Beidou is China’s first global navigation satellite system (全球卫星导航系统). China is the third country in the world to have its own navigation satellite system. With Beidou, China no longer has to depend on foreign systems. This is very important for national safety.

The research and development of Beidou began in 1994. It started its full-scale (全面的) work on July 31 2020. More than 120 countries and regions are using the Beidou system. With as many as 59 satellites, Beidou has “bright eyes”. These satellites fly around the earth. They can “see” rivers, forests and mountains. They can “see” houses and schools oh the earth. Of course, they can “see” you, too! From space, they can tell where you are on the ground, with a difference of no more than 10 meters.

Beidou can help people find the way, even when it’s on the dark sea. It can look for mines (矿产) in deep mountains. It can give orders to driverless cars. Last summer, when Chinese people fought the flood (洪水) in the South, Beidou helped measure (测量) the rise and fall of the flood water.

What’s more, when people are in danger and there is no mobile phone signal, they can use Beidou to send a 1,200-word message to ask for help.

All in all, Beidou is there to keep us safe and make our life convenient.

The folk art form, kuaiban, which has a long history, can be performed by a group or a single person. With one or two pairs of bamboo clappers—a kind of traditional Chinese musical instrument in their hands, the performers tell stories in the local dialect(方言). These stories are usually folk tales or about social life.

Recently, Liu Jiming and Wan Yifu made and shared three short videos by using kuaiban which were viewed about 4 million times. As a result, Liu and Wan have gained more than 1million followers on the Internet. They’ve created many new works to raise people’s awareness. Some of their works are about the danger of drunken driving and food safety. They also write stories to show respect to people who make contributions, such as traffic policemen.

According to Liu and Wan, people can understand kuaiban pieces without difficulty. The stories told in kuaiban pieces are close to people’s daily lives. Thus, they consider that it is a fun way to introduce the Chinese folk culture through kuaiban. And what matters to them is that both young people and old people begin to know the charm of the art form, kuaiban, which may not be paid much attention to, compared to other traditional art forms.

Folk art forms, like xiangsheng, pingshu and kuaiban, share something in common. These traditional art forms show the beauty and value of traditional Chinese culture so they should be known by more people and get to more areas. Luckily, through the Internet, new performers who go on sharing kuaiban pieces, like Liu and Wan are playing an active role. Hopefully these Chinese folk art forms will be alive with the times.

Parents of children away at college often worry about how their children are dealing with their life. Are they eating properly? Are they getting enough exercise? According to a new study, these worries may not be completely wrong. Meg Small, a researcher, says that only one third of college students have a healthy diet.

Fortunately, according to the research, students seem to be healthier on the days when they communicate with their parents. Students at a large USA university were asked to complete some surveys. The surveys included questions about how much time students spent talking to their parents and questions about their eating habits and activity levels.

During the two-week survey, it was found that they ate 14% more fruit and vegetables, and were 50% more likely to take part in at least 30 minutes of sports or activities on the days when they communicated with their parents for 30 minutes or more.

Meg Small believes that some parents may directly remind their children to eat better foods and take part in activities, but it is also suggested that even if healthy living was not discussed, the very act of having communicated with their parents can be enough to encourage them to make healthier choices and take better care of themselves.

This study suggests that the more parents communicate with their children, the healthier lifestyles their children will lead. However, it is equally important to get a balance. By calling too often, parents may quite easily appear to distrust their children, while calling too little, or not at all, sends the message that they do not care.