Known as a “voice catcher” in his social circle, 38-year-old Long Qing is working to record dialects and 【小题1】 (nature)sounds in danger of fading away as a result of urbanization.

The native of Changsha, Hunan province, has 【小题2】 acute appreciation for sounds and voices, and his previous job as an audio editor may help explain his gift 【小题3】 some degree.

Whenever he has spare time, Long wanders the city’s old streets 【小题4】(listen)for sounds that are unique to Changsha. Now a self-employed sound designer, Long has a number of 【小题5】(recording) of Changsha dialects. In Remix Changsha, Long has mixed different voices and sounds, such as the sound of stinky tofu in oil and people reciting the names of Changsha landmarks. “All these sounds allow listeners to 【小题6】(real)feel Changsha, ”he said.

Long Qing 【小题7】(work) to preserve Changsha’s aural culture and create many audio pieces 【小题8】(post) online since 2013. He also organized activities to teach the public about the very sounds 【小题9】 need to preserve. He hopes that in the future, more people, especially teenagers, will develop a 【小题10】(sharp)sense of aural art and even create new sounds of their own.

Tang Yan gave up a promising career in 1992 to save an almost lost art-that of “Beijing silk figurine (北京绢人)”. In 1997, she established a studio with five other enthusiasts. Then they spent 【小题1】 entire year making several figurines, only to find there was no market for their products.

“A figurine could cost potentially the annual salary of many people at the time due to precious materials and 【小题2】 (demand) handicraft techniques.”Tang said, “Many potential customers were amazed by the beauty of our products, but their price 【小题3】 (drive) them away:”

The first failure taught Tang 【小题4】 they needed: finding ways to reduce production costs. She made many creative and bold 【小题5】 (adapt) to the traditional figurines, like using machines to paint the clothes, 【小题6】 (cut) the price to less than a tenth of the original one. However, 【小题7】 (lend) the dolls a sense of delicacy and craftsmanship, she preserved several handmade processes for hair and makeup.

After decades of whole-hearted devotion 【小题8】 the craft, Tang now runs her own Beijing figurine product brand Tang Wawa. “Girls in China need their own dolls. When I was little, dolls 【小题9】 (call) yangwawa, meaning Western dolls.”Tang continued.“I wanted to create dolls 【小题10】 (bear) a cultural connection to Chinese people, figurines with a rich historical implication.”

Escape from the British Museum

Recently, a video series named Escape from the British Museum 【小题1】 (spark) a lot of discussion in China’s social media. 【小题2】 (direct) by two Chinese vloggers, the three-episode series tells the story of 【小题3】 a Chinese cultural relic escapes from the British Museum and finds 【小题4】 (it) way back to China.

In the video series, a female vlogger plays the role of an ancient Chinese jade teapot (玉壶) 【小题5】 her male partner is a journalist who helps the artifact return to China. They went to the UK in June and spent three months shooting the video 【小题6】 (devote). They said the story is based on historic facts and aims to draw attention to the Chinese cultural relics held abroad.

Currently, the museum has a total of 23,000 Chinese relics, while about 2,000 Chinese relics are 【小题7】 long-term display. The Chinese objects, 【小题8】 (stretch) from the Neolithic age (新石器时代) to the present, include paintings, prints, jade and ceramics.

“Eventually, there will be a day 【小题9】 the items come home in a dignified way,” a user commented on Weibo. The series release has come as a number of netizens condemned the British Museum for its previous act of 【小题10】 (thief).