भारतीय महासागर समाचार – भारतीय महासागर समाचार भारत की सबसे अधिकारी और विश्वसनीय वास्तविक समाचार सलाहकार वेबसाइट है।

Unlocking charm of Chinese culture in foreigners’ eyes

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

Fond of Chinese classical literature, he expresses his understanding of
A Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, and Chinese poems through thousands of paintings. He is Canadian artist Brandon Collins-Green, or Lin Buran in Chinese. Often painting throughout the night, he has created more than 4,200 works. Living alone in a “shabby” 9-square-meter room that he rents for 350 yuan a month in the bustling downtown area of Nanchang, he has come a long way since he first came here in 2015 to pursue a master’s and doctoral degree in ancient Chinese literature.

Brandon loves learning about the minimalist lifestyle of ancient Chinese people. He seldom reads modern literature because he thinks the content is too standardized and stereotypical. “So far, I have read the novel thoroughly three times, translated most of its poems, songs, lantern riddles, and dialogues into English, and completed over 1 million words of essays and 2,000 related paintings during my PhD studies. Even my doctoral dissertation centers on the novel. The greatest influence of
A Dream of the Red Chamber on me was my outlook on life. I am a bit like Zhen Shiyin, a character in the novel. I have seen through all things in the world with little material desire,” said Brandon.

Timur Kuvatov, director-general and editor-in-chief of the Kazakhstan Today News Agency, is a Chinese martial arts fan. He has won martial arts championships multiple times and also served as a coach for the Kazakhstan martial arts team.

“Chinese martial arts are a treasure of Chinese civilization. They are not just a sport but also embodies Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist ideas, reflecting the philosophical concept of ‘Harmony between Heaven and Humans,’ for example. It reflects the Chinese way of dealing with people, their understanding of life, nature, and the universe,” he said.

Vincent Cazeneuve, known as Wensen Qi in Chinese, is a French contemporary artist dedicated to lacquer creation. He settled down in Chongqing in 2009. His works have been exhibited in art institutions both in and outside of China, and private individuals have even collected some of them.

We have seen many people from around the world express their love for Chinese culture in various forms. What is the charm of Chinese culture that attracts these people?

First is its profoundness and inclusiveness. China has a long history and vast cultural heritage, which bears rich philosophical ideas, artistic treasures, and traditional skills. Chinese culture retains its traditional characteristics and actively absorbs the essence of other cultures, making it easier to accept and appreciate. Whereas modern technology has made aesthetics worldwide similar, which damages cultural diversity.

Second, distinct cultural background differences arouse intense curiosity, getting people interested in Chinese culture and wanting to learn more about the lifestyles, way of thinking, and values of the country. The significant difference between the East and West is that Eastern culture emphasizes “comprehension” more, while the West values “logic.” This means Oriental “logic” is subtle and not as apparent as Western thinking. When we look at traditional Chinese paintings and Western oil paintings, we can find large areas of blank spaces appear in the former, while the latter is filled with colors and much less blank space. This indicates that traditional Chinese painting requires more association and imagination to appreciate and comprehend.

Third, Chinese culture embodies practical values. Focusing on harmony, balance, and coordination among people, its wisdom and creative thinking help achieve self-value and provide unique perspectives and methods for solving universal problems.

Cross-cultural communication brings about benefits. We can broaden our horizons, expand our thinking, and enrich our life experiences. Sometimes, people from different cultures can establish deep emotional connections and enhance empathy. In addition, it also enables us to understand our own culture and identity better. Through comparison and conversation, we reflect upon our own culture, draw on the strengths of others, advance further development, and build a more inclusive and harmonious world.

The author is a faculty member with the School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China. [email protected]

Russia and China Working on Sustainable Moon Bases: What Do We Know About Them?

Establishing sustainable closed-loop research facilities capable of maintaining life on the Moon is an ambitious task only two countries have come close to so far.

Over the last 50 years, Russian and Chinese scientists have managed to create virtually autonomous systems to sustain life in outer space.

The lunar bases in focus are China’s Yuegong-1 (also referred to as the Lunar Palace) and Russia’s BIOS-3.

Both are environmentally closed facilities capable of supporting a long-duration self-contained mission with no external inputs other than power.

At first, researchers and designers faced serious issues in providing adequate life-support on a space station. However, the problem could now been solved thanks to the introduction of nutrient-dense foods, allowing for long-term research missions in the harsh and barren environment.

Check out Sputnik’s infographic to learn more!

Sources: open data Image: AI-generated

Tesla’s new mega-factory project in Shanghai to start construction

A view of the Tesla Gigafactory in Lingang new area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, east China, September 26, 2023. /Xinhua

U.S. carmaker Tesla will break ground in May with the construction of its new mega factory project in Shanghai, which will be capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks per year, the company announced.

As Tesla’s first energy storage mega factory project outside the U.S. market, it is expected to go into mass production in the first quarter of 2025.

