Global Pulse

分类： entertainment

  • Sculptor remolds clay modeling for new generation

    Sculptor remolds clay modeling for new generation

    Nestled in Dongli District, Tianjin, the historic Clay Figure Zhang studio has long been home to grand, traditional sculptures of legendary Chinese figures like Guan Yu and Confucius. This Spring Festival, however, a new addition drew wide attention: a collection of vivid, compact clay figurines crafted to celebrate the Year of the Horse, bridging centuries-old craft with contemporary appeal.

    As the sixth-generation custodian of Clay Figure Zhang — a Tianjin-origin folk art form inscribed as a national intangible cultural heritage of China in 2006 — Zhang Yu walks a careful line: he upholds time-honored craftsmanship while constantly exploring fresh modes of expression to connect with younger generations.

    With a history stretching more than 200 years, Clay Figure Zhang has earned global acclaim for its strikingly lifelike, hand-painted figurines, which are molded from specially processed clay sourced from local canals. The craft has long been celebrated for its vivid realism, capturing everything from mythic heroes and Peking Opera characters to the subtle, intimate details of ordinary daily life.

    Zhang emphasizes that safeguarding the authenticity of the centuries-old tradition does not equal rigidly clinging to outdated practices. “Our works, even when rooted in tradition, need to resonate with modern viewers if the craft is to survive and thrive,” he explained.

    In his work of preservation, strict adherence to the craft’s traditional, multi-step production process remains non-negotiable. Creating a single finished Clay Figure Zhang figurine requires three core phases — sculpting, hand-painting, and firing — broken down into 18 separate, meticulous steps that demand years of practice to master.

    The raw clay itself follows a rigorous preparation process: it is harvested from the banks of Tianjin’s South Grand Canal, carefully sorted, left to air-dry naturally for three full years, then kneaded repeatedly to build the ideal balance of adhesiveness and breathability that gives Clay Figure Zhang its signature texture and durability.

    The sculpting process begins with building a internal support framework, followed by incremental layering of clay, gradual refining of the figure’s contours, and painstaking work on tiny, high-detail features such as ears, a step that only skilled artisans can execute with consistent precision.

    Zhang credits the craft’s 200 years of cross-generational popularity to its enduring connection to everyday life. “The heart of Clay Figure Zhang creation has always been the lives of ordinary people, or vivid portrayals of characters people know from traditional theater,” he said. “Traditional culture is never an abstract concept. It’s something that flows naturally through our daily lives, and that is what we strive to carry forward in every piece we make.”

  • Cool Hand Luke actress Joy Harmon dies aged 87

    Cool Hand Luke actress Joy Harmon dies aged 87

    American performer Joy Harmon, whose name became forever tied to one of the most memorable brief scenes in Hollywood cinema history, has passed away at the age of 87. According to U.S. entertainment media reports, Harmon died at her Los Angeles residence on Tuesday, following a multi-week battle with pneumonia.

    Though Harmon built a 20-year career in film and television with 32 credited on-screen roles between the 1950s and early 1970s, her cultural legacy is anchored by a 3-minute wordless appearance in the 1967 Paul Newman-led prison drama *Cool Hand Luke*. Credited only as “The Girl” in the film’s official casting, her character — casually referred to as Lucille by a group of working prisoners — became the center of one of cinema’s most iconic subtly provocative sequences. Filmed while the inmates dug a roadside ditch, the scene shows Harmon washing a vintage car, at one point wringing soap suds from her sponge against her body, a moment layered with sexual innuendo that immediately captivated both the on-screen prisoners and generations of movie audiences.

    In a 2017 interview with *Entertainment Weekly*, Harmon reflected on the unexpected cultural staying power of the scene, saying she had approached the moment simply as an actor doing her job. “I was just washing a car to the best of my ability and having fun with it, with the sponge and everything,” she explained. “My concept of the [scene] was not like what came out. I was not aware that there were two meanings to things that I was doing, and I’m still not really that much aware of what they all were.”

