In a small town, there lived a girl named Xiaoyan. She has a pair of bright eyes, and smiles like the sunshine in spring, which makes people intoxicated. However, her fate is doomed to be extraordinary.

Xiaoyan was born in a patriarchal family and was neglected by her parents since she was a child. Her existence seems to be a burden to her family, and her dreams and hopes are ruthlessly deprived. However, she didn’t give up. She tried to change her destiny with her own hands.

Xiaoyan’s first love happened in high school. She fell in love with a boy named Xiaoming in her class. Xiao Ming is sunny and handsome, and he is the master of his class. Xiaoyan watched him silently and gave everything for him. However, when Xiao Ming knew Xiaoyan’s family background, he chose to leave. He is afraid of being dragged down by Xiaoyan’s family. What he wants is a partner who can walk side by side with him, not a poor person who needs his rescue.

Xiaoyan, who is lovelorn, understands a truth in tears: the first commonality of women is tenacity. No matter how much suffering life gives them, they can stick to it and find their own light.

Xiaoyan met a boy named Xiaogang when she was in college. Xiaogang is a warm person. He knows how to care for Xiaoyan and take care of her. They spent many wonderful times together. However, when Xiaoyan took Xiaogang home to meet her parents, she was strongly opposed by her parents. They think Xiao Gang’s family condition is not good enough for their daughter. Xiaoyan was caught in a painful choice: whether to listen to her parents or stick to her love?

At this critical moment, Xiaoyan realized that the second commonality of women is sacrifice. They are willing to give up everything for love, including family, friends and even their own lives.

Xiaoyan finally chose love. She left her hometown with Xiaogang and came to a strange city. They worked hard together and spent many difficult days together. However, fate played tricks on them again. Xiaogang was injured in an accident, resulting in disability. Faced with the burden of life, Xiaoyan did not choose to leave, but chose to tide over the difficulties with Xiaogang. She used her shoulders to support this family and Xiao Gang’s hope.

Accompanied by Xiaoyan, Xiaogang gradually stepped out of the shadows. Together, they opened a small shop and lived a quiet life. At this time, Xiaoyan understood the third commonality of women, that is, guardianship. They are willing to protect their lives for their loved ones, with no regrets.

Time flies, Xiaoyan has changed from an ignorant girl to a strong woman. With her own story, she told the world three commonalities of women: tenacity, sacrifice and guardianship. She also used her own stories to make those who look down on women understand the greatness of women.

In this world, every woman is a treasure, waiting for the discovery of a willing heart. What men need to do is to understand these three commonalities of women, cherish them and love them. Only in this way can the flower of love bloom forever.

Source: Modern Express Full Media

[AI learning "class representative"]

江苏省南京市栖霞区文化馆副馆长 吴艳：

文化是一个国家、一个民族的灵魂。

本期金句，一起来学习。

【本期金句】

我们要坚持马克思主义在意识形态领域指导地位的根本制度，坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务，坚持百花齐放、百家争鸣，坚持创造性转化、创新性发展，以社会主义核心价值观为引领，发展社会主义先进文化，弘扬革命文化，传承中华优秀传统文化，满足人民日益增长的精神文化需求，巩固全党全国各族人民团结奋斗的共同思想基础，不断提升国家文化软实力和中华文化影响力。

——习近平2022年10月16日在党的二十大上的报告

【多学一点】

习近平总书记强调，文化自信是更基础、更广泛、更深厚的自信，是一个国家、一个民族发展中最基本、最深沉、最持久的力量；坚定中国特色社会主义道路自信、理论自信、制度自信，说到底是要坚定文化自信。

【学习感悟】

作为基层文化工作者，传承中华传统文化精髓，是我们义不容辞的责任。我们要不断深化对文化建设的规律性认识，切实把中华优秀传统文化传承好发展好。

出品江苏省习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心

制作现代快报+

（校对 张静超 周露）

Looking back, China has a long history of more than 5,000 years. Under the background of globalization, with the continuous promotion of the construction of "the belt and road initiative", China has been devoting itself to the construction of Community of Shared Future for Mankind, telling the story of China well, making the world realize the charm of China culture, and realizing the effective cross-cultural communication of Chinese excellent traditional culture in the big garden of world culture. With the continuous development of internationalization, cultural communication has become one of the important ways for a country to develop continuously in the world. So how to spread China culture and traditional values of China widely in the world has become an important issue in China’s cultural export. Telling the story of China to the world is a very effective way to spread China culture to the outside world.

