For a boy from the countryside, a dream job could be anything except（除了） coming back to work in his village. But Jiang Jiaren came back to his village when he finished college. 

Zhuliu village is in Yantai, Shandong Province（省）. Jiang opens an art school there. To help develop（发展）, he decided to paint the village walls with different themes（主题）. He thought it was helpful in bringing in visitors. It was not an easy job. So he asked his classmates for help. They worked together and started painting in June. It took about two months to finish the work. 

Now more than 8, 000 m² of walls in the village are painted with different themes. You can see Spirited Away（《千与千寻》）, My Neighbor Totoro（《龙猫》） and many cartoon pictures there. 

"I don't know what our village's future will be, but I will do my best to make it a better place, "Jiang says. His hard work gets a good result. Zhuliu village is famous now. More than 200 visitors come to take pictures of the village every day. Many visitors say the paintings are amazing. They bring them back to their childhood. 

Thirty-Six Stratagems(计谋), which show our ancient Chinese wisdom, are our ancient culture treasure. And many of these stratagems can still be put into practice in many fields, such as war, politics, business and even daily life. The following are four of them. Let's enjoy the charm of our traditional culture.

As Xiong Chuanfa, 34, blew a lifelike puppy out of molten maltose(溶化的麦芽糖) in just minutes, kids looked carefully at him with great surprise, thinking he was a magician.

Xiong Chuanfa has been working on blowing sugar figurines, a Chinese traditional folk art with a history of over 600 years, for more than twenty years.

In this special art form, the artist heats the syrup(糖浆) to a certain temperature, pulls off a small amount, makes it into a ball with an open center, presses the open area together and stretches it to form a tube. Then he blows air into the tube and makes it into different shapes. The traditional folk art has been listed as a state-level intangible cultural heritage(非物质文化遗产).

Every morning, Xiong prepares the molten syrup and drives to start his "magic show" around his city. "Many people, particularly kids, are attracted by this sugar art. After all, the ancient art is gradually disappearing," Xiong said. Simon, from Australia, was attracted by a sugar Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in Xiong's stall. Simon couldn't resist trying to make one himself. However, he couldn't get the wanted shape though he tried several times. "It looks simple, but actually it's very difficult to master the skill," he said. Thanks to Xiong's helping hand, Siunon finally saw a horse gradually taking shape. "Can't believe I've done this," he said, expressing his excitement at how a pot of sugar syrup has been turned into something "truly amazing".

Xiong said that blowing sugar figurines can date back to the Ming Dynasty and that his family has passed down this art for four generations. "My 6-year-old son often blows up a balloon-like sugar figure, just like I used to do as a child," he said. Xiong's wife Wang Li is an artist of the sugar painting, which is a form of traditional Chinese folk art that uses hot, liquid sugar to make 2-D objects.

"None of the cultural heritage left by our ancestors should be lost. They are name cards of the splendid Chinese culture and should be spread around the world," Xiong said. The couple often show their skills beside colleges to draw youngsters closer to the traditional art and allow them to experience its charm. "Sugar paintings and sugar figurines are childhood memories of several generations of Chinese people. We try to combine paper-cutting skills and modern elements(元素) with sugar figurines, making them similar to modern trend(趋势) while keeping a balance between beauty and taste. We will spend the rest of our lives helping pass on this intangible heritage," Xiong said.

Many people were deeply moved after learning about the family's story.

The willow branch (柳树枝) is a part of the willow tree. In ancient China, willow branches were often used as a parting gift between friends and family  (member). Even today, willow branches  (mention) in many cases as a symbol of saying goodbye. Do you know ?

One reason is that willow trees are strong. They can live  (easy) in any place, wet or dry, north or south. Because of this, giving a willow branch to say goodbye to loved ones is a way to tell them you hope they will get used to  (they) new living environment.

For another reason, the pronunciation for the willow tree "liu (柳)" is similar  the character "liu (留)" in Chinese, which means inviting someone  (stay) —only the tones are different. So  (offer) a willow branch means asking the other party to live for a longer time, even though we 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  common place to say goodbye. People often  (stop) there and handed willow branches to people who were leaving.

（例如： My mother often go shopping on weekends.         go →goes）