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Regional haze often occurs after the New Year holiday. To explore the characteristics of PM2.5 pollutions under the influence of the New Year's Day effect, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal changes relating to PM2.5 during and around the New Year's Day holiday in China from 2015 to 2022, and used the Weather Research and Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model to study the effects of human activities and meteorological factors on PM2.5 pollutions, as well as the differences in the contributions of different industries to PM2.5 pollutions. The results show that for the entire study period (i.e., before, during, and after the New Year's Day holiday) from 2015 to 2022, the average concentrations of PM2.5 in China decreased by 41.9% overall. In 2019~2022, the New Year's Day effect was significant, meaning that the average concentrations of PM2.5 increased by 18.9~46.8 μg/m3 from before to after the New Year's Day holiday, with its peak occurring (64.3~74.9 μg/m3) after the holiday. In terms of spatial differences, the average concentrations of PM2.5 were higher in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and central China. Moreover, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and its surrounding areas, the Chengdu–Chongqing region, the Fenwei Plain, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River region were greatly affected by the New Year's Day effect. Human activities led to higher increases in PM2.5 in Henan, Hubei, Hebei, and Anhui on 3 and 4 January 2022. If the haze was accompanied by cloudy days or weak precipitation, the accumulation of surface water vapor and atmospheric aerosols further increased the possibility of heavy pollution. It was found that, for the entire study period, PM2.5 generated by residential sources contributed the vast majority (60~100 μg/m3) of PM2.5 concentrations, and that the main industry sources that caused changes in time distributions were industrial and transportation sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the long-term implementation of air pollution control policies in northeast China, severe haze pollution continues to occur frequently. With the adoption of a megacity (Changchun) in northeast China, we analysed the vertical characteristics of aerosols and the causes of aerosol pollution throughout the year using multisource data for providing recommendations for controlling pollution events (i.e., straw burning and fireworks). Based on a ground-based LiDAR, it was found that the extinction coefficient (EC) of aerosols at a height of 300 m in Changchun was highest in winter (0.44 km−1), followed by summer (0.28 km−1), with significant differences from those in warmer regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta. Therefore, it is recommended that air pollution control policies be differentiated between winter and summer. On Chinese New Year's Eve in Changchun, the ignition of firecrackers during the day and night caused increases in the EC at a height of 500 m to 0.37 and 0.88 km−1, respectively. It is suggested that the regulation of firecracker ignition should be reduced during the day and strengthened at night. Based on the CALIPSO and backward trajectory analysis results, two events of dust–biomass-burning composite pollution were observed in March and April. In March, the primary aerosol component was dust from western Changchun, whereas in April, the main aerosol component was biomass-burning aerosols originating from northern and eastern Changchun. Hence, reducing the intensity of spring biomass burning can mitigate the occurrence of dust–biomass-burning composite pollution. These findings can provide emission policy suggestions for areas facing similar issues regarding biomass-burning transmission pollution and firework emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a political discourse analysis of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) narration of Taiwan through the cross-Strait epistolary series 'Letters to Taiwanese Compatriots' released between 1950 and 2019. This study aims to discern the PRC's intent for domestic and international communication in framing Taiwan's sovereignty into its own narrative using cultural, ideological, economic, and military appeals. In so doing, it explores the connection between storytelling, political communication, and military operations as evolving through the decades, starting with the cross-Strait crises of the 1950s, China's establishment of diplomatic relations with foreign countries in the 1970s and its global rise in the last three decades. In the final part, we will analyse the response and several New Year's addresses by Tsai Ing-wen between 2019 and 2022. This article unravels a crucial difference between the two sides of the Strait, crystallised in the fabrication of a dissimilar understanding of their respective historical, political, and cultural identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Lichun folk custom of greeting spring has been inherited in China for nearly two thousand years. Starting as an official sacrificial ritual, it has evolved during the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties into a national festival aimed at encouraging agricultural production, disaster prevention, and praying for a bountiful harvest, bringing joy and unity among the people, which further strengthened the emphasis on agriculture-based local education and national identity. As a category of woodblock New Year pictures, Chunniu New Year Pictures can be found in different origins. Chunniu New Year Pictures is a kind of New Year pictures used to predict the weather, crop harvest and other information in agricultural era. It is also called calendar picture because it is mostly printed next year’s solar term dates. Diverse images are not only the collective memory of the inheritance