A vlogger took a fun-filled city tour of Paris, where Chinese President Xi Jinping will touch down for a two-day state visit on Sunday, to explore some Chinese culture in the heart of the French capital.
While strolling along the banks of the Seine River, she came across soothing melodies being churned by a Chinese violinist.
Dressed in a horse-face skirt, or mamianqun in Chinese (a traditional long pleated skirt), the violinist said the affection for Chinese culture from people worldwide has always impressed her.
"Yes. It's a horse-face skirt, because we're so confident in our culture. When I play in the street, I can truly get to know in person the love of Chinese culture from the people from all over the world. Let them know our culture and know that certain beautiful things at this moment belong to China," she said.
Ma Haojia is a Chinese student who is studying in France. He once served as a French interpreter when President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to China in April 2023.
Ma graciously introduced the vlogger to a French diplomat who previously worked in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The diplomat's son said he very much missed life in China and expressed hopes to revisit.
Ma's friend said her son's deep personal bond with China mirrors the future of bilateral friendship, adding that trust matters in cultural exchanges.
It is not uncommon to meet the local people who walk hastily along the bustling streets but willing to stop to wave at the camera, saying hello in Chinese with infectious smiles.
Some of them expressed their hope to visit China and experience Chinese culture, history, cultural heritage and traditions firsthand, and get an immersive tour of the East Asian country.
Xi, who left Beijing on Sunday morning for Paris, is to pay a state visit to France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The visit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and France.
This visit marks the second state visit by China's head of state to France in five years, and is also Xi's third state visit to this European country.
France is the first leg of Xi's three-European country tour, which will later take him to Serbia and Hungary.
Vlogger explores vibrancy of Chinese culture in Paris
Chinese scientists have recently worked together and rebuilt the face of an ancient Chinese ethnic minority emperor via cutting-edge DNA technology.
Emperor Wu of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), also known as Yuwen Yong, was an ambitious leader who died at 36. He belonged to the Xianbei nomadic group, which originated from the Mongolian Plateau.
The tomb of the emperor was discovered in 1993 in a village of the city of Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. His skull and bones were discovered during an excavation held in 1994 and 1995 at the site of his tomb.
In late March this year, scientists led by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University managed to decode key features of the emperor and speculate about his cause of death. The emperor might have died from chronic arsenic poisoning due to long-term use of a pellet, which was believed by ancient people to achieve eternal life.
"First, the skeleton can be used to determine age. Second, in terms of age and gender, some pathological research can also be done to see if he had any fractures or other (diseases)," said Zhang Jianlin, a researcher from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.
Obtaining high-quality genomic data is crucial for restoring the face. Through DNA paleogenomics techniques and optimized DNA extraction, database building and capture methods, more history was revealed.
"First, we have done the shorter fragments enrichment method, which is a DNA extraction method. In addition, we have developed some more sensitive database building method suitable for ancient samples with short fragments. You can regard it as a method to amplify the genetic signal, the extracted DNA. The third is that we have developed a capture method that is more suitable for this kind of highly degraded ancient samples. So we have optimized and improved our approach from three aspects at the same time," said Wen Shaoqing, an associate professor of the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University.
The reconstructed face showed that Yuwen Yong had black hair, yellow skin and brown eyes, while his appearance was typical for people from East or Northeast Asia.
Wen said that with the help of the DNA technology, the accuracy of facial restoration can reach 90 percent.
"As for the accuracy of (facial restoration), the current situation is that if there is a skull as a basis, its accuracy will be relatively high," said Wen.
Scientists rebuild face of ancient emperor using advanced DNA technology
