Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote many books. Most of them were about her childhood. She grew up in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota, in America. During her life, she and her family faced many problems.

The Ingalls family had worked hard to build a house and a bam (畜棚). But the family later lost their farm in Kansas. So they had to leave there and find somewhere else to live.

Several years later, the Ingalls family moved back to Wisconsin. They lived in a dugout (防空洞) while they were building another farm. During this time, Laura’s sister Mary became ill. Her eyes were hurt, and she became blind. Laura and her family worked hard to raise money for Mary.When they finally had enough money, they sent Mary to a school for blind students. There, she learned how to read braille. She also learned other skills to live a better life.

Later, Laura’s family moved to South Dakota. Laura and her sisters liked their new house and neighbors. But life there could be hard. One winter, the trains could not get through the snow to send food. Everyone in the town almost starved to death (饿死). Laura’s future husband, Almanzo, risked his life to help. He traveled to a farm which was quite far to get wheat (小麦). They used the wheat to make bread. It was their only food for the rest of the winter. When spring came, the trains finally arrived and the town was saved.

Fu Cong, known as the “greatest modern pianist” and “piano poet”, died of COVID-19 at a hospital in London last year. You may not be familiar with him, but you might have read the book Fu Lei’s Family Letters（傅雷家书）written by his father Fu Lei, a famous translator and writer, which influenced a generation of Chinese readers.

Fu Cong was born on March 10, 1934, in Shanghai. A lover of classical music from a young age . He began to have the piano class at the age of 7. But the chaos（混乱）of wartime China prevented him from receiving a systematic musical education. Then in his teens, Fu Cong moved with his family to Yunnan, where he experienced an unusual period.

Between 1954 and 1966 Fu Cong spent a lot of time away from home to train as a piano player. As a result, writing letters became Fu Lei’s usual ways of communicating with his son. The letters fully showed Fu Lei’s family tradition and value. To Fu Lei, education is not only a family matter, but also something with great social value.

Fu Lei also advised his son to read famous Chinese texts. He told Fu Cong to fully understand their meanings and connect ideas with feeling in order to become a better person. Fu Lei thinks learning to be a good person comes before any academic（学术）training. On 27 December 1954, Fu Lei wrote, “Everyone should be a good person before becoming an expert in any field. Otherwise, that person will not get much academic achievement, no matter how knowledgeable he is.”

Full of advice, encouragement, and a father’s love, Fu Lei’s Family Letters became a best seller in China. It has been sold more than one million copies in China and has been translated into Japanese and Korean. It helps many young students understand how they should live their lives.

33-year-old Jin Ruirui, a deputy (人大代表), wore a traditional Yi costume (服饰) and brought Yi embroidery (彝绣) to this year’s two sessions (两会). Jin is an inheritor (传承人) of the Yi embroidery of Chuxiong, Yunnan Province. She has advised developing the local embroidery industry and helping offer women’s jobs.

Jin was among the first group of college students in her village. But instead of working in big cities, she chose to come back to her hometown to set up her own Yi embroidery company. “My mother raised me with the money she made as an embroiderer. I want to carry on her skills and help more embroiderers like my mother—they might not get much education, but they know well about our local culture.” said Jin.

With the support from the local government and hard work of people like Jin, Yi embroidery has become a growing industry. They train embroiderers and have designers make the embroidery pieces more fashionable. They hold fashion shows to promote (推广) Yi costumes in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai and do business with foreign countries. Jin just got an export (出口) order of 6,500 Yi embroidered costumes to the UK last month.

During the past 10 years, more than 60,000 Yi women in Chuxiong have taken part in the local Yi embroidery industry. Their average (平均的) monthly income (收入) has grown from about 500 yuan to around 3,000 yuan. “Now, even some men have started to work as embroiderers, taking up about 4 percent of the workforce staff (从业人员),” Jin added. “We have made our lives better with our traditional culture and skills.”