheng in Zhongxian county, Chongqing, carries a touch of mystery.

Once again, it is the season of the national college entrance examinatios, commonly known as the gaokao. In an age of diverse development and ever-expanding choices, people discuss the growing variety of paths to higher education and raise all sorts of questions about the gaokao exam system.

The Second World Conference of Classics, themed "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern: Contemporary Inspirations from Classical Wisdom," is being held in Athens, Greece from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The Second World Conference of Classics will open in Athens, Greece on June 9, 2026. Under the theme "Dialogue between Ancient and Modern: Contemporary Inspirations from Classical Wisdom," the conference will be jointly hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, the Greek Ministry of Culture, and the Academy of Athens.

Veteran Hong Kong film producer and actor Raymond Pak-Ming Wong was sentenced to five months in prison for insider trading and fined HK$99,000, according to Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong-based Chinese language newspaper, on Tuesday.

China's star libero Wang Mengjie has joined the US professional women's volleyball league, the League One Volleyball (LOVB) and will compete in the upcoming season, the official social media account of LOVB announced on Monday.

China's 2026 national college entrance exams, or gaokao, began on Sunday. For millions of students, the most awaited moment comes afterward, when they receive an admission letter from their dream university. Lately, the way these admission letters are presented has become a subject of heated debate: Does a true sense of celebration come from fancy packaging, or from something more meaningful?

All the artifacts for the world's largest-ever exhibition of ancient American civilizations have safely arrived in Shanghai, with the second and also final batch of Mexican cultural relics touching down at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Monday night after a transoceanic flight of over 13,000 kilometers, according to a press release the museum sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Mayors tried out intelligent exoskeletons that helped them climb steep paths, observed up close drones flying through valleys and learned how an AI system monitors the growth of the region's iconic Welcoming Pine around the clock.

China's annual box office has surpassed 16 billion yuan ($2.36 billion) so far in 2026, industry data shows, while a packed summer film slate featuring more than 60 new titles is set to dominate cinemas across the country in the coming month, CCTV reported on Sunday.

During the on-going second China writers' village residency program, 23 Chinese writers have been invited to stay for more than 10 days in different villages across Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Their goal is to explore the region's culture and historical changes, to capture local customs and people's stories, and to start new creative works based on their experiences.

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, acclaimed Chinese author Peng Xueming recently released an expanded edition of his novel Father.

Rain was falling lightly outside the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. It was nearly 10 pm, yet the crowds on Dingxiang Road where the center is located were in no hurry to leave. Many still carried the excitement of what had just happened inside.

Every June, as millions of students sit for China's national college entrance examinations, or gaokao, one part of the test reliably captures the nation's attention: the Chinese-language essay questions.

Chinese actor Jin Ze, whose real name was Zhang Jiawei, has died at the age of 33. His agency, Shengshi Guangnian Culture Co., Ltd., issued an official statement on Saturday confirming the news.

The breakout Chaoshan-dialect hit film Dear You, inspired by the UNESCO-recognized "qiaopi" letter-and-remittance tradition of overseas Chinese, announced its global theatrical rollout on Friday.

China's men's national football team defeated Singapore 2-1 in an international friendly on Friday in Singapore thanks to goals from Sai Erjini'ao and Zhang Yuning.

Just steps from the Bell and Drum Towers and tourist crowds of the Shichahai scenic spot in Beijing, a circle of elderly residents gathers around two seniors locked in a game of Chinese chess. Around them, clusters of blooming Chinese roses gently muffle the city's hum. No one would guess that this land was once a jumble of unsightly illegal structures. Today it has been rebuilt as a pocket park, one of thousands that are quietly reshaping China's urban life.

The recent triumph of the "Chinese Football Boy" U12 team in Italy's Sigismondi International Youth Tournament has sparked excitement among Chinese football fans.

The 28th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) has unveiled its screening schedule, revealing a lineup of more than 420 films to be screened at 52 venues as ticket sales begin Friday.

Currently, there are many excellent new works showing in both Chinese cinemas and on TV. Films like Dear You, which had made over 1.5 billion yuan ($221.6 million) at the box office as of Thursday, and TV dramas such as The Lead, which is now airing its finale, have attracted large audiences. After watching these movies and series, many people develop a strong interest in the original novels or related historical books. Data from various platforms shows that the popularity of these film and TV works is directly boosting related book sales.