What exactly is Chinese excellent traditional culture? Some people think that China’s excellent traditional culture is the figurative culture of four books and five classics, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, Chinese martial arts, national costumes and folk customs handed down from ancient China. However, China’s excellent traditional culture not only includes these figurative cultural contents, but also some intangible cultural heritages that we recognize, which bear the excellent traditional culture of China. Chinese traditional culture embodies the creative source of the essence of Chinese civilization and carries the synthesis of moral inheritance, various cultural ideas and spiritual concepts in national history. It includes both material and institutional levels, as well as conceptual levels. Promoting the construction of a strong socialist culture is one of the important aspects to enhance the soft power of the country’s culture, and it is through inheriting and carrying forward China’s outstanding traditional culture. China’s outstanding traditional culture is the foundation and soul of the Chinese nation. With its profound ideological connotation, rich moral connotation and profound value concept, it is of great practical significance to China’s contemporary social and economic construction, political life, cultural construction and all-round development of people. "Generations of Chinese sons and daughters have cultivated and developed a unique and profound Chinese culture, which has provided a strong spiritual support for the Chinese nation to overcome difficulties and live endlessly." In the long history, the reason why the Chinese nation can become a great nation, stand among the nations of the world, and become more frustrated and brave after suffering is that it has nurtured and developed a unique and profound Chinese culture.It has provided strong spiritual support and rich cultural nourishment for its own development.

Cross-cultural communication is a very important research field in communication science. Cross-cultural communication refers to interpersonal communication and information dissemination activities between members of society under different cultural backgrounds. At present, with the continuous development of scientific and technological progress, cross-cultural communication can effectively promote cultural exchanges between countries.

If you want to tell a good story about China, it is important to know who will tell a good story about China. The cultivation of intercultural communicative competence can be said to be the ultimate goal of foreign language teaching. With the help of foreign language classroom teaching, it is undoubtedly a good choice to tell the story of China. Pay attention to knowledge transmission, value shaping and ability training, and cultivate international talents with China feelings. Such talents should be familiar with China’s national conditions, have an international perspective, have a solid theoretical knowledge, and have relevant translation skills. At the same time, they also have different countries’ historical and cultural knowledge backgrounds, so that they can adjust their strategies for spreading China’s stories in the case of different national audiences’ different reactions.

Knowledge transfer. In the process of foreign language teaching, we should pay attention to the teaching of culture. We should not only export our excellent local traditional culture to students, but also let students know about western culture, other countries’ languages and habits. Only in this way can we promote the integration of China and the West in the process of teaching and better let the West understand our culture. In the teaching process, we should respect the cultural differences between China and foreign countries, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, adjust their lecture contents according to different students, different places and local conditions, so that the audience countries can better understand China culture. In the course of teaching, we can convey our spiritual connotation to the west through some traditional stories and some contemporary stories. In the process of imparting knowledge, we should not only cultivate students’ ability of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, but more importantly, let students know the cultural background of the two countries, so that students can better communicate across cultures and become disseminators of Chinese culture. Teachers encourage learners to know more about China culture, help students build up cultural self-confidence and remove barriers to communication between different countries, thus contributing to the development of the two countries.

Value shaping. Everyone in China is deeply influenced by Chinese excellent traditional culture in the process of growth and study. In the hearts of every China people, there is a broad value consensus and common value pursuit, that is, socialist core values. This is our action guide and value core, and it is our ideological engine to realize the great rejuvenation dream of the Chinese nation. With the continuous progress of the times, our country has different development connotations in each period. In today’s era, socialist core values are more conducive to social development and can encourage people to develop better. We should combine the requirements of the times and vigorously carry forward socialist core values. Foreign language teaching plays an important strategic role in cultivating and practicing socialist core values. In our foreign language class, we should also establish students’ core values, integrate socialist core values with Chinese traditional culture, and tell stories that belong to our China in the process of teaching foreign languages.

