Girls dressed in “Hanfu”, or Han clothing, prepare for an event to mark the traditional Qixi festival, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day, at a park in Beijing, China, August 7, 2019. Chinese for “Han clothing”, “Hanfu” is based on the idea of donning costumes worn in bygone eras by China's dominant Han ethnicity. Some of the most popular styles are from the Ming, Song and Tang dynasties. Hanfu enthusiasts doubled to two million in 2018 from a year earlier, according to a survey by Hanfu Zixun, a popular community account on the Wechat social media platform. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Girls practice sit-ups during gymnastics lessons at the Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shanghai, China, on May 4, 2016. China's sports system has been enormously successful since the country returned to the Olympic fold in 1980, culminating with the host nation topping the medals' table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And yet, with the Rio de Janeiro Games less than three months away, the system is beginning to break down due to the shifting demographics of a more prosperous nation. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A stay-at-home mom's surreal iPhone snaps of her children have seen her rack up more than a half-million Instagram fans. Ali Jardine, 42, photographs silhouettes of her two kids in fairy-tale environments, from a spiraling night sky to sunsets. The creative mom has gained more than 519,000 followers online since she got her first iPhone in November 2010. And due to her success, Ali, who is from Petaluma, Calif., has been able to monetize her work, helping the likes of HP and Samsung with Instagram campaigns. Here: a girl on a swing in the sky. (Photo by Ali Jardine/Caters News)

A young girl makes a “tomato angel” on a tomato covered street during the traditional tomato fight “Tomatina” during the fiestas in Bunol, Spain, 28 August 2013. This year's Tomatina is the first pay festival after Bunol's City Hall sold 15,000 tickets to take part in the tomato throwing. A total of 20,000 people, including 5,000 residents, will throw over 130,000 kg tomatoes. Local authorities decided to sell tickets this year to avoid the overcrowding in previous years in which over 50,000 people took part in the event. (Photo by Biel Alino/EPA)

An artist has created a homage to cultural and historical figures – by immortalising them as Star Wars characters. Mike Leavitt wanted to “document the pulse of our times” through his sculpture by splicing non-fiction characters with famous faces. He chose the sci-fi trilogy as a basis for what he calls his “pop culture satirical mash-ups”, with many of the pieces hand-carved from wood. The hilarious results include Albert Einstein as R2D2, Michael Jackson as an Ewok and Angelina Jolie in Princess Leia's famous slave girl outfit. Photo: Gandhi as Yoda. (Photo by Mike Leavitt/Rex USA)

A 15-year-old girl denied a horse from her parents has turned to a cow to fulfil her riding dreams. Teenager Regina Mayer, from southern Germany, is able to ride her cow, Luna. She has even trained her bovine pet to soar over a beer-crate hurdle like a regular show jumper. Why, you may well ask, when most cow-owners are surely content to let the creatures chew and lactate and sit down to indicate the imminent arrival of rain? Well, Regina's parents wouldn't let her have a horse.

Tippi aged 6 sitting on the back of Linda, a tamed ostrich in South Africa, 1996. Incredible pictures of the real life Mowgli, a girl who spent the first ten years of her life growing up in the African bush, have been released for the first time. The magical images chronicle the life of Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degré, who was brought up with wild animals, just like Rudyard Kipling's hero did in The Jungle Book. (Photo by Sylvie Robert/Barcroft Media)

A Muslim woman gets caned 23 strokes after being caught in close proximity with her boyfriend in Banda Aceh on October 17, 2016. Out of seven couples caught spending time together outside marriage, 13 were caned while one girl was spared after it was discovered that she was pregnant. Indonesia's Aceh province has gained international infamy for its strict Islamic laws. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)