The Moscow City Tourism Committee hosted more than 100 representatives of China's travel industry, city authorities, and business partners, to showcase the Russian capital's tourism potential, including its summer campaigns, and presented Moscow's updated promotional strategy for the Chinese market in Beijing on the sidelines of the 2026 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit of the World Tourism Cities Federation on Tuesday. The promotion session was aimed at helping tourism industry professionals and Chinese tourists understand Moscow's rich and unique tourism resources, further stimulating the potential for cooperation between Moscow and Beijing. Moscow tourism authorities affirmed that China remains one of Moscow's most important international tourism partners.

In the afternoon, for three or four hours, Wang Yuzhen, a 70-year-old retired teacher, sits at a desk near the sofa and begins writing. Her phone rests beside her, and the screen lights up from time to time with comments, private messages, and words of encouragement from readers. In the quiet room, each notification flickers briefly before fading again.

The Embassy of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana in China hosted a reception to celebrate the 60th Diamond-Jubilee anniversary of independence of the country in Beijing on May 29. Anyin Choo, ambassador of Guyana to China reflected on the enduring friendship between Guyana and China - a partnership built not on transient interests, but on mutual respect, shared sacrifice, and a common vision for development.

With a circle of booths featuring handcrafts, Thai-flavor cuisines, beverages, and a main stage presenting Thai dancing and fashion shows, 2026 Thai Festival returned to Chaoyang Park in Beijing on May 30. Thai Ambassador to China Chatchai Viriyavejakul inaugurated "Thai-Chinese friendship bell pavilion" after the opening ceremony for the festival. One of the highlights of this year's festival is the introduction of "Chud Thai," or the Thai National Costume.

Facing the Lujiang River and surrounded by gardens and courtyards, a red-and-white building with towering colonnades on its southeastern sides has taken on a new life. Once the site of the former US Consulate on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, the restored landmark reopened to the public in May as China's first museum dedicated to film music. On Monday, local tour guide Lin Zhao visited the newly opened China Film Music Exhibition Hall, Gulangyu, with his child. As they stepped inside, a familiar melody filled the air - the song of the Chinese Young Pioneers.

The Norwegian Embassy in China hosted a Norwegian children literature promotion session together with the Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA), a government-funded, non-commercial foundation for literature promotion, under the theme of “From a small country to the big world – how and why literature travels” at the Beijing Library in Tongzhou district on May 30. Norwegian officials, writers and Chinese scholars and editors participated in the event, sharing their creative journey and insights into what makes the cooperation between Chinese and Norwegian literature sector successful.

China is to hold its annual Cultural and Natural Heritage Day in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province in 2026, centering national cultural relic protection efforts on public partic-ipation and public welfare, the country's top cultural heritage authority announced on Wednesday.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) and the Palace Museum in Beijing on Wednesday jointly kicked off in Hong Kong a major exhibition examining the historical exchanges between China and the wider world through the lens of the Forbidden City.

At one corner of Barkhor Street, a pilgrim turns a prayer wheel, a young traveler in Tibetan-style clothing poses for photos, and a shop window displays a Labubu toy beside thangka paintings, Buddhist statues and handmade crafts.

As the first light of morning spread across Lantian village in Fuliang county, Jingdezhen, East China's Jiangxi Province, French international student Colleu Yann Cyril from Jingdezhen Ceramic University was already crouched beside a kiln, feeding firewood into the furnace. After checking the kiln temperature, he picked up a porcelain bowl he had just finished trimming, and examined it carefully in the morning light. The bowl's walls were so thin that they seemed almost translucent.

Chinese archaeologists have traced the origins of 11 carnelian beads unearthed from sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui Ruins, revealing that more than 3,000 years ago, the ancient Shu civilization in Southwest China had already established stable and lasting exchange networks with the distant northern grasslands and the Loess Plateau. The study also found that these carnelian beads are the southernmost such artifacts known in China from that period, according to a research conducted by the Sichuan provincial cultural relics and archaeology research institute on Tuesday.

China's national women's volleyball team will make their season debut at the 2026 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, on Wednesday, aiming to hone new offensive force.

Chemical analysis of surgical instruments excavated from a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) tomb in East China has yielded the first direct physical evidence that ancient Chinese doctors were using plant-based anesthetics for surgery as early as the 14th century, a discovery researchers said might reshape the accepted timeline of anesthesia history.

In late May in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, something unusual filled the halls of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute during its "Open June" graduation show. Visitors did not smell oil paint or chemicals, instead, they breathed in the fresh scent of earth, vegetables, and ripe fruit.

