While it is common for Chinese people to hold banquets for teachers upon graduation as a way of honouring them – a traditional value – in ancient China, students expressed their respect for teachers differently: by presenting them with vegetables. The tradition began in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). On the first day of school, students wore blue gowns and brought their teachers wild vegetables they had gathered themselves. They then bowed reverently before memorial tablets honouring ancient...

Chinese social media users were touched by the story of a young man who, six years ago, was encouraged by a strawberry farm owner he discovered through an English exam question – and has now fulfilled the promise they made. He Ziqi, a postgraduate student in artificial intelligence at the Central University of Finance and Economics, shared the story as he began a new chapter of his life in Beijing. Six years ago, when He was a senior secondary school student, a Beijing strawberry farm owner...