Ability training. The first thing we should do is to improve the translation ability of foreign language talents. A foreign language is the best medium to tell a good story about China and convey the good voice of China. Communication is not only a form of spreading cultural pictures, but also a factory of cultural production. Telling a good story is not a one-way output, but an exchange between the two sides. The narrator tells a good story about China, and the listener can understand the connotation behind the story. This requires students to have the ability of cross-cultural communication. Can tell the good story of China in a way that is easier for international audiences to understand. When translating language expressions with China characteristics, we should learn to use terms that are in line with China’s national conditions. Foreign language students need to systematically learn cross-cultural knowledge, make reasonable translation based on cultural background, cultivate their cross-cultural literacy, and truly spread Chinese excellent traditional culture in cross-cultural context. Secondly, it is necessary to cultivate students’ ability to select and disseminate China cultural translation materials. Chinese culture has a long history and is profound, and there are many good stories to tell. So what kind of story to choose and how to teach it is a very challenging problem. Cultural content in translation selection is the main content we want to spread abroad. So how do we choose the right materials in the vast sea of literature? First of all, we should preserve the characteristics of China culture and select materials that can represent China culture. Chinese culture has traditional core values. Such as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faithfulness, these China cultures are fundamentally different from other western cultures.China’s ancient philosophy and wisdom are also worthy of our consideration, which is also one of our very good materials. Therefore, when selecting materials for translation, the first thing we should do is that any material selection should not be divorced from China’s traditional core values, and we should choose a good story that best represents China’s characteristics and has the significance of external communication. Finally, it is necessary to improve the oral interaction ability of foreign language majors. To spread Chinese excellent traditional culture under the cross-cultural background, we must learn to use reasonable international expressions. Compared with one-way communication such as media and newspapers, personal cultural communication involves two-way communication between the narrator and the listener. Therefore, it is particularly important to improve students’ oral English expression ability, and good oral English expression can improve the effect of foreign communication of Chinese excellent traditional culture. Teachers should be good at stimulating students’ interest in speaking foreign languages, encouraging students to find opportunities to speak foreign languages, praising students’ progress in time and improving their self-confidence. Cultivate students’ awareness of foreign language culture, introduce students to the customs and humanistic environment of foreign societies, and create a good contextual foundation for students.

One of the carriers of cultural communication-Confucius Institute. Confucius Institute is the most representative China language and culture promotion organization that tells the story of China to the world. Under the new period and background, China is constantly glowing with new vitality. As an important way to export culture to the outside world, Confucius Institute shoulders great responsibilities and missions. As one of the important channels of cultural exchange, the Confucius Institute must first ensure that it has a good brand influence and a high external reputation. Only in this way can we increase the sense of identity and confidence of foreign society in Confucius Institute. The Confucius Institute can hold a series of activities such as "Chinese Bridge". During the activities, the Confucius Institute can invite local teachers and students to visit China and hold a variety of cultural activities, such as experiencing local characteristics and holding a Chinese Bridge Cup competition to attract more students to learn Chinese. At the same time, the "New Sinology Program" can be held to attract young talents from various countries to study in China, so that they can study for doctoral degrees in humanities and social sciences in China, and study Sinology from the perspective of foreigners, so that they can go deep into their lives, feel China and appreciate the charm of China culture, so as to promote China culture and enhance the international status of China culture. Confucius Institute should have its own courses with China characteristics, and introduce courses with local characteristics according to local conditions and the actual conditions of different countries and regions. According to a survey, most people come to the Confucius Institute for the purpose of learning the Chinese language and understanding the history and culture of China. And learning the Chinese language,Some people want to learn spoken Chinese well and strengthen their daily communication with China people. Others are full of love for China’s calligraphy, and their main purpose is to learn China’s Chinese characters and culture. Therefore, we can carry out targeted teaching, mainly focusing on teaching the basic knowledge of Chinese, supplemented by oral courses, but some cultural courses with China characteristics can be mixed with them, and the knowledge of China history should be combined to make the courses more lively and interesting. Let German Chinese lovers learn the cultural knowledge they want to learn according to their own needs.

At present, the Confucius Institute has a good momentum of development abroad. In order to gain a foothold overseas in the future, localized development will be the best choice. In order to train more high-quality native Chinese teachers, the Confucius Institute can set up a special training fund to allow outstanding German native teachers and outstanding graduates who are willing to teach Chinese in the future to study in China. Set up special courses for them, improve their Chinese level and Chinese teaching ability, and train them to grow into excellent Chinese teachers in a short time. At the same time, the Confucius Institute can also carry out a cooperative school-running plan, fully tap the local German teacher resources, carry out targeted training, conduct small-scale high-intensity guidance, purposefully improve the Chinese language ability and teaching level of local German teaching resources, select experienced professional Chinese teachers from China, and train more German-speaking Chinese teachers through one-on-one assistance, so as to steadily promote the rapid development of the Confucius Institute in Germany. In the concrete implementation, we should also create a positive image of Confucius Institute in the mainstream media. We should pay attention to building a network platform in German local and neighboring countries, provide exchange services for local China cultural lovers, provide updated information on a regular basis, and realize the sharing of network resources. Through the network platform, we can strengthen the organization and management of Confucius Institute students, and provide characteristic online courses and study plans for Chinese learners in Germany, imitating the domestic learning model, so as to facilitate learners to choose their studies freely according to their hobbies and freely arranged time. Most importantly,We must strengthen cooperation with German local media, make positive reports on Confucius Institute with the help of local media, try our best to establish a good brand image of Confucius Institute, and strive to improve the brand competitiveness of Confucius Institute.