    Long before her breakout big-screen role, Harmon got her start in the entertainment industry as a child model and beauty pageant titleholder, gradually building her resume with guest spots on comedy series and game shows. Beyond *Cool Hand Luke*, she accumulated a wide range of television credits, appearing on hit 1960s and 1970s shows including *Bewitched*, *Batman*, *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.*, *The Beverly Hillbillies*, *The Monkees*, and the classic sitcom *The Odd Couple*. Most of her film work came throughout the 1960s, before she stepped back from regular on-screen acting in the early 1970s.

    After leaving her full-time acting career behind, Harmon took on a role at Disney Studios before launching a new venture: she opened her own bakery in Los Angeles in 2003. Even decades after her last on-screen appearance, U.S. media reports confirm she continued to receive fan mail at her home every week, a testament to the lasting impression of her work on classic film fans. Harmon is survived by her three children and nine grandchildren.

  • New discovery solves mystery of the location of Shakespeare’s London house

    New discovery solves mystery of the location of Shakespeare’s London house

    For centuries, William Shakespeare fans and historians have anchored the legendary playwright’s origins to Stratford-upon-Avon, the idyllic riverside Warwickshire town that still draws millions of tourists annually to visit the preserved cottage where he spent his childhood. While Shakespeare built his legendary career and rose to fame in London, almost no physical traces of his life in the British capital have survived to the modern day. Now, a newly unearthed 17th-century map is reshaping what scholars know about the Bard’s life in London, pinpointing for the first time the precise location of the only home he ever purchased in the city – a space where experts believe he may have drafted his final works.

    The groundbreaking discovery was made by Lucy Munro, a Shakespeare and early modern literature professor at King’s College London, who stumbled across the map by chance while researching unrelated materials in the London Archives. Munro describes the find as a long-missing piece of the puzzle that fills critical gaps in the fragmented historical record of Shakespeare’s adult life. “It supplies extra bits of the jigsaw puzzle” of Shakespeare’s life, she explained of the document, which was publicly disclosed by King’s College London this week.

    Historians have confirmed since the 19th century that Shakespeare purchased a Blackfriars district property near the Blackfriars Theatre in 1613, but the exact coordinates of the dwelling had remained a centuries-old mystery. Up until now, only a vague plaque on a 19th-century building in the area marked that the playwright once had lodgings “near this site.” The detailed precinct plan Munro uncovered clearly maps out Shakespeare’s home: a substantial L-shaped dwelling converted from a section of a former 13th-century Dominican medieval monastery, including its original gatehouse.

    Following King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-1500s, the former friary grounds were redeveloped for secular use. The wider Blackfriars precinct already held the Blackfriars playhouse, an indoor theatre that Shakespeare co-owned. In the decades after the dissolution, the neighborhood was a desirable enclave populated by nobility, high-ranking courtiers and royal officials. By the time Shakespeare purchased his property there, however, the area was gradually becoming more accessible to wealthy non-aristocrats, even as prominent local residents continued to protest the presence of the playhouse, dismissing it as a public nuisance. Munro notes that Shakespeare, while financially successful, was associated with the somewhat disreputable world of professional theatre, making his ownership of a Blackfriars home a revealing snapshot of his social status in early 17th-century London.

    Unlike the grand family home Shakespeare built with his play profits in Stratford-upon-Avon (where he died in 1616 at age 52), the London property has been lost to history. Scholars have long debated whether Shakespeare used the home as a personal residence or simply rented it out to generate income. But Munro argues that the home’s size and its location just a five-minute walk from the Blackfriars Theatre suggests the playwright spent far more time in London in the final years of his career than historians have previously assumed. It is very likely, she says, that he wrote his final collaborative works – *Henry VIII* and *The Two Noble Kinsmen*, both co-created with playwright John Fletcher – within the walls of this long-lost house.

    Will Tosh, director of education at Shakespeare’s Globe, the modern reconstruction of the open-air Elizabethan playhouse where many of Shakespeare’s works premiered, praised the discovery as a transformative contribution to Shakespeare scholarship. “Munro’s discovery provides a dazzling new sense of Shakespeare the London writer,” Tosh said. “She’s helped us to understand how much the city meant to our greatest ever dramatist, as a professional and personal home.”

    After Shakespeare’s death, the property passed to his daughter Susanna, and remained in the Shakespeare family for more than 50 years. Along with the map, Munro also uncovered two additional archival records that detail the sale of the home by Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard in 1665. Just 12 months after the sale, the entire structure burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1666, the devastating blaze that destroyed most of medieval London.