of Lichun folk custom, but also the inheritance and life practice of folkloric time-space concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Opuntia Brava is the property of Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas de Las Tunas, Centro de Documentacion e Informacion Pedagogica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the contradiction caused by the 'local new year' policy, that is, the conflict between the pandemic prevention policies and people's emotional demands during the Spring Festival, based on the normalisation of pandemic prevention and control. It focuses on the scientific logical relationship with the contradiction that people voluntarily support 'local new year', to explore the primary driving factors of their willingness. By evaluating the migrant workers in large cities, the primary influencing factors were screened, and the primary dynamic factors and their relationship were obtained using the Logit logical selection model and maximum-likelihood estimation. The study identified, 'whether social and entertainment activities are planned in migrant cities', as the primary driving factor, followed by 'whether there are relatives (elderly /children) at home', and 'contracting the infection during travel'. In view of this conclusion, this study further proposes corresponding policy suggestions: Relevant measures should be adopted according to different regions and the current situation of the pandemic in combination with the characteristics of the episodic and local nature of the pandemic. 'Local new year' is encouraged from the perspective of enriching people's emotional needs for spiritual entertainment and care. This study provides a new perspective and theoretical basis for the research and formulation of policies related to the normalisation of pandemic prevention and control in China and worldwide, and has a certain practical reference value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a model of the combination of nostalgia and creative products, ethnic cultural heritage carry the function of shaping and spreading geo-culture. Its unique geo-cultural context, as a link, shows the historical inheritance of local culture. The deep deconstruction of its emotional identity helps to strengthen this identity and stimulate more cultural and creative designs with national and local characteristics. While culture prospers, the local cultural and creative economy is strengthened and cultural confidence and national self-confidence are further enhanced. Based on the New Year paintings of Wuqiang in Hebei, which have a strong folk vernacular and geo-cultural character in northern China, in the process of using the reconstructed pattern elements for clothing design, 156 questionnaires were collected through questionnaire interviews and fsQCA was used to analyze the emotional identity of products with high geo-cultural recognition. The study finds that while the injection of regional culture plays a role in the development of products, people's emotional identification with vernacular cultural and creative products actually depends on a combination of causal paths, with beauty and elegance more important than place and humanity as commonly believed to reflect geographic cultural identity. fsQCA was used to analyze the emotional identity of products with high geo-cultural recognition. And understand the emotional components of vernacular cultural products and how emotional factors influence people's identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been controversy regarding the air pollutants emitted from sources closely related to the activities of daily life in China, such as cooking, setting off fireworks, sacrificial incense and joss paper burning, and barbecue (which have been named the five missing sources – FMSs), and the extent to which they impact the outdoor air quality. To date, due to the lack of both an activity dataset and emission factors, there have been no estimations of the emission of air pollutants from FMSs. In this work, we have attempted to combine questionnaire data, various statistical data, and data on points of interest to obtain a relatively complete set of activity data. The emission factors (EFs) of carbonaceous aerosols were tested in our lab. Emission inventories of carbonaceous aerosols with a high spatial–temporal resolution for FMSs were then established, and the spatial variation trend and driving forces were discussed. From 2000 to 2018, organic carbon (OC) emissions were in the range of 4268–4919 t. OC emissions from FMSs were between 1.5 ‰ and 2.2 ‰ of the total emissions in China. Black carbon (BC), elemental carbon (EC), and brown carbon (BrC) absorption cross-section (ACS BrC) emissions from FMSs were in the ranges of 22.6–43.9 t, 213–324 t, and 14.7–35.6 Gm 2 , respectively. Their emissions tended to be concentrated in certain periods and areas. The OC emission intensities in central urban areas were 3.85–50.5 times those in rural areas (due to the high density of human activity), while the ACS BrC emissions in rural regions accounted for 63.0–79.5 % of the total emissions (resulting from uncontrolled fireworks). A mass of fireworks led to much higher ACS BrC and EC emissions on Chinese New Year's Eve, with respective values that were 1444 and 262 times their corresponding yearly averages. Significant (p<0.01) correlations between the population's income and pollutant emissions were also found: these correlations were positive (r=0.94) and negative (r=-0.94) for urban and rural regions, respectively, indicating the necessity to regulate residents' lifestyles and increase residents' income in respective urban and rural regions. This study provides firsthand data to identify emissions, variation trends, and impacting factors from the FMSs. This is helpful for modeling works on air quality, the climate effect, and human health risks during specific periods or