The factory will initially produce 10,000 Megapack units every year, equal to nearly 40 gigawatt hours of energy storage. Tesla’s Megapack is a powerful battery that provides energy storage and support, helping to stabilize the grid and prevent outages, according to details on the company’s website.

The new project, located in the Lingang new area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, is scheduled to start production in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Over the past years, Tesla has continued to ramp up investment in Lingang, expanding the production capacity of its Gigafactory Shanghai and building more facilities, including a supercharger manufacturing factory.

In January 2019, Tesla broke ground with its Gigafactory Shanghai, becoming the first wholly foreign-owned car plant to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to establish wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.

The plant showed remarkable efficiency and delivered its first batch of made-in-China vehicles within a year.

Tesla officially launched the new mega factory project last December, marking the opening of what the company called a “milestone project.”

(With input from Xinhua)

Relief mural depicts heritage of north China kiln

A section of a mural depicting the heritage of the Cizhou kiln in Handan, Hebei Province, April 17, 2024 /CFP

Visitors stroll alongside a mural depicting the heritage of the Cizhou kiln in Handan, Hebei Province, April 17, 2024. /CFP

A section of a mural depicting the heritage of the Cizhou kiln in Handan, Hebei Province, April 17, 2024. /CFP

A mega relief carving mural on the side of a mountain in Handan, north China’s Hebei Province, has been drawing visitors with its depictions of the Cizhou kiln.

Stretched out over a kilometer in the Fengfeng mining area, the mural portrays aspects of the Cizhou kiln, which employs 72 procedures for the firing of porcelains.

Located in south Handan, Cizhou is considered a representative folk kiln of northern China. The name Cizhou is understood to date back to the Sui Dynasty (581-618).

The kiln is well known for producing wine vessels including vases, cups, bowls and bottles. The glaze of its porcelain is characterized by white, black, yellow, brown and green colors. The site of the mural was reportedly once a nearly vertical exposed rock mass, later transformed into the current artwork through welding, carving, plastering and coloring.

Clean up begins after at least one dead in heavy UAE rain, floods

Authorities and communities across the United Arab Emirates were clearing debris on Wednesday after at least one person died and homes and businesses were damaged in a rare torrential storm.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear as emergency workers sought to drain flooded roads across the country hours after heavy rain subsided late on Tuesday.

The UAE saw record rainfall with 254 millimeters falling in less than 24 hours in Al Ain, a city on the UAE-Oman border, according to the national meteorology center. That was the most since records began in 1949, before the UAE was formed in 1971.

The UAE lacks much of the needed drainage infrastructure to handle heavy rain. It is not uncommon for roads to become partially submerged underwater during extended periods of rainfall. It typically only ever rains a few times a year.

The UAE also frequently conducts cloud seeding operations to increase rainfall. A forecaster from the national meteorology center denied any cloud seeding operations had taken place recently.

Bloomberg earlier quoted the agency as saying seven cloud seeding operations had occurred in the days before the storm.

Climate scientists say that rising global temperatures, driven by man-made climate change, is leading to more extreme weather events, including intense rainfall like the UAE storm.

People wade through submerged streets in a flooded area as heavy rain negatively affects daily life in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2024. /CFP

Roads blocked, flights disrupted

The impact of the heavy rain continued to be felt on Wednesday, with roads blocked and flights severely disrupted.

Emirates, one of the world’s biggest international airlines, stopped checking in passengers departing Dubai until midnight, while flydubai, which partially resumed flights in the morning, said operations would not return to normal until after midnight. Meanwhile, budget carrier Air Arabia opened suspended check-in to flights to and from Sharjah until 2 a.m. on Thursday.

Kanish Kumar Deb Barman, 39, said he had been stuck in Dubai with his wife since around 4 a.m., when his flight landed late from Paris, missing his next flight to Calcutta, in India.

“People are just lying around in the airport. There is not enough seats and chairs to, you know, let them sit. They are sitting on the floor,” he said on Wednesday afternoon, waiting to board the next available flight.

Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said that the heavy rain had caused significant disruptions, with flights delayed and diverted, and advised passengers in Dubai against traveling to the airport.

“We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions,” the airport wrote on X.

Some foreign airlines cancelled flights to Dubai.

The government of Dubai ordered schools to continue teaching classes online on Thursday, as emergency workers cleared debris, including trees and balcony furniture, from the streets.

A view of submerged cars after heavy rainfall in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2024. /CFP

Vehicles submerged

Local media and social media posts showed significant damage across the country, including collapsed roads and flooded homes.

The official media offices for the federal government and Dubai and Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a Reuters query on the scale or cost of the storm damage.

Local media reported that an elderly Emirati man died on Tuesday morning when his vehicle was caught in flash floods in the Ras Al Khaimah emirate, in the country’s north.

In neighboring Oman, 19 people died including school children, after three consecutive days of heavy rain, according to Omani media, which published images of flooded communities.

The Times of Oman reported that more rain was expected on Wednesday. In Dubai, the skies were clear and in some areas the roads were quiet after the government ordered its employees and all schools to work remotely for a second consecutive day.