    Today, the site of Shakespeare’s home sits within London’s modern financial district. Only a handful of faint traces of its history remain: a small fragment of the original medieval friary wall still stands, the nearby street name Playhouse Yard honors the long-gone theatre, and the Cockpit pub sits directly across from the property’s coordinates. The 1600s map labels the pub’s current location as “the Sign of the Cock,” a documented 17th-century tavern. Historians say it is easy to imagine Shakespeare and his fellow actors and playwrights gathering there for drinks after performances – a theory supported by contemporary archival complaints that local playhouses encouraged the spread of “tippling houses” in the neighborhood.

  • Expats get into Sanyuesan Festival spirit

    Expats get into Sanyuesan Festival spirit

    As anticipation builds for one of southern China’s most vibrant traditional cultural celebrations, international residents living in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have already begun immersing themselves in the joyful, culturally rich spirit of the Sanyuesan Festival.

    Falling on the third day of the third month of China’s traditional lunisolar calendar, Sanyuesan holds deep meaning for communities across Guangxi. Far more than a simple seasonal observance, the festival is a major interethnic gathering that brings together the region’s many diverse cultural groups in shared celebration. For the Zhuang people, Guangxi’s largest ethnic community, the day also carries an additional layer of historical and cultural significance: it is recognized as the group’s oldest traditional Valentine’s Day, rooted in centuries of folk custom.

    What began as a curious cultural observation for many of Guilin’s expat residents has quickly transformed into full, enthusiastic participation, as these international visitors step off the sidelines to join local communities in marking the occasion, transitioning from curious outside observers to active participants in the region’s cherished ethnic cultural traditions.

  • Peonies in all their glory

    Peonies in all their glory

    Nestled in eastern China’s Shandong Province, the city of Heze has built a global reputation as a premier hub for peony cultivation, home to a staggering collection of more than 1,300 officially registered peony varieties that paint the region in vivid hues every blooming season. Beyond the classic, beloved shades of blush pink, crisp white, deep purple, and rich red that draw crowds of visitors each year, Heze’s peony collections also boast far rarer color variations, including delicate green, buttery yellow, and the highly sought-after near-black peony that remains a point of pride for local cultivators. What sets Heze’s peony tradition apart from other floral destinations is how deeply these iconic flowers have integrated into the everyday fabric of local life, rather than remaining just a seasonal tourist attraction. For Heze residents, peonies are not merely decorative blooms—they are woven into food, beverage, and even textile culture, turning an ornamental plant into a core part of regional identity. For out-of-town travelers eager to take more than just photographic memories and pleasant scent impressions home from their visit, local artisans have created immersive hands-on experiences that let visitors engage with the city’s peony culture long after the blooming season ends. One of the most popular offerings is the traditional dough-sculpting workshop, where guests can learn the centuries-old craft of shaping and coloring dough to create their own permanent peony decorations that will never wilt or fade, serving as a lasting memento of their trip to China’s peony capital.

  • Madonna announces sequel to Confessions On A Dancefloor album

    Madonna announces sequel to Confessions On A Dancefloor album

    After years of teases and months of widespread fan speculation, pop icon Madonna has made it official: her 15th studio album, *Confessions II*, a sequel to her 2005 dance classic *Confessions on a Dance Floor*, will hit shelves and streaming platforms worldwide on July 3. This marks the superstar’s first full-length new release since her 2019 album *Madame X*.

    The iconic singer first began dropping hints about the follow-up project back in 2023, and last week kicked off the official announcement rollout by wiping her entire Instagram feed and updating her bio with a famous lyric from the 2005 lead single *Hung Up*: “Time goes by so slowly.” The next day, she shared the full confirmation alongside key details about the upcoming record, as well as a 60-second preview clip of the album’s opening track, *I Feel So Free*. Built around a pulsing, throbbing synth bassline, the new track weaves in a beloved line from Madonna’s 1980s hit *Into the Groove*: “Out here on the dance floor, I feel so free.”

