New hope for cancer treatment(Happy Qixi Festival!祝大家七夕快乐！)
Happy Qixi Festival!
祝大家七夕快乐！
Today marks the traditional Chinese Qixi Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Seven is “Qi” in Chinese and Xi means “night” in ancient Chinese, thus qixi means the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month. In recent years, Qixi Festival has been considered Chinese Valentine’s Day. However Qixi wasn’t always a festival for lovers. It was initially a time for unwed ladies to beg the weaving goddess for domestic skills. It was also an occasion to pray for a good husband.
Qixi is also a festival commemorating the love story between the weaving goddess and a herder. The heavenly Queen mother of the weaving goddess was furious as gods and humans are forbidden to cohabitate. So, she created the Milky Way to separate the couple. A flock of magpies was moved by their love and decided to form a bridge across the galactic band to enable them to reunite every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month-or, Qixi.
Preview / 摘要
➤New hope for cancer treatment from Sun Yat-sen University
中大团队发现抗癌病毒计划明年申请人体临床试验
➤Heavy rainfalls to continue
台风帕卡带来的降水还将在广东持续一到两天
➤GD athletes all set for China’s National Games
全运会开幕，广东代表团盛装出席。目前广东代表团已收获10金
Research team from Sun Yat-sen University brings new hope for cancer treatment
（image of Professor Yan via GD Satellite TV)
We have some surprising news that comes from the Guangzhou-based Sun Yut-sen University research team whose new discovery has brought new hope for future cancer treatment! At around 2 o’clock yesterday morning, the research team led by Professor Yan Guangmei published an article, claiming that they have found a compound that can produce a tumor-targeting virus known as the M1 oncolytic virus that is now almost 3,600 times more effective at killing cancerous cells compared to when it was first discovered.
This comes as a giant leap forward for the team after their first discovery in 2014 when the team found that the natural M1 oncolytic virus can selectively kill tumor cells while leaving non-cancerous cells intact. So far the compound has been tested on mice as well as monkeys, and both tests have proven the compound’s potency against tumor cells. The team is now looking to apply for a clinical trial on the human body over the coming year.
Heavy rainfalls to continue following typhoons
(image via ycwb.com)
Within the past week, the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province has been hit by two typhoons, Hato and Pahkar, the latter of which brought even heavier rainfalls than the first. The city of Zhuhai experienced torrential rainfalls amidst the typhoons, with some areas becoming waterlogged. Other cities including Qingyuan, Yunfu, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen, have also been heavily affected by the extreme weather conditions.
While the typhoons have already left, the rainfalls brought by them are forecast to last through today (Aug.28) and tomorrow (Aug. 29). Due to the intensive precipitation, many mountainous areas have become prone to geological disasters such as landslides and mudflows, therefore we strongly advise our listeners to avoid these areas.
The Department of Civil Affairs of Guangdong Province yesterday (Aug. 27) dispatched three disaster relief teams to carry out relief work in the cities of Jiangmen, YangJiang and Zhuhai. The response teams, which consist of more than 10,000 staff, have helped set up 3,579 emergency shelters, and have accommodated more than 110,000 disaster victims. The teams have also distributed 740,000-yuan worth of relief supplies including tents, quilts, blankets and food and water, among the victims to make sure that their basic needs are properly met.
GD athletes all set for China’s National Games
(image via Nanfang southern metropolis)
The 2017 National Games of China officially kicked off yesterday (Aug 27) at the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium in Tianjin. More than 1,000 athletes from Guangdong will be competing in 33 events which will be further divided into 417 sub-events.
Some of the heavyweight-athletes from the Guangdong delegation includes two-time Olympic gold medal winning badminton player, Fu Haifeng, award-winning table tennis player, Liu Shiwen, China’s fast 100-meter sprinter, Su Bing Tian and more.
The Guangdong delegation has so far secured a total of 10 gold medals in events such as the modern pentathlon, boxing, diving and three-player basketball at this session of the National Games.
Love is in the air on Qixi Festival
Starting yesterday, we could see moments “warning” of lovey-dovey posts during the festival. Single people or “Single Dogs”(单身狗), an internet nickname for singles, posted pictures mocking the sadness that is associated with being single.
Some also argue that today is not Chinese Valentine’s Day in terms of its origins, instead the Lantern Festival, which falls on January 15 according to the Chinese lunar calendar, should count. However, this will not prevent the romantic among us from treating today as “Chinese Valentine’s Day.”
News written and edited by Hazza, Michelle & Jonathan