Books are our best friends. They are very quiet, but we can always find both fun and knowledge once we open them. Here are some good books you can read during the holiday.

The Little Prince.

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupery [French writer].

Both adults and children love this book. It is about the adventures（历险记）of a young prince and shows people the importance of innocence（纯真）, imagination and love.

A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Author: Bill Bryson [American writer].

Unlike Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, this book is funny and much easier to read. It is a clear introduction to the development of the universe（宇宙）and human history.

To Succeed on One’s Own.

Author: Liu Yong [American writer].

The book offers solutions to young people who want to succeed. It teaches you about the relationship with your teacher, how to use your free time and even how to dress. To Succeed on One’s Own answers many questions that teenagers have today.

You must have seen someone pour milk foam （泡沫） into a coffee to create beautiful patterns. But have you seen this art in a cup of tea?

Dian cha is a tea art from the Song Dynasty 960-1279. People pour water over powdered （粉状的） tea to create a paste （糊）. Then they add more hot water and keep whisking （搅拌） it. It is believed that the art later spread to other parts of East Asia, including Japan. In 2019, it was listed as an ICH （非物质文化遗产） of Runzhou district, Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province. Han Zheming is a well-known master of it.

Under his mother’s influence, he fell in love with the culture of the Song Dynasty when he was very young. In 2006, Han began learning more about tea culture of the dynasty and later tried to bring the art of dian cha to life. Over the past six years, the 40-year-old has created nearly 200 patterns according to ancient paintings. He said that the froth （泡沫） looks like paper while the tea paste is like ink. But “drawing” on the tea foam is not easy. Creating patterns in tea foam is careful but quick work. Usually, it’s best to finish it within 10 minutes. When the tea is around 40°C, it’s perfect to draw on.

To spread dian cha culture. Han also posts videos of dian cha on social media platforms, including Bilibili and Douyin. Some of his videos have got more than 30000 views. Han became more widely-known around the world.

Chinese traditional painting and dance are two important parts of the art world. But what about when they meet each other?

A dance drama called The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting was shown on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala. It became popular overnight.

According to CCTV, this dance got the idea from the 900-year-old Chinese painting—A Panoruma of Rivers and Mountains （《千里江山图》）, which was created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng when he was about 18 years old.

A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains is the only extant（尚存的）work by Wang. Now the painting is at the Palace Museum. It has been on show to the public only four times since 1949. The 11.9-meter-long painting records people’s lives and the natural scenery（景色）including mountains, rivers and villages of that time.

The dance show tells the story of a researcher who has worked hard to study the painting. By chance, the researcher travels back in time to see the moment when Wang was about to finish the work. As the painting was finished, the researcher guides the audience（观众）into the world of the painter. The dance show provides the audience with a new experience to better learn about the work. It shows the process of how painting is done.

The dancers each had a different hairstyle, which looked like a mountain rock. The clothes that they wore were color of green and blue, which is also poetic show of the mountains and rivers. When the dancers danced beautifully, the audience seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. Huge mountains and rivers are coming to life! More than a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still wow people as they did long ago.

In recent years, more and more modern shows with Chinese traditional culture have received a warm welcome, especially among young people. They show great love to Chinese culture and are proud of it.