    The original 2005 *Confessions on a Dance Floor* is widely regarded as one of the best albums of Madonna’s decades-spanning career, alongside fan and critical favorites like *Like a Prayer* and *Ray of Light*. The unapologetically euphoric, club-focused record gave the world global hits including *Sorry* and *Hung Up*, which famously sampled ABBA to massive commercial and critical success. For the long-awaited sequel, Madonna has reunited with British producer Stuart Price, who co-created the original 2005 album with her. The pair first recorded the first installment in the loft of Price’s London home, where Madonna even carved her name into the studio rafters during breaks from recording. The pair most recently worked together on Madonna’s 2023 *Celebration* tour, and by early 2024, they were back in the studio together at Price’s new west London space. Madonna shared the news of their reunion on social media with the playful line: “Back in the Stu with Stuart Price.” Weeks later, she updated her fanbase that working on the record had been “medicine for my SOUL,” and shared behind-the-scenes photos showing her children joining her in the recording process. Price, whose production credits also include work with Dua Lipa, The Killers, Jessie Ware, Rina Sawayama and Pet Shop Boys, has co-produced the entirety of the new album.

    In an official press release announcing the album, Madonna framed the project around the core message of a new track titled *One Step Away*, pushing back against common misconceptions of dance music. “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong,” she wrote. “The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.” The 67-year-old pop legend called this framing her “manifesto” for the new record, adding: “We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years – they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people.”

    Alongside the album announcement, Madonna also unveiled the full official album cover for *Confessions II* on Wednesday. Anticipation for the release has been building among fans for months, after a March report from *The Sun* claimed Madonna had filmed what would be “her most X-rated music video to date” at a secret UK location. Additional rumors have also swirled that the pop icon will make a surprise guest appearance alongside Sabrina Carpenter during Carpenter’s set at the second weekend of the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this coming Friday. Promotional posters for the new album have already begun popping up in major cities across the globe to build hype ahead of the July release.

    Beyond her new music, Madonna is also set to appear in the second season of the Emmy-winning satirical series *The Studio*, which skewers the inner workings of the Hollywood film industry. The star filmed her guest role in Venice back in March, the same city where she shot her iconic 1984 *Like a Virgin* music video. She filmed her cameo alongside Julia Garner, who was originally attached to play Madonna in a scrapped biopic about the star’s life. According to *Variety*, the upcoming second season of *The Studio* will reference the failed attempt to bring Madonna’s life story to the big screen in its storyline.

  • Hollywood stars sign open letter against deal

    Hollywood stars sign open letter against deal

    LOS ANGELES – A growing wave of opposition is roiling Hollywood’s top creative circles, as more than 1,000 influential industry figures have signed a public open letter condemning the proposed $111 billion acquisition of iconic Warner Bros. by Paramount Skydance. The list of signatories reads like a who’s who of A-list talent and award-winning creators, including Academy Award-winning actors Jane Fonda and Joaquin Phoenix, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, blockbuster director J.J. Abrams, and Dune visionary Denis Villeneuve.

    The core argument laid out in the petition centers on the risks of further media consolidation in an already overly concentrated entertainment landscape. Signatories warn that the merger, which would shrink the number of major U.S. film studios from five to just four, would deliver widespread harm across the entire industry—from working creators to global audiences. “This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries — and the audiences we serve — can least afford it,” the letter reads. The group projects that the merger would lead to fewer creative opportunities for emerging and established artists alike, widespread job losses across the production ecosystem, inflated content costs, and diminished viewing options for consumers.

    Paramount Skydance, helmed by CEO David Ellison, first unveiled its takeover plans for Warner Bros.—home to some of Hollywood’s highest-grossing and most culturally influential franchises including *Harry Potter*, *The Lord of the Rings*, and *Game of Thrones*—in February. The bid beat out an earlier offer from streaming giant Netflix, which many Hollywood insiders had viewed as the more favorable of the two potential suitors.

    Across Los Angeles’ entertainment community, widespread anxiety persists that merging two major studios will trigger sweeping cost cuts, a concern amplified by reports that the massive acquisition price will be largely debt-financed, forcing new leadership to pursue aggressive savings to offset the purchase. These cuts would not only impact high-profile writers, directors and actors, organizers argue, but would also decimate employment for the tens of thousands of below-the-line workers and small business operators that underpin Southern California’s film production ecosystem—from makeup artists and set builders to local limousine services, on-location food vendors, and event florists.