A Chaoshan (Teochew)-dialect film has become one of China's biggest cinematic surprises of the year. Dear You, with more than 95 percent of its dialogue in the Chaoshan dialect, has climbed to become the second-highest-grossing film of the year, trailing only Pegasus 3.

The Traffic Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security issued a reminder via its official Weibo on Monday, stressing the importance of fastening one's seat belt when riding in a vehicle, after several guests in a TV variety show were seen wearing digitally added seat belts. The news has surged to the top hot topics on Sina Weibo on Tuesday morning.

Newly adopted regulations on place name management in East China's Shandong Province have drawn public attention by placing clear legal safeguards around traditional place names.

The passing of renowned veteran Hong Kong actor Lau Shun at the age of 87 in late May has stirred widespread nostalgia among audiences across generations. Many Chinese mainland netizens took to social media to pay tribute to him and recalled the unforgettable characters he brought to life in classic Hong Kong films.

As of Monday, the 2026 box office for the Chinese mainland has exceeded 15.7 billion yuan ($2.32 billion). Among recent releases, Dear You has made a particularly strong impression, bringing in over 1.4 billion yuan and attracting more audiences back to cinemas. Industry insiders said that the film will significantly boost the movie market throughout June. Meanwhile, a number of new movies set for release in June and the upcoming summer holidays span genres including historical drama, science fiction, action, and animation, promising broad appeal and fierce competition in both box-office performance and public reception.

In the distant future, on a planet known as Chao Planet, descendants of Chaoshan migrants keep alive traditions carried from Earth centuries earlier. Among them is Yingge dance, an ancient performance that has taken on new meaning in a world where culture and technology exist side by side.

A diverse range of book fairs have flourished across China, rapidly transforming into one of the nation's most popular cultural and social scenes - especially among the young generation. Visitors are often first drawn in by the vibrant visuals: dazzling decor, artful installations and unique souvenirs. Yet beneath the surface, some in the publishing industry have raised an important question: Has the focus on appearances overshadowed the true soul of the book fair - its books and reading culture?

In Shanghai right now, something special is happening. Hosted by the China Theatre Association, the First Showcase of Outstanding Repertoires by China Theatre Plum Blossom Award winning artists has brought together 16 award winners and 10 classic productions. But this is more than just a festival of beautiful performances. It tells a bigger story: The story of how Chinese drama is stepping beyond old misunderstandings and taking a new place for itself in the world.

Rao Quan, director of China's National Cultural Heritage Administration, has recently conducted an in-depth inspection of the Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian county and its surrounding environment during a visit to North China's Shanxi Province. Protection of this ancient pagoda, the world's tallest and oldest existing wooden pavilion-style tower, has once again drawn attention.

The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), one of China's top film festivals, has announced the full lineup for its 28th edition, with multiple Chinese-language productions securing places across the festival's major competition sections.

People interact with a performer at a tourist attraction in Baoting, south China's Hainan Province, May 29, 2026. Rooted in the distinctive traditions of the Li and Miao ethnic groups, the tourist attraction features immersive night tour experiences as its core draw. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)

China's doctor-turned-fighter Shi Ming defeated India's Puja Tomar via first-round submission in a UFC strawweight bout on Friday in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), notching up her first victory in the UFC.

This year marks both the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, which was established on May 25, 1963, as well as the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between African countries and the People's Republic of China. The Group of African Ambassadors in China (GAAC) hosted a high-level diplomatic reception in Beijing on Monday to mark the Africa Day.

Martha Viviana Carvajalino Villegas, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia briefed media about her visit in China at a press conference on May 28 at the Embassy of the Republic of Colombia in China, underscoring aspiration for deeper bilateral agricultural cooperation. Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries officials told the Global Times in recent interviews that China's achievements in poverty elimination are remarkable and they want to refer to the country's experience and develop together through deepened cooperation.

The Embassy of the Republic of India in China hosted a celebration session to commemorate the 165th anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, a renowned Indian poet, writer, philosopher and Nobel laureate, in Beijing on May 22. Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Doraiswami said that in many ways, Tagore belongs not only to India, but to the shared cultural heritage of humanity.

In Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, a "sewing study room" is run by Yang Shuoqing, a local born in the 1990s who transformed her family's clothing repair shop into a self-study studio where customers learn to make their own bags, scarves, pet beds and jackets. "Most of our students used to be elderly residents from nearby communities who wanted to repair clothes," Yang told the Global Times. "But now more and more young people come in carrying sketches and patterns, hoping to create their own DIY designs."