in specific regions as well as for modifying emission control policies. The data compiled in this work can found at 10.6084/m9.figshare.19999991.v2 (Cheng et al., 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been controversy about the air pollutants emitted from sources closely related to people's daily life (such as cooking, fireworks burning, sacrificial incenses and joss paper burning, and barbecue, named as five missing sources, FMS) impacting the outdoor air quality to what extent. Till now, there is no emission estimation of air pollutants from FMS, as the missing of both activity dataset and emission factors. We attempted to combine the questionnaire data, various statistical data, and data of points of interest to obtain a relatively complete set of activity data. The emission factors (EFs) of carbonaceous aerosols were tested in our lab. Then, the emission inventories of carbonaceous aerosol with the high spatial-temporal resolution for FMS were established firstly, and the spatial-variation trend and driving forces were discussed. From 2000 to 2018, organic carbon (OC) increased from 4268 t to 4919 t. The OC emission from FMS was 1.48-2.18 - of its total emission in China. The emissions of black carbon, element carbon (EC), and brown carbon absorption cross-section (ACSBrC) emissions from FMS were in the ranges of 22.6-43.9 t, 213-324 t, and 14.7-35.6 Gm2, respectively. Their emissions tended to concentrate in special periods and areas. The OC emission intensities in central urban areas were 3.85-50.5 times that of rural areas due to the high density of human activities. While the ACSBrC emissions in rural regions accounted for 63.0-79.5% of the total emission result from uncontrolled fireworks burning. A mass of fireworks burning led to extremely higher ACSBrC and EC emissions on Chinese New Year's eve, as 1444 and 262 times their corresponding yearly average values. Interestingly, significant (p<0.01) correlations between human incomes and pollutant emissions were found, but they were positive (r = 0.94) and negative (r = -0.94) for urban and rural regions, indicating the necessity of regulating human lifestyle and increasing income for urban and rural peoples, respectively. This study provided the first-hand data for identifying the emissions, variation trends and impacting factors of FMS, which is helpful for modeling works on air quality, climate effect, and human health risks at specific periods or regions and for modifying their emission control policies. The data in this work could be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19999991.v1 (Cheng et al., 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has been accused of genocide in the context of her policies in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) with respect to the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority residing primarily in Xinjiang. China vigorously disputes that she is engaged in genocide and argues that the implementation of strict disciplinary policies in Xinjiang are necessary and legitimate responses to horrific terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, Beijing and other locations inside China by Uyghur separatists fueled by religious fanaticism. 1. Defending human rights and preventing international crimes, such as genocide, constitute paramount imperatives of all nations. [Extracted from the article]

The editorial discusses the development of Chemistry - A European Journal and its team. The editorial presence in China has increased, reflecting the high proportion of manuscripts received from China. The Deputy Editor team has been renewed, with new members joining from Wiley-VCH and Angewandte Chemie. The journal has also strengthened its teamwork within the team and with other journal teams, as well as intensified interaction with the Editorial Advisory Board. In the new year, the journal plans to increase outreach activities and offer seminars and workshops to assist authors. [Extracted from the article]

Chunwan, China's annual New Year's television gala, has been the country's most popular show since 1983 (Lo, 2019). Chunwan's performances simultaneously reinforce, disrupt, and potentially provide spaces for changing dominant discourse around queer identities. Specifically, two research questions guide our examination of five Chunwan performances between 2008-2021: (a) How does Chunwan use queer identities to simultaneously reinforce, critique, and disrupt Chinese cultural norms through humor and performance? and (b) How do Chinese social values support queerness in China and Chinese media? Findings demonstrate that while these performances do not directly represent struggles and successes of the queer community, or feature queer characters in positive ways, or focus on queer protagonists, their inclusion acknowledges the existence of queer Chinese identities with regards to gender and sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overview: Ongoing slowdown no reason for panic ▀ Recent activity data suggest that the slowdown in global GDP growth is not yet over. Our baseline view remains that quarterly world growth slows into early‐2020 before picking up a little in H2 in response to ongoing policy support, with 2.5% expansion still seen for both this year and next.▀ The global composite PMI in October plumbed a new low for the year at 50.8, bringing it closer to the troughs in the previous two growth slowdowns of the past decade and only just above the 50 no‐change mark. While the services index continued to soften, suggesting that industrial weakness is spreading, the global manufacturing PMI has recently stabilised at just below the 50 level.▀ Whether the services slowdown worsens from here will depend to a large degree on the resilience of consumers, particularly in the US and other advanced economies (AEs). Encouragingly, while AE employment indicators have weakened this year, they still point to solid employment growth within the broad range of the past five years, a positive for spending prospects. Meanwhile, retail sales and consumer sentiment data do not suggest households are tightening their belts yet.