Every year, when the Dragon Boat Festival comes, Chinese people often put a kind of plant on the door. It is called wormwood (艾草). 【小题1】 On the other hand, its special smell can also keep bad insects away from rooms.

In fact, wormwood tastes bitter but smells very pleasant. 【小题2】 So it can be seen in Compendium of Materia Medica (《本草纲目》). The writer of the book is Li Shizhen. 【小题3】 Wormwood is famous for its ability to treat a great number of illnesses. Hundreds of years later, in Qichun, Hubei Province, it is still serving local people. Recently, Qichun has been busy preparing for the World Argy Wormwood Industry Convention. 【小题4】 And it will be good for the traditional Chinese culture.

Wormwood has been mainly grown in this area. 【小题5】 At the same time, wormwood is known around the world as a kind of traditional Chinese medicine.

① Imagine you are looking at Wang Ximeng’s famous painting from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains (《千里江山图》). Suddenly, its blue rivers jump, and its green mountains move. Music brings you into the painting as it comes to life and shares its history. This is what happens in Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting (《只此青绿》), a dance drama based on (基于) the beautiful piece of art.

② The performance (表演) is now running across China. In the show, one man from the present can communicate with the painter of the past. China’s Poetic Dance creates a mix of past and present, bringing historical art together with modern dance and visual effects. The show is all done through the power of movement and often stillness (静止).

③ “I hope we can perform on more and bigger stages to show more people all over the world a beautiful China with a mix of old and new,” says Meng Qingyang, the lead dancer of the Poetic Dance. “It brings me a pure experience about beauty. Huge mountains and rivers are coming to life!” After the dance show, an excited audience (观众) Mo Weisha wrote a review on social media. Moreover, many parents also brought their children to enjoy the great show.

④ In all, this dance is one of the most popular shows in Spring Gala. The creativity behind the movement speaks to us in a poetic way. There is a close relationship (关系) between the performer and the audience. That’s the true joy of this dance.

In ancient China, willow branches (柳枝) were often used as a gift to friends and family members who would leave. Do you know why willow branches are a symbol of saying goodbye?

One reason is that willow trees are strong. They can live in any soil, wet or dry, north or south.

Because of this special feature, when saying goodbye to loved ones, giving a willow branch is a way to tell them you hope they will easily get used to their new living environment.

Another reason is that, in Chinese, the pronunciation for the willow tree “柳” is similar to the character “留”. So giving a willow branch in ancient China was like asking the others to stay, even though you know that they must leave.

It’s said that this custom became popular during the Han Dynasty. At that time, Baqiao, a bridge in Chang’an, today’s Xi’an, was a common place to say goodbye. People often stopped there and handed willow branches to people who were going to depart.

Willow branches, as a symbol of saying goodbye, were often mentioned in poems, especially at the time of the Tang and Song dynasties.