To sum up, the 5,000-year-old traditional culture is our cultural heritage, and the progress brought about by the reform and opening up is the foundation of our confidence. Concepts such as "the belt and road initiative" initiative and Community of Shared Future for Mankind have provided excellent conditions for us to develop Socialism with Chinese characteristics culture. Informatization and globalization are the development trends in today’s world, which puts new demands on the positioning of Confucius Institutes. Confucius Institutes should not only show their mission in combination with the current trends, but also shoulder the role of cultural diplomacy. They should not only position themselves as Chinese teaching and cultural communication institutions, but also consciously play their role in cultural diplomacy. With the continuous strengthening of China’s national strength, it is unstoppable for culture to go abroad. Telling the story of China well and making China’s voice resound through the world means that China’s international status is constantly strengthening. However, if we want to tell the story of China well, we need to dig out the good stories in China culture that can resonate with the world. At the same time, we should set up an excellent team with international vision and cross-cultural communication, deepen international cooperation with an international vision, strengthen research on the international market, optimize communication strategies, and spread the excellent traditional socialist culture with China characteristics to every corner of the world.

(Author: Dong Kun, lecturer of bohai university Foreign Studies University, doctoral student of European Civilization Institute of Tianjin Normal University; This paper is the research achievement of Hebei Social Science Fund Project [No.:HB21SL002]. )

Source: Guangming Net

How long has it been since you went to the beauty shop?

Li Si (a pseudonym), a white-collar worker in Shenzhen, was once the "iron powder" of the beauty collection shop. In the first two years when the beauty collection shop was the hottest, she went to the first colorist in Shenzhen with her friends to try on lipstick, punch in and take photos, and often visited chain brand stores like KKV and Jinliang Life.

"In the past two years, I really liked to visit Jinliang Life. It has a complete range of cosmeceuticals, and the decoration style is also my favorite ins style. There is also a tea partition, so I can have a rest when I am tired. But when I go again this year, I feel that skin care samples are not as many brands as before, and there are almost no people in the store. " Li Si said bluntly.

The depression of stores is not groundless. Recently, Jinliang Life announced that it will close all offline stores before December 31, 2022, focusing on online business. According to the notification letter provided by the online transmission supplier, Jinliang Life blamed the decision to close the store on the continuous impact of the epidemic.

It is reported that Jinliang Life is a beauty collection store brand founded by Steady Medical in 2019, with more than 2,000 products on the store shelves, covering skin care, make-up, fragrance, personal care, home cleaning and other categories. By the end of 2021, Jinliang lived in 10 stores all over the country.

The retreat of Jinliang’s life is just the epitome of the collective "flameout" of beauty collection stores. Since last year, the new beauty collection stores such as THECOLORIST Colorist, HAYDON Black Hole and KKV have closed down one after another to varying degrees, while the traditional head beauty collection stores Sasha, Watsons and Zhuo Yue have also suffered from sluggish performance and are deeply mired in business bottlenecks.

Can the wind of the beauty collection shop still blow?

The beauty cosmetics collection shop has a hard time.

Looking back on the past, the new and old beauty collection stores were once bustling and brilliant.

In 2019, the new beauty collection store quickly became popular with its high value, low price and complete categories, and brands such as HAYDON Black Hole, WOW COLOUR and Colorist set off a wave of queuing and punching. As early as the golden age of free travel in Hong Kong more than ten years ago, Zhuo Yue, Sasha and Watsons were important places for countless tour groups, purchasing agents and young consumers to buy cosmeceuticals.

Nowadays, the beauty collection store is undergoing a crisis of survival and closing the store again and again.

In May of this year, HAYDON Black Hole closed three stores successively; The number of WOW COLOUR stores has also been reduced from more than 300 at the peak to more than 100 today, and the number of stores has been folded.

In addition, KKV and colorist THE COLORIST continue to close stores. In the first half of 2021 alone, KKV has closed 44 franchisees, while THE COLORIST has closed 59 franchisees. According to the reporter of Time Weekly, THE COLORIST has three stores in Guangzhou, and the Wanlinghui store has been closed before.

On the other hand, Watsons, Salsa, Zhuo Yue and other traditional beauty collection stores can’t escape the fate of a sharp drop in performance.