    The letter also notes that the U.S. entertainment sector, one of America’s most valuable cultural and economic exports, has already been pushed to the breaking point by decades of successive industry consolidation. “Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement. Media consolidation has already weakened one of America’s most vital global industries — one that has long shaped culture and connected people around the world,” the statement continues.

    The proposed merger has already attracted high-level political backing: multiple industry reports confirm that the bid has the support of U.S. President Donald Trump. For its part, Paramount Skydance has pushed back against critics, releasing a public statement on Monday reaffirming its commitment to robust theatrical film production. The company said, “We have been clear in our commitments to increase output to a minimum of 30 high-quality feature films annually with full theatrical releases.”

    As regulatory review of the proposed acquisition gets underway, the open letter signals that the Hollywood creative community is prepared to keep organizing against the merger to protect the industry’s long-term health and competitiveness.

  • Ye postpones Marseille concert after French authorities say they will seek a ban

    Ye postpones Marseille concert after French authorities say they will seek a ban

    In a development that follows growing international backlash against the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, the artist has announced he will postpone his planned June 11 performance at Marseille’s iconic Stade Vélodrome, after top French officials confirmed they would pursue every legal avenue to ban the event entirely.

    The artist’s announcement arrives just seven days after UK officials barred him from entering the country, where he was scheduled to headline July’s Wireless Festival. That ban came in response to sustained public outrage over Ye’s long-documented history of antisemitic comments and hate speech.

    Ye shared his decision with the public via a post on the social platform X on Wednesday, framing the postponement as his own independent choice. “After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” the 48-year-old wrote. “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends.”

    Long before Ye’s announcement, local and national French leaders had already made their opposition to the concert clear. Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, confirmed through his office that the government was prepared to leverage “all possibilities” to stop the performance from moving forward as originally scheduled.

    Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan was among the earliest and most vocal critics of the planned concert, arguing that the multicultural port city — which has centuries of deep-rooted immigration history and one of the largest Jewish communities in France — should not platform a figure who spreads hate. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unabashed Nazism,” Payan said in a previous statement. “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of community and home to all Marseillais.”

    Ye’s planned Marseille show is the latest in a string of canceled or blocked events across the globe stemming from his inflammatory remarks. Last year, he drew near-universal international condemnation after releasing a song titled “Heil Hitler” and listing a swastika-printed T-shirt for sale on his personal website. By the following July, Australian authorities revoked his performance visa and blocked him from entering the country, forcing the cancellation of a planned tour stop.

    In January of this year, Ye issued a public apology for his actions, publishing a full-page open letter in The Wall Street Journal. In the apology, he attributed his harmful behavior to a four-month manic episode tied to his bipolar disorder, writing that the episode left him acting in “psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

    In his latest social media post, Ye attempted to frame the postponement as a gesture of respect for his supporters. “I take full responsibility for what’s mine but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it. My fans are everything to me. Looking forward to the next shows. See you at the top of the globe.”

    As of Thursday, no new date for the Marseille performance has been announced, and it remains unclear whether the concert will be rescheduled at a later date, or if it will be canceled entirely.

  • ‘Listening bars’ bloom as hottest new nightlife trend

    ‘Listening bars’ bloom as hottest new nightlife trend

    Across major cities from Paris to New York to London, a one-of-a-kind new nightlife concept is rapidly growing in popularity, offering music lovers a radically different alternative to crowded club nights and noisy gig venues: the ‘listening bar.’ Born from Japan’s iconic cozy jazz kissa culture, this trend prioritizes high-fidelity audio quality that allows audiences to connect with recorded music in a way that modern streaming and cheap portable audio gear rarely can.

    The core of every authentic listening bar is an investment in top-tier audio equipment purpose-built to deliver unparalleled sound. At Listener, a popular venue in central Paris, co-founder Jerome Thomas notes the underground soundproof listening room boasts a system that retails for roughly €200,000, featuring handcrafted speakers from niche Greek manufacturer Tune Audio. The result is an audio experience that reveals hidden layers of familiar recordings: crisp, clear treble and rich, resonant bass that listeners can feel in their chest.

