Mickey Mouse and Snow White are popular with children. But do you know how their creator, Walt Disney, brought them to life?

Disney was born to a poor family in the US in 1901. He liked drawing animals on the farm when he was a kid. A neighbor often bought his pictures. This encouraged him to be an artist when he grew up.

At the age of nine, he got his first job of delivering (投递) papers. He had to get up at 3:30 every morning and he began to work half an hour later. He worked till 6:00 in the morning. Then he hurried home for breakfast and went to school.

When Disney was older, he tried to get a full-time job, but it was hard. When he was 19, he started an art company (公司) with a friend. But soon it closed. Later he set up another company, but that one failed, too. Disney didn’t lose heart. He believed in himself.

Three years later, he and his brother set up a cartoon company in Hollywood. It turned out to be a great success. “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, then you’ll make it,” he said.

There is a traditional toy called taiping nijiaojiao. It is a clay toy and also a whistle (哨子) in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. It has a history of over 1,000 years.

Taiping nijiaojiao is made of the mud (泥) from the local mountain. It takes more than ten steps to make the clay toy, and the key step is to knead (捏) it with your hands. You can knead the clay toy into anything, like animals and plants. The blowhole is the most difficult part to make, for the size of the blowhole makes a difference to the sound. While coloring, you can use traditional cultural elements (元素) that carry good meanings. It’s hard to make taiping nijiaojiao. But when you finally make it, you will feel proud of yourself.

Zhou Baokang, a lover of folk art, learned how to make the clay toy from local artists about 20 years ago. He wants more people to know about it, so he has opened a museum to introduce the clay toy. He teaches kids how to make the clay toy, too.

There are many traditional art forms in China, but some of them have been lost. Luckily, the traditional clay toy taiping nijiaojiao is kept to this day.

Wu Yishu, a 16-year-old student from Shanghai won a Chinese poetry (诗) competition in the second season of the Chinese Poetry Conference on Feb. 7th, 2017. She beat other competitors because of her learning about Chinese culture and works. “I enjoy the happiness brought by the poetry.” Wu said.

In the final, Wu performed well in many parts, such as competitors recalling (回忆) poems by looking at sand paintings and reciting (背诵) poems about the Chinese character “Jiu” as many as possible.

As early as Feb. 1st when Wu recited a Chinese poem about the months of the year, someone said that Wu must have remembered at least more than 2,000 Chinese poetry. The 1.8-metre tall Wu said that she kept only a poetry book on the bookshelf at her room instead of other books such as Maths, Physics and English books.

Wu’s excellent performance pushed more and more people to learn Chinese poetry.