HARBIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- What do Chinese people do during the Spring Festival holiday besides visiting relatives and friends? For the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, a popular activity is ice and snow sports.Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has a cold winter climate and a deep history of ice and snow sports.During the Spring Festival holiday, there are always many cars parked on the snowy slopes of the roads in Harbin. People carry snow rings and can enjoy the whole day on the snowy slopes."I bought a snow ring last year. I come to play with my children during the Spring Festival holiday. There are also places to rent snow rings nearby," said Zhang Shuobin, a Harbin resident.For those who aren't keen on snow, skating is a suitable alternative. Whether it is the Songhua River that runs through Harbin, or the frozen lakes in the parks, it can become a paradise for ice skating lovers. In Harbin's Daixiu Lake Park, the frozen lake is designed to look like a rainbow as people glide along colorful slides.On the frozen Daixiu Lake, there are also several skating coaches training their students, and some children are playing with traditional ice spinning tops.In Harbin, there is no need to enter well-equipped stadiums to play ice hockey during the winter holiday. Hockey enthusiasts have set up small fields with homemade goals where six people can split into two teams on frozen rivers."Before the Spring Festival, my friends and I agreed to play ice hockey during the Spring Festival. The weather is very cold these days, but it can't stop us," said ice hockey fan Sun Tianfu.In the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, enthusiasm for ice and snow sports not only lit up the streets of Harbin, but also lit up the local tourism market.The 500-meter-long slide at Harbin Ice and Snow World is very popular this winter, where there are long queues almost every day. The ice sports park built on the frozen Songhua River has become an unmissable attraction for tourists.Standing on the banks of the Songhua River, you can see all kinds of snow and ice recreational facilities, including snowmobiles, snowbikes, curling."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has aroused people's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports, and the enthusiasm for these activities during the Spring Festival has not waned," said He Li, director of development and operation of Harbin Songhuajiang Ice and Snow Carnival.Yabuli ski resort has attracted skiers from all over the country this Spring Festival. "During the Spring Festival holiday, I wanted to go skiing in the mountains, so I came to Yabuli," said Qi Siteng from south China's Guangdong Province, who spent three days of his seven-day Spring Festival holiday in Yabuli.On the eve of the Spring Festival, a number of youth ice and snow sports competitions were held in Harbin, including the National Youth Ice Hockey Invitational Tournament, Ice and Snow Games for primary and middle school students and some snow football games."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has not only promoted the development of competitive sports in China, but also aroused the enthusiasm of the Chinese people for ice and snow sports," said Qian Fuyong, director of the sports bureau of Heilongjiang Province. 編輯：韓猼訑
Chinese "slash youth," referring to those refusing to be defined or bound by just one personal identity and choosing multiple careers, has aroused heated discussions on social media platforms, drawing attention to the young generation's diverse pursuits.On Douban, a Chinese social networking platform, the topic "slash life on and off work" has garnered about 11,000 posts and has been viewed over 400 million times.China's young people are keen to share their slash youth stories online, presenting themselves as multiple and sometimes distinct identities, such as a nurse and model, a teacher and stand-up comedian, and an engineer and band player.Xing Eryang, who founded the Douban topic in 2021, is a 31-year-old female resident in Beijing and feels amazed to find her "slash life" echoed by so many peers.After graduating in 2014, Xing landed her job in a public institution. While staying diligent about her daytime work, she is developing her hobbies, including stand-up comedy, vlog making, podcast broadcasting, and the like, into her new careers during after-work time.The "slash life on and off work" has attracted many to share their different lifestyles, which indicates their train of thought facing the unified "examination" called "life" for everyone, according to Xing."I prefer the word 'slash' because a diverse lifestyle is like using a blunt knife to cut our life into halves. Part of us work hard in the daytime while the other part can still chase after truth, goodness, and beauty inside during the me-time, though this part of us may be less sophisticated and sociable," she explained.A 26-year-old female netizen nicknamed "Weiheng" from the southern metropolis of Guangzhou and Tang Yuhan, a 27-year-old man in Xuancheng City, east China's Anhui Province, are participants in the topic, with their stories garnering thousands of likes so far on the internet.The two are both band members in their spare time out of their love for music, though they are thousands of miles away and have different jobs in media and finance. Weiheng is now a vocalist in a post-hardcore band off work, while Tang plays the guitar in a death metal band.They have grown their passion for music since college and didn't abandon their enthusiasm even when entering workplaces. Though they both faced doubts and worries from their family and colleagues at first, they cleaved to their beliefs and won others' respect and understanding."Their reaction showed the mind gap between the young and former generations. Before, my parents used to say, 'music cannot earn you money,' so the band thing was regarded as a waste of time. However, for us young people, we want to pursue whatever we love and are willing to pay for it," said Weiheng.It is not only a mindset U-turn but a reflection of the booming current entertainment sector. "Over the recent years, with livestreaming, game, and entertainment industries having their moment in China, the music industry has also seen a positive growth momentum. Some bands have raked in considerable money through live shows," she added."I'm open to being whatever kind of employee I may become in different settings, but I will always be a guitarist. Every time I am upset by something at work, playing the guitar cures me," said Tang. "Music is like lightning striking my heart and a storm exploding in my mind."The two music fanatics utilize their nighttime to do rehearsals and then perform on holidays and weekends. Now, Weiheng's band "floating soul" has released eight songs and signed a contract with a music agency, ready to launch albums and do a performing tour soon."The 'slash life' mania shows that along with China's economic development, our society is becoming more and more diversified and inclusive, and it welcomes everyone's self-fulfillment," said Shi Yanrong, an associate researcher from the Institute of Japanese Studies, Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. "Young people no longer have to rely on work and money for their sense of self-worth. They tend to practice 'carpe diem' and create their own identities."The researcher added that against the background that people have multiple interests and are willing to pay for these interests nowadays, the "slash life" of the youth would drive the growth of a new economy, just as animation culture affected the market. 編輯：高佳?