According to the financial report for the first half of 2022, Watson’s China market sales were 9.685 billion Hong Kong dollars, down 17% year-on-year; Earnings before interest and tax achieved HK$ 623 million, down 60% year-on-year.

According to the financial report, in the six months to September 30, 2022, Sasha International’s turnover reached HK$ 1.55 billion, down 2.9% year-on-year, with a loss of HK$ 133 million during the period. Among them, the retail sales in mainland China dropped by 13.1% to HK$ 120 million.

In the financial report, Sasha attributed the decline in performance in China to the loss of stores, pointing out that during the reporting period, despite the closure of stores that recorded losses during the reporting period and efforts to reduce operating costs, the business in China was still dragged down, and the loss increased by 5.1% year-on-year to HK$ 44 million.

In terms of the number of stores, the number of Watsons stores decreased by 124 in the first half of this year. As of September 30, 2022, the total number of international retail stores in Shasha has decreased from 234 to 193, with the largest number of stores closed in mainland China, with 35 stores reduced and 42 remaining.

In addition to the decline in performance, stores are closed, and more traditional beauty collection stores are facing bankruptcy.

In April this year, Zhuo Yue released its annual report for fiscal year 2021, showing that the company achieved operating income of HK$ 627 million, up by 16.37% year-on-year, and the net loss attributable to the parent company was HK$ 208 million, down by 18.63% year-on-year. In June this year, Zhuo Yue officially announced the suspension of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; In September, Ye Junheng, the founder of Zhuo Yue, and his wife and son were also filed for bankruptcy by Fuying Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hongan Group.

The guest bill rate is worrying

The life of beauty collection stores is not easy, which is not unrelated to the "shrinking" of the domestic beauty retail market.

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the total retail sales of cosmetics from January to October this year was 308.4 billion yuan, down 2.8% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of total retail sales of cosmetics has been maintained at the lowest level in five years, and it has been declining for three consecutive months. This kind of pressure from retail terminals has become one of the "straws" to crush beauty collection stores.

Affected by the epidemic situation, the downward trend of offline consumption, changes in shopping channels and other factors, the passenger flow of beauty collection stores has been greatly reduced, and the conversion rate of customer orders has been further reduced. Making ends meet is also the cause of a large number of closure of beauty collection stores.

Yang Ping (pseudonym) has worked in Shasha for many years, and is currently engaged in sales planning in a new beauty collection store enterprise. She told the Times Weekly reporter that in the past, the problem of low conversion rate of beauty collection stores mainly existed in new beauty collection stores. Traditional beauty collection stores had a certain customer base and were still "able to withstand", but with the emergence of a large number of social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and domain bloggers in the past two years, and the rise of live broadcasts and short-sighted band goods, new and old beauty collection stores were separated by more than half of the customer lists online.

According to the data of Ai Media Consulting, the market size of China cosmetics industry will reach 455.3 billion yuan in 2021, and it is estimated that the market size of China cosmetics industry will reach 516.9 billion yuan in 2023. According to the survey data of Ai Media Consulting, 72.6% of consumers will buy cosmetics on the integrated e-commerce platform, and e-commerce will continue to be the main channel of major brands.

On the other hand, the homogeneity of the products sold and the lack of brand characteristics have also led to the collective "running" of beauty collection stores.

"Beauty collection stores like Sasha and Zhuo Yue mainly sell Japanese, Korean and European makeup. Compared with them, new beauty collection stores have more domestic brands of makeup. But even so, there are still too many identical products, and consumers are prone to aesthetic fatigue. There is no way to effectively stimulate consumption just by engaging in promotional offers. " Yang Ping explained.

Bai Yunhu, an expert in beauty management, said that there are some shortcomings in the "people’s goods yard" of today’s beauty offline collection stores, and there are still many problems in cultivating consumers’ minds, supply chain management and offline store scene design.

Beauty collection stores are collectively saving themselves.

HARMAY Huamei enhances its competitiveness by introducing new domestic brands such as Rose Manor, ChunShan Chunshan and East Beast from ANN’S ROSARY. WOW COLOUR will expand the diverse categories such as cosmetics, perfume, aromatherapy and toiletries on the basis of makeup and skin care, trying to open up the brand beauty product matrix; Watsons has continuously adjusted its store opening strategy, combined online shopping malls with offline stores, and started the O2O retail model by developing online operating tools such as WeChat official account, applets, and communities.

From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the beauty market still has room for improvement, and the beauty collection store is not desperate. In the face of the current predicament, how to regain the favor of consumers is the fundamental problem that beauty collection stores need to think carefully. (Time Weekly)