The Chinese fashion icon, qipao, was born a century ago in Shanghai. However, the dress made its way through history from the hands of old craftsmen and is deep-rooted in Chinese culture.

“Qipao used to be so popular,” Leung Long-kong, 89, a well-known qipao craftsman, says, adding that the dress was an everyday outfit among women, from the less well-off to women at the highest levels of society. “Now, nobody is wearing them except on grand and happy occasions.”

To carry on the tradition, fashion designer Mary Yu, 41, who has been attending classes teaching knot button-making techniques, is trying to renew the design of qipao by taking symbols from Chinese history and literature.

“I feel I should look into Chinese culture and learn more about the past. People should have an in-depth understanding of their culture in order to move on,” Yu says. “Fashion design requires a profound knowledge of one’s culture before visualizing it.”

“After a period of wearing foreign brands all the time, there will be a day when one looks back to traditional Chinese culture. It is about finding the stuff that exists in your genes and suits you best.”

Yu set up her own qipao brand in 2016. Most of the clothes were made by tailors based in Shenzhen and Hangzhou, for their lower cost and more traditional work.

In the constantly evolving fashion industry, qipao is catching up with the times. Zippers, digital print patterns and new materials such as lace and denim have been introduced to a new generation. More daring ideas like 3D printed qipao have also become a reality. Yu believed that with the help of these new technologies, qipao will find its way back to the daily life of Chinese people in the near future.

Being in the midst of a pandemic lockdown can make people feel worried. But nothing has shown this panicky behavior more than storing specifically toilet paper.

Seemingly transcending borders and cultures, people from all over the world, including the US, UK and Japan, have been clearing supermarket shelves mainly for this necessity. But what’s the reason for this sudden toilet paper storing? You can understand panic buying food, but do we really need that much toilet paper?

Steven Taylor, author of the book The Psychology of Pandemics, told the Independent that our toilet paper storing is a product of our disgust. During a pandemic, people’s sensitivity to disgust increases, like when you move aside if someone nearby sneezes.

“Disgust is like an alarm … and what better tool for removing disgusting material than toilet paper. I think this is how it became a conditioned symbol of safety,” he said.

Writing for The Conversation, Niki Edwards of The Queensland University of Technology said, “When people hear about the novel coronavirus, they are afraid of losing control. And toilet paper feels like a way to maintain control over health and cleanliness.”

Another one of the most important reasons behind this toilet paper trend, according to the BBC, is the snowball effect. Due to its reports, both in the news and social media, people naturally ask, “Will there be enough toilet paper for my family and me?” This leads to more people following the crowd and buying toilet paper because of their fear of missing out.

“Fear spreads easily. So when you see people around you buying things in a panicky way, it’s going to make you feel more anxious,” wrote American psychologist Baruch Fischhoff for CNBC.

While there are, of course, selfish people who store just because they can, it’s worth keeping things in perspective. Remember, just as countries are cooperating to find a vaccine, we must cooperate to ensure that everyone has their share of necessities.

High schools used to teach shop classes and students learned hands-on occupational skills like woodworking. Nowadays, most schools have changed shop classes in favor of academic core subjects. However, one organization doesn’t think that academics and carpentry (木工工艺) have to be separated.

The National Science Foundation STEM Guitar Project is an organization that aims to get students excited about science, math, and the arts all at once, by teaching students how to make a guitar from the beginning.

Experts forecast that technical skills like the ones used in making the guitars could be the most in-demand job in the future, according to The Conversation. Unfortunately, many high schools don’t introduce students to mechanical precision, design, and manufacturing skills, because they are not on standardized tests, and because schools aren’t aware of the future applications of these skills.

But STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is really needed to build a guitar. According to The Conversation, it’s impossible to make a guitar without knowing science and math. To space the frets (音品) on the guitar’s neck, guitar designers use a mathematical formula. STEM Guitar Project employee, Nancy Chang, said that “Using that formula to build a guitar you really care about and you want it to turn out and play really well, gives you a really good reason to figure out an equation (方程式) that otherwise would just be something from out of a book, that had no meaning.”

The STEM Guitar Project runs five-day workshops for teachers each summer. At the workshop, teachers learn to make their own guitars, and are given a curriculum, textbooks, materials, and guitar kits to use in their classrooms. Teachers at the workshops report that the opportunity to make a guitar is fun and exciting. Mike Aikens, STEM Guitar Project co-founder, explained that “If you’re exciting teachers you’re for sure going to excite kids”.

Thanks to the STEM Guitar Project, it opens students’ and teachers’ eyes to real-world applications of technical skills, and lets them know that real world math is much more exciting than theoretical concepts.