NOT ONE LESS

正A school that hopes to see fewer students With her short hair dyed bright purple,15-year old Du Fangmei is easy to spot in her class.She practiced giving a haircut to a mannequin head as she talked to Beijing Review in her classroom."My hair was dyed by the hairdressing teacher last month," she said in standard Chinese."I like it a lot."     

STRENGTH ON SNOW

Latin American and Caribbean countries aren’t letting heat get in the way of ice cold success ‘It feels great to be back here and be part of the history," Jaqueline Mour■o, a flagbearer for Team Brazil at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, said.     

Seeing Change,Living Change

Chan Ka-ying, or Nicole, lives with her cat in Shenzhen, a booming tech city in the south of Guangdong Province. Born in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), she is currently working in a stateowned enterprise after graduation from Peking University. "I work as a policy analyst for the business in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)," Chan told Beijing Review. "I plan to work here for a few years and then return to Hong Kong, where my family lives."     

The Soft Link

An NGO's efforts to promote people-to-people diplomacy between Chinaand the United States It was on Harvard's campus that Liu Xi hit upon the idea to set up a program to bring the real China to more Harvard students.Liu attended a master's program at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) from 2013 to2015.While studying in the U.S.,she realized that many Americans have a biased view of China.     

WITH OPEN ARMS

People-to-people exchanges during Beijing 2022 illuminate the Olympic spirit‘to China!"Back in her hotel room after attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022,18-year-old American snowboarder Tessa Maud couldn't stop watching a particular video she'd taken during the event.     

Is the Past Better Than the Present?

Feelings of nostalgia are normal psychological activities, revealing com-plex human feelings about the past. Nonetheless, the "nostalgic" emotion discussed here is not a recollection and longing for the past in a normal sense but refers in particular to a kind of obsession with outdated economic and social systems coupled with random condemnations and complaints about current development. This is a negative phenomenon hindering social progress.     

Virtuous Recycling

正Recycling used things becomes trendy and handy in China Wang Yewen, a 32-year-old company staff member, recently moved into a new apartment in Beijing. The moving process proved torture, as she had too much stuff she didn't even realize existed. Fortunately,     

Unhappy Misunderstanding

Song Qiang is one of the five authors whose essays make up the bestseller Unhappy China: The Great Time, Grand Vision and Our Challenges. Song also coauthored another widely popular book, China Can Say No, which came out in 1996. Beijing Review interviewed Song about his expectations and other people's disapproval of this new book.     

Boundaryless

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. When Xie Zidi, a 27-year-old data analyst and science fiction aficionada, heard professor Brand recite the first two verses of this poem by Dylan Thomas in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, she got chills. "I could immediately understand that the use of this poem was to parallel the main characters' struggle to mankind's fight for survival—the film's central plot," she told Beijing Review.     

Decoding Beauty and Happiness

Liu Ruiyi is an accountant at an auditing firm in Dalian, a coastal city in Liaoning Province in northeast China. She once worked in Shanghai for one and a half years, and then decided to return to her hometown of Dalian because she could save on rent and be with her family. "Although our income is not as high as that of people in more developed cities, I feel happy living here because of the beautiful ocean scenery, pleasant climate and easy pace of life," Liu told Beijing Review.     

Poetry and Profits

正Chinese property developers see opportunities in cultural tourism For a long time,Xiao Mo,a Beijing-based travel blogger,had been thinking of visiting the Lonely Library,a neobrutalist structure on the beach at Aranya Resort in Qinhuangdao,Hebei Province. Last winter,Xiao traveled to the building for the first time to witness first-hand the impressive sunrise views from the site she had seen in videos online. "Many other tourists were there despite the cold weather," she told Beijing Review.     

Living the Dream

An American aspires to build a cultural bridge across the Pacific through art James Holt realized both his own and his grandmother’s long-cherished visions the day he got his visa stamp to come to China seven years ago. Holt’s grandma, Kay Engel, was a medic who wanted to go to China to help injured soldiers and civilians during World War Ⅱ.     

DIVERSITY,THE XINJIANG DNA

正Through her lens, photographer Hailun Ma allows people to ogle at the beauty of XinjiangBefore she graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, one of the leading art institutions in the U.S., Xinjiangborn photographer Hailun Ma gained a new awareness of her hometown in northwest China. "So-called ‘high fashion' is far removed from my own life. I want to rebuild my connection with fashion photography," Ma said.     

Fine-Tuning Fandom

It is the ninth year Ni Pei is following everything about musician and actor Zhang Yixing (Lay). The idol debuted in 2012 in the Republic of Korea (ROK) as one of the Chinese members of male K-pop sensation EXO-M. At the time, Ni was a sophomore at a college in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. "He goes to extreme lengths when it comes to his work," Ni told Beijing Review, adding it is the meticulous atti-tude and ambition he reveals that she finds most attractive.     

The Second Child Issue

Five years after the two-child policy went into effect,debate on whether to have more children continues Yang Wanfang,a 31-year-old professional in Changchun,Jilin Province in northeast China,is determined not to have a second child."It's both tiring and costly,"she told Beijing Review.     

Consumption Craze Down,Business Verve Up

Cherry Wang, a 29-year-old designer in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, found herself not acting as impulsively during this year's Double 11 shopping festival as she had in previous years. The event was initiated by Taobao, an online marketplace of China's tech firm Alibaba, in 2009, and has become an annual shopping extravaganza that usually lasts for several days until November 11. Wang spent around 1,500 yuan ($235) this year, mainly on clothes, snacks, pet gear and car products. After receiving all the packages, she returned around a quarter of them. "The services of e-commerce platforms were user-friendly this year. The prolonged period made it unnecessary to stay up late to snatch the best goods and discount rules were simplified. Getting a refund was also easier," she told Beijing Review.     

Living the City Dream

When she obtained her master's degree this year, Zhu Yanyan decided to leave Beijing after residing in the capital for six years and go back to her hometown in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to settle down. "Compared with Beijing or Shanghai, the cost of living in Chengdu is lower, making life less stressful—but no less convenient," Zhu explained.     

The Sole of a City

Fashion fact #1: The earliest pair of leather shoes in existence in China is a 4,000-year-old pair of boots made from sheep hide, worn by a mummified female corpse discovered in the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, in the deserts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Fast forward to contemporary China. As I was on a flight from Shanghai soaring back into the capital that is Beijing, also the place I call "home," I wondered… What actually makes up the soul of a mega metropolis like the aforementioned dragons? Then I real-ized… The answer had been in front of me all along: shoes. Indeed, footwear. We're talking the sole of a city. High heels, Doc Martens, sneakers… Here's a step-by-step guide to the footprint of a mega city --—the Beijing Boots vs. the Shanghai Stilettos. Fashion: There's a whole lot more to it than meets the eye.     

Wuhan,Fighting for Life

On the evening of May 20, 2020, I went down into my residential compound to get the COVID-19 testing authorities had decided to roll out for all residents of Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province. One of the medical workers con-ducting the tests asked me, "Where are you from?" I replied, "Lebanon." She said she didn't know the Chinese Government was also examining and taking care of foreigners. I interrupted her by saying, "Yes, and it's for free, too."     

MORE THAN ART

正As off-campus academic tutoring has been reined in,art education gets a leg up Absorbed by the appreciation of illustration,11-year-old Zhang Duoduo is one of the children joining their parents at the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition China Tour,which was launched in Beijing in mid-August.