▀ Ongoing geopolitical uncertainties and the dissipating US fiscal stimulus effects may lead to a further slowdown in AE GDP growth in the near term. But the impact of policy stimulus and our assumption that trade tensions between the US and China stabilise may prompt a levelling‐off in GDP growth around mid‐2020.▀ With some emerging markets (EMs), such as Brazil, India and Turkey, likely to gain some momentum after a weak 2019, EM GDP growth (excluding China) is expected to accelerate in 2020 and help a pick‐up in the AEs. But if these three economies are excluded, the pick‐up in EM GDP growth is rather more subdued.▀ Overall, our forecast for world GDP growth of around 2.5% in 2019–20 is a long way from recession but is very subdued even by the standards of the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the effect of fireworks/firecrackers (FF) display on aerosol particles, the chemical composition and morphology of fine aerosol particles (PM 2.5) collected in a rural valley of north China in the Chinese New Year's Eve (CNYE) were analyzed. The results showed that PM 2.5 was much lower in the 2022 CNYE with little influence by FF due to the strict no-FF display policy for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. In contrast, PM 2.5 was significantly affected by FF display in the 2023 CNYE with the maximum hourly PM 2.5 mass concentrations reaching 1200 μg m−3. The value was even much higher than that in near-by cities. Chemical analysis showed that organic matter (24.5 wt% of total PM 2.5) was the most abundant in the CNYE, followed by K+ (15.3 wt%), SO 4 2− (12.3 wt%), and Cl− (9.9 wt%). The mass concentrations of K+, Mg2+, Cu, Sr, and Ba were as 22.0 to 41.4 times as those before the CNYE. The concentrations of elemental carbon, Cl−, SO 4 2−, and Ti were as 3.7 to 12.3 times as those before the CNYE. Further analysis by scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer revealed that carbonaceous particles in the CNYE contained more S, Cl, K and heavy metals compared with that before the CNYE. Most of the non-carbonaceous particles in the CNYE were K-rich, Mg-rich, Al-rich, and Ba-rich, with spherical and near-spherical shapes, which were much different from those before the CNYE with irregular shapes. The different morphologies of non-carbonaceous particles can have much different optical properties, which should be further evaluated. The results above suggested that the PM 2.5 mass concentration in rural valleys in the CNYE was extremely high in a short time and more attention should be paid in future policy making to improve air quality. • Air quality in rural valleys was more impacted by fireworks/firecrackers (FF) display than in near-by cities. • OM, K+, SO 4 2−, and Cl− were much high in rural valleys affected by FF display. • FF display emitted more spherical shaped K-rich, Al-rich, Mg-rich and Ba-rich particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial-temporal variation of the impact of political and social factors such as (Fishing Moratorium, Marine Protected Areas, New Year, and COVID-19) on fishing activities offshore was evaluated based on fishing efforts data by AIS from 2013 to 2020 for China. It is found that the maximum fishing intensity occurs within 20–30 km of the coastline, the area within 40 km of the coastline covers 51% of fishing activities, and within 100 km of the coastline accounts for 92% of fishing activities. From 2013 to 2016, fishing hotspots showed a highly aggregated spread in the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea. Since 2017, China's hot fishing areas have gradually fragmented and southern moved. During the fishing moratorium, the fishing efforts decreased by 51% compared to the pre-moratorium, and after the moratorium, the fishing efforts increased by 81% compared to the pre-moratorium on average. We investigated fishing activities in and around 249 MPAs in China and found that 71% of MPAs are free of fishing, and average fishing intensity across MPAs is 35% lower than not protected areas. Regarding the social events, it is concluded that during the New Year holiday, the fishing efforts and fishing area were reduced by 79% and 73%, respectively, compared to the regular fishing period. The COVID-19 epidemic prompted a decrease in fishing efforts in 2020 for the first time since 2013, with the average fishing efforts in 2020 being 14% and 6% lower than in 2019 and 2017 to 2019, respectively. • The maximum fishing intensity occur between 20-30 km off the coast of China. • 51% and 92% of fishing activities occur within the nearest 40 km and 100 km offshore. • The fishing efforts during the Fishing Moratorium decreased by 51% compared to the pre-FM. • 71% of the Marine Protected Areas were free of fishing. • Fishing efforts plummeted by 79% during the New Year holiday, and the COVID led to a yearly 14% decrease than that in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread rapidly in China.[1] The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, the start of which coincided with the emergence of COVID-19, is the most celebratory time of the year in China, during which a massive human migration takes place as individuals travel back to their hometowns. During the current outbreak of COVID-19, government officials and researchers were concerned that the mass movement of people at the end of the Lunar New Year holiday on Jan 31, 2020, would exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 across China. Future empirical research will establish the full impact of the social distancing and epidemic control policies during the extended Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. [Extracted from the article]