From August 13 to 15, two classical plays for children, Calabash Boys and Snow White and Seven Dwarfs will be staged on Yifu Theater. It is said that the tickets for two plays sells well and there are few tickets left.

Calabash Brothers tells a story that two demons were jailed in the Calabash Mountains, one a Scorpion spirit and the other a Snake spirit. One day, a pangolin happens to drill a hole on the slope and the two spirits escape from the cave, causing grave harm to the nearby residents. The pangolin hurries to an old man and says that only by growing calabashes in seven colors can they annihilate the spirits. So the old man spares no time in growing seven calabashes, each a different color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. The calabashes ripen sequentially, falling off their stems to the ground, and transforming into seven boys. Each has a unique supernatural ability such as super-strength, enhanced hearing and sight, as well as a weakness. With a combined effort, they set on a mission to defeat the demons in an adventure.

A forum entitled “Cultural Heritage Makes Life Better” was held on the afternoon of July 28. Shan Qixiang, Chief Executive Officer of National Heritage Board, was invited to give a report. Tang Yijun, vice party secretary hosted the report.

Shan began studying protection and plan for historical cities and cultural blocks. Since he became the Chief Executive Officer of National Heritage Board in 2002, he had been advocating cultural construction in cities when there was speedy urban development.

Shan pointed out that China was now in the stage of unprecedentedly rapid urban development and the protection for cultural heritage and cultural specials were now in a critical and urgent moment. Every government should have strategic eyes when they are planning the urban development so that the past functional city became cultural city while the past protection of cultural relics became the protection of cultural heritage. The purpose of all these efforts was cultural heritage would become a part of the development of economy and society and the protection of cultural heritage would benefit people in a city. Shan introduced scientific theories and vivid examples to illustrate the close relationship among cultural heritage protection, cultural construction and urban development. He also put forward the orientation of cultural development of a city and concrete measures for cultural development of a city.

Rice dumplings, sachets, calamus, Xionghuang Wine (with realgar as its main component), poetry workshop are essentials of Dragon Boat Festival. Recently, Ningbo locals review all the above in inheriting culture traditions and celebrating the festival. Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival in memory of a great ancient patriotic poet called Qu Yuan. In this connection, Dragon Boat Festival is also called Poet Festival. In recent days, a “Poetry Workshop of Dragon Boat Festival in 2010” is held in Tianyi pavilion museum. Members from Ningbo poetry club chant poets to express their patriotism, accompanied by on-site calligraphy and painting creation, Chinese Qin (a seven-stringed plucked instrument) live performance and rice-dumplings-making game.

A resident said, “This is Haibao filled with rice and perfume, which represents our affluent life and old tradition in Dragon Boat Festival.” In Qiantong town, Ninghai, new daughter-in-law is required to prepare for a lot of colorful silk threads and sachets in Dragon Boat Festival. As soon as she sees a child, she would twist silk threads on his wrist, or give the sachet to him. Traditionally, Qiantong locals will use calamus and wormwood to weave a “sword” and hang it on their door. At noon, everyone will have a sip of Xionghuang Wine and write some couplets and spells with liquor to attach them on the door. They also plaster the wine on children’s forehead, ears and somewhere else.