The spring comes. In the evenings when the weather is nice, you can enjoy a beautiful scene of starry sky. This Sunday we went to a friend's party and came back a little bit late. When we got off the bus it was almost dark. The nice thing was that it was a lovely sunny day and it was still warm in the evening. The sky was clear, dark blue. The stars were twinkling like diamonds. It looked so beautiful that Nicole pointed at the sky and told us 'Star! Xingxing!' Then we introduced more knowledge about stars to her, the constellation. I showed her what's the Orion, the Big Dipper, and the Cassiopeia. These are easily recognized here in this season.

This reminded me of my childhood, on the summer evenings when the sky was clear, my father always showed me different constellations, which area belongs to which one. Those are sweet memories. The time we also had lovely blue sky, and the air smelled fresh with the scent of natural plants.

Then the talk naturally diverted to the hottest topic recently, Chai Jing and her anti-pollution documentary 'Under the Dome', the current air pollution inside of China. It's really a pity the condition comes so serious as reported. Actually when we have a review of the development of developed western countries as the States and the Great Britain over last seventy years, it will become clear to us that they also encountered such kind of environment pollution problems, and so did Japan. Their governments and people finally resolved the problem and learned a lesson from it. As to our nation, we should have learned from their experiences to avoid such kind of conditions. If failed, and yes it fails, it's time to face it seriously and to find out a solid way to solve the problem.

Sometimes I'm wondering how would I introduce our homeland to Nicole. The majestic scenery? The long history? The national blood and tears since 1840s? Or the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation, the Chinese dream? I may include them but I'm wondering these topics would be too abstract and big for her age. Anyway she knows her grandparents are in China, and her uncles and aunties are there as well. She gets the idea that she's not allowed to drink tap water directly in China, because it is not clean and safe enough. She knows that she's not allowed to take snacks buying from stores outside because there maybe chemicals inside which are toxic. And even more horrible, there are bad persons aiming to take little kids away from their parents to make money (the notorious human traffickers). Now the air is not suitable for breathing there. So how can people survive? She may ask me one day. Maybe her friends will ask her and then she will come to me with the question.

I want to tell her that is not the whole thing of China. And we have positive things definitely. But I feel embarrassed, and it's challenging for me to explain to her. Indeed I hope and I have the belief that our homeland will become stronger and more beautiful, and most importantly, in the meantime of the development, build a respectable image in front of the world. And we are all proud of her.

The original blog is: http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-309597-27394.html