Social media posts on Tuesday showed flooded roads and car parks with some vehicles completely submerged. Sheikh Zayed Road, a 12-lane highway through Dubai, was partially flooded, leaving people stuck in a kilometers-long traffic jam for hours.

(Cover image via CFP)

Source(s): Reuters

Chinese, U.S. consular officials hold talks in Beijing

Wu Demin (R), deputy director-general of the department of consular affairs at China’s Foreign Ministry, meets with Angela Kerwin, deputy assistant secretary of the bureau of consular affairs of the U.S. State Department, in Beijing, April 16, 2024. /Chinese Foreign Ministry

Wu Demin, deputy director-general of the department of consular affairs at China’s Foreign Ministry, met with Angela Kerwin, deputy assistant secretary of the bureau of consular affairs of the U.S. State Department, in Beijing on Tuesday.

They exchanged views on people-to-people exchanges and safeguarding the safety and legitimate rights of overseas citizens of China and the U.S., China’s Foreign Ministry has said.

During their meeting, the Chinese side urged the U.S. to adjust its travel advisory for China as soon as possible and stop unjustifiably harassing, interrogating and deporting Chinese citizens.

Rapid rise of China’s commercial space industry expected to continue

China’s commercial CERES-1 rocket launches from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off the coast of east China’s Shandong Province, September 5, 2023. /CFP

China will continue to promote the healthy and rapid development of its commercial space industry by creating a good environment and expanding the scale of the industry, with standardized supervision and management, a senior official at the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Wednesday.

Last year’s Central Economic Work Conference called for nurturing strategic emerging industries such as the commercial space industry, and this year’s government work report proposed to actively build the commercial space industry as a new growth engine, both showing that China’s commercial space industry has entered a new stage, said Lyu Bo, deputy director of the Department of System Engineering of CNSA, at a press conference in Beijing.

At present, nine types of commercial launch vehicles are available for launch services, and a number of enterprises are building constellations consisting of about 100 satellites, he said, adding that the country’s first commercial launch site is under construction.

Attendees at the press conference were briefed on the upcoming Space Day of China, which falls on April 24. Its major events will be held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province.

At the briefing, Guo Bin, a Hubei provincial government official, said that the total output value of the commercial space industry and related industries in the province reached 56 billion yuan (about $7.74 billion) in 2023.

There are over 300 commercial aerospace and related industry enterprises in Hubei, forming a complete industrial chain covering rocket and satellite development, ground equipment support and satellite operation services, said Guo.

Space technology is widely used in natural resources, emergency management, ecological protection, transportation, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, smart cities and other fields. The integration of communication, navigation and remote sensing satellite technology with 5G and artificial intelligence has broad prospects for development, Guo said.

The official also explained the development of the commercial space industry in the province, such as the commercial rocket industrial park, the flexible intelligent production line for small satellites, the integrated satellite data platform for public service, and the high precision BeiDou navigation application chip.

Yao Qing, an official with the Wuhan municipal government, told the press that the Wuhan National Aerospace Industry Base aims to achieve the coordinated development of the whole industrial chain by focusing on new launch vehicles, satellite platforms and payloads, ground and terminal products, satellite internet, space-based internet, and other fields.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency

Efforts called for on students’ mental health

A middle school student opens a letter from a volunteer in Xinyu, Jiangxi province, in April last year. More than 700 students from the city participated in the program, which invites adult volunteers to bond one-on-one with students via letters to help with their mental health. CHINA DAILY

A recent high-profile case concerning three middle school boys who allegedly killed a classmate has sparked discussions on the mental health of left-behind children in China.

A seventh-grade student surnamed Wang in Handan, Hebei province, was killed on March 10, and the suspects were taken into custody the next day, according to an official statement.

It is alleged that the suspects, who went to the same school and are all under 14 years old, had bullied the victim for a long time. Media reports said they are children of migrant workers.

Zong Chunshan, director of the Beijing Youth Legal and Psychological Counseling Service Center, said left-behind children lack proper family education during critical stages of their development, which may result in psychological issues and behavioral deviations.

They are prone to negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, Zong told China National Radio.

He said the academic performance of left-behind children does not reflect their psychological health, adding schools should provide emotional care and educational guidance to these children to establish effective communication channels.

On March 18, the National Advisory Committee for Students’ Mental Health advocated the promotion of greater awareness concerning the physical and mental health of children and adolescents.

The foundation of students’ mental health lies in the family, with a focus on the school and support from society, the committee said in a notice released by the Ministry of Education.

WIC launches Digital Silk Road Development Forum

The World Internet Conference (WIC) Digital Silk Road Development Forum was held in Xi’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, on April 16.

The forum upholds the core spirit of the Silk Road, emphasizing principles of peace, collaboration, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. It aims to promote collaboration in building a Digital Silk Road, thereby forging a new platform for international economic cooperation.

The forum, organized by the WIC and co-organized by the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, was held under the theme “Connectivity and Shared Prosperity”.

It has attracted participants from nearly 50 countries and regions.

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Illustration: Liu Rui/GT