    Venues split into two broad models to suit different guest preferences. Some focus on active listening sessions, where guests pay admission to gather in a quiet, acoustically treated space, with full attention directed to the music and the sound system. Others pair high-quality audio with a more traditional social setting, allowing guests to enjoy drinks and conversation with elevated music as a backdrop. Many venues stick to vinyl records, rather than compressed digital streams, and rely on high-end cabling and tube amplifiers to maximize audio quality, though some use premium lossless streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz for digital offerings.

    For regular guests, the experience fills a gap left by modern music consumption habits. Thirty-one-year-old Camille Calloch, who recently attended a dedicated listening session focused on British neo-soul artist Sampha at Listener, explained the concept has become a core part of how she enjoys music. “It really makes you listen to every word, every instrument, every note,” she said, adding that it complements other experiences from concert attendance to personal headphone listening.

    Thomas, a former medical industry worker, says the most rewarding part of running his venue is watching guests rediscover music they have loved for years. “They come to me saying ‘I thought I knew that track by heart, I’ve been listening to it for 15 years, but I heard new instruments, I could hear the mix from the sound engineer’,” he shared. The trend directly pushes back against the low-quality compressed audio that defines most modern listening: while recorded music is more ubiquitous and portable than ever, most consumers stream compressed tracks through Bluetooth headphones or cheap portable speakers, losing much of the detail captured in the original recording.

    The boom in listening bars also comes as traditional nightlife shifts. Many cities have seen a steady decline in club attendance, driven by soaring commercial rent costs and changing leisure preferences among younger generations. In contrast, the listening bar scene is expanding exponentially. Dan Wissinger, co-owner of Eavesdrop, a Brooklyn listening bar that opened in 2022, says growth in the sector has been explosive in recent years. Wissinger notes that proper acoustic treatment is a non-negotiable for any legitimate listening bar: “If they don’t have acoustic treatment, then they’re just fake listening bars. In a hospitality space, if you don’t have good damping, you’re not going to be hearing music first.”

    London’s fast-growing scene includes both long-running European pioneers like Brilliant Corners and new entries from major hospitality brands. One of the newest additions is Hidden Grooves, launched by the Virgin Hotels group at its Shoreditch location. The venue curates a collection of 5,000 vinyl records, worked with London-based sound engineering firm Project Audio (which has designed systems for top Ibiza clubs) to tune the space, and installed £50,000 Tannoy speakers from the 100-year-old British audio manufacturer. Neil Aline, Virgin’s head of cultural entertainment and a former DJ, first fell in love with the concept while touring in Japan, where the original jazz kissa bars invented the intimate, music-focused model. “If I’m going out to experience music, the concept of a good listening bar checks all the boxes for me,” Aline said. “As a music lover, it’s a whole different way of experiencing music outside of live venues or clubs.”

  • Russian artists perform in Zhangjiajie at cultural exchange event

    Russian artists perform in Zhangjiajie at cultural exchange event

    Against the dramatic backdrop of Zhangjiajie’s iconic quartz sandstone pillars, a cross-border cultural exchange initiative bringing together artistic communities from China, Russia and multiple Central Asian nations has launched at the Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site in Hunan province. The four-day celebration of folk culture kicked off on Sunday, drawing hundreds of performers and curious audiences alike to the scenic banks of the Suoxi River.

    More than 300 participating artists from the three regions have gathered for the event, which is designed to deepen cultural ties and showcase shared appreciation for traditional folk art. The opening day highlights featured a vibrant performance by Russian artists clad in authentic traditional national costumes, who brought centuries-old folk customs to life through rousing song and rhythmic dance. Unlike formal stage-only performances, the interactive program encouraged artists to engage directly with visiting tourists and local residents, creating spontaneous moments of cultural connection that resonated across language barriers.

    Set in one of China’s most famous natural tourist destinations, the event pairs cultural exchange with scenic appreciation, offering attendees a unique experience that blends stunning natural landscapes with diverse cultural traditions. Organizers designed the gathering to strengthen people-to-people bonds between participating Eurasian nations, turning the world-famous scenic site into a bridge for cross-cultural friendship.