▲Dancers perform during a Chinese New Year celebration in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan 27, alongside an intangible cultural heritage exhibition there. XINHUACOLOMBO — The opening gala for the 2026Happy Chinese New Yearcultural events in Sri Lanka was held last week at the Nelum Pokuna Th...

▲Numan Pekgoz (front), a Turkish tai chi master, demonstrates the martial art form to students in a studio in Ankara, Turkiye, this month. MUSTAFA KAYA/XINHUAANKARA — A growing number of urban Turks are turning totai chi, with practitioners and instructors citing stress relief and rising int...

▲He Dehua (second from left) arranges recording equipment in a park in Lijiang ancient town, Southwest China's Yunnan province.[Photo by Gao Yongwei/Wang Guansen/Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua]In a quiet alley of Lijiang ancient town in Yunnan province, the air once filled with the lively calls of s...

▲British musical actor John Owen-Jones (C) performs at the concert titled "Unmasked" at Hangzhou Golden Sands Lake Grand Theater in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 15, 2026. (Hangzhou Golden Sands Lake Grand Theater/Handout via Xinhua)by Xinhua writers Ji Hang, Zhao Jia...

▲Azerbaijani Ravanov Eldar, also known as He Yan, competes in a regional preliminary round of the storytelling contest of the 2025"Chinese Bridge" competition, in Tianjin, in April. XINHUAIn Azerbaijani, fire embodies the spirit of the land, while the Chinese character for fire, yan, evok...

▲Thomas Vriens practices tai chi on Wudang Mountain in Shiyan, Hubei province. [Photo provided to China Daily]"You have to imagine your feet are rooted in the ground like a tree," said Thomas Vriens, a 24-year-old Dutch musician studying Taoist culture on Wudang Mountain in Shiyan, Hubei...