Once having a hard time helping his child with homework yet later managing to write To Live, celebrated Chinese writer Yu Hua recently shared a short video on social media, drawing the attention of many, including Zhang Xue, a former poor repairman who is now leading his motorcycle brand onto the global stage. What resonated between these two rookies-turned big shots? The answer lies in the short video's theme: "caotai banzi."

Chinese online literature is now becoming a transnational language, influencing a growing number of readers and writers around the world, a web fiction industry professional shared with the Global Times at a showcase event for Chinese web novel writers held in Beijing on Thursday.

When reading a historical novel, readers often wonder: Is this part true, or was it made up? For a historical novel, what matters more - history or fiction? Renowned Chinese historical novelist Xiong Zhaozheng brings an answer to this question with his latest work: the first installment in his Khubilai. Decades of writing have shown him that a great historical novel should be an epic, unfolding literary imagination within a framework of real history.

China's overseas archaeological efforts have offered a distinctive "Eastern perspective" to global civilization studies, helping break Western-centric narratives and build a more inclusive framework for interpreting ancient human societies, Chinese archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said on Wednesday.

Built in 1969 as an early civil air defense project, the site was closed in 2008 for repairs and renovations. After 18 years of closure, this underground space has now been transformed into the Beijing Civil Air Defense History Museum and opened to the public in May with free admission, the Beijing Daily reported.

Chen Hui, a vendor-writer who has published five works since 2018, shared how reading has shaped her inner world, laid the foundation for her writing, and given her the opportunity to see the world more broadly.

Chinese tennis player Wang Xinyu's French Open singles run came to an end on Wednesday after the 32nd seed suffered a hard-fought defeat to Germany's Tamara Korpatsch in the women's singles second round at Roland Garros.

Incorporating elements of Guangxi's Zhuang brocade into official licensed products for this year's FIFA World Cup, local artisans have recently been busy creating a range of Zhuang brocade-inspired souvenirs, including footballs, jerseys, caps, mouse pads and figurines at a studio in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Chinese TV series The Lead, adapted from the Mao Dun Literature Prize-winning novel of the same name, is now airing to great popularity. As one of writer Chen Yan's "stage trilogy," this decades-spanning drama around the growth of Qinqiang opera (a Chinese folk opera school thriving in Northwest China) artists has been the subject of much discussion since its release.

The nominations for China's TV-drama focused Magnolia Awards - one of China's top three ­television honors - at the 31st Shanghai Television Festival were revealed on Tuesday. This time, what has struck a chord with countless netizens is a name enclosed in a text box - Zhu Yuanyuan.

Geyuan Temple in North China's Hebei Province, reopened to the public this May, houses the wooden architecture that dates back to the Liao Dynasty (916-1125).

Chinese tennis ace Zheng Qinwen suffered a shocking first-round exit at the 2026 French Open on Monday, falling 6-4, 6-0 to Polish qualifier Maja Chwalińska in Paris in one of the biggest upsets of the opening rounds.

The 18th China Xinjiang International Road Cycling Race around Sayram Lake concluded Monday in the Bortala Mongolian autonomous prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with the completion of the 90-kilometer sixth stage, also the final stage, of the race surrounding the region's scenic lake. Local Xinjiang cyclist Hahelixi Habudeli became the champion of this stage as well as the overall competition.

Set within the city of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, Cicheng Ancient Town stands as most intact millennium-old town in the region. Going back as far as the Neolithic period, this area was already home to the early ancestors of Ningbo. From that time onward, the everyday customs, cultural traditions, and urban planning insights born from such human activities have been refined and passed down through generations within this ancient town.

On the evening of May 14, the ceremony for the 14th China Dance Lotus Awards, China's highest national professional award for dance, was held in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Rock Talk, an original dance production created and performed by a group of students from the Yinchuan High School in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, won the Chinese Contemporary Dance award.

The term "carb face" has recently sparked discussion on Chinese social media platforms. The trend has seen some short video influencers who pinch their cheeks and say, "This is the 'carb face' you get from eating steamed buns every day." Meanwhile, some social media users are posting photos claiming that their facial contours have become more defined after cutting out carbohydrates. For a time, staple foods like rice, noodles, and steamed buns have been forcibly linked with "becoming less attractive" and a "lack of self-discipline." Does eating carbohydrates really affect appearance and health?