The end of a year is always the time for looking back and assessing our triumphs and missteps. It’s also a time for looking forward with hopes that the turn of the calendar means a fresh start toward achieving worthy goals.So how will 2015 stack up in the annals of history and influence how we live in 2016? 

It was the year when Tu Youyou became the first Chinese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in medicine and the government abolished its “one-child” policy. It was the year when a book entitled “Secret Garden,” which suggested simply that people paint their houses in bright colors and flowers to relieve stress, went viral. And it was a year when celebrities were willing to do almost anything on TV reality shows to keep their names in the public eye, including eating bugs.

It was 12 months of boom and bust on China’s stock market, which wildly fluctuated across more than 2000 points and spawned media accounts of both instant billionaires and overnight bankrupts. 

The nation wept for those who died or were injured in the gas explosions at chemical warehouses in Tianjin, and for those lost in a deadly landslide in Shenzhen.  We stood in awe as elderly veteran soldiers from the Second World War marched in the 2015 China Victory Day Parade in Beijing.

Here’s a recap of some of the 2015 events that will leave an indelible mark on China.

The stock market

The Shanghai Composite Index stood at 5,178 on June 12, up almost two-thirds in six months. Everyone was piling into the market and hardly anyone was prepared for what happened next. In just over two months, the index plummeted to below 3,000, dashing the get-rich-quick dreams of those who forgot that markets can be fickle.

“It changed my life,” said Felix Wang, a senior at Shanghai University.

Wang said he invested 10,000 yuan (US$1,538) in stocks last March because, well, everyone else was doing it. In just a few weeks, he made 3,000 yuan. Buoyed by that success, he borrowed 100,000 yuan from his parents, hoping to strike it rich by graduation.

Like Wang, most investors were shocked and panic-stricken in August, when half of all companies stopped trading and those remaining active fell heavily day after day. The crash was generally blamed on margin trading, where investors borrow money to buy shares. A bubble was created when the rate of borrowing far exceeded the rate of economic growth or profits of listed companies.

“I was thinking that I might have enough to kick-start my own business, like opening an online shop for sports shoes,” he said. “I was drawing up big plans. In the end, I lost half of my money, like many others.”

Tianjin explosions

At midnight on August 12, two consecutive explosions occurred in an industrial zone of the port city Tianjin, killing more than 150 people, injuring hundreds more and creating what looked like a war zone.

The blasts occurred at a warehouse that stored hazardous chemicals. More than 1,000 firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

The 2015 China Victory Day parade

On September 3, 12,000 troops of young solders and veterans as old as 102 marched down Chang’an Avenue in Beijing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.

The parade was the highlight of months of commemorative activities that included themed movies, dramas, documentaries, forums and books about the war and those who fought in it.

A Nobel Prize winner

Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, 85, shared the Nobel Prize in medicine with William Campbell of the US and Satoshi Omura of Japan for her research in using artemisinin to treat malaria.

The first Chinese to receive a Nobel in science, Tu has attracted much public attention and also revived debate about traditional Chinese medicine since the prize was announced in October.

The extraction and use of artemisinin is in line with modern Western medical principles, but Tu said her research was based on a traditional Chinese recipe she discovered in an old book of ancient remedies.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been a controversial topic in recent years, with some arguing that it is superior to Western medicine and others arguing that it is outdated.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has drafted a new law that calls for strengthening the use of traditional Chinese medicine in the modern-day health system.

The 13th Five-Year Plan

In October, an animated music video called “Shi San Wu” became the top click on various streaming sites. The cheery song was promoting China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which begins in 2016. “If you wanna know what China’s gonna do, best pay attention to the shi san wu, the shi san wu, the shi san wu…..,” the lyrics advised.

Without getting bogged down in details, the song explains how the plan was developed and who was involved. “There’s doctors, bankers and farmers, too. And even engineers who deal with poo…..”

Two years ago, a video called “How to Make Leaders” received more than a million clicks in three days on one streaming site. Its producer utilized youth-friendly cartoons, music and symbols to explain the often-labyrinthine election systems in China, the US and the United Kingdom. Usually, such propaganda videos are dismissed as clichéd, overly serious and excessively boring. This one was different. It was also a surprise for many Chinese to see leaders like Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping depicted in cartoon form.

Since then, the same producer has uploaded a series of videos using the same viewer-friendly gimmicks to explain serious political concepts. Average clicks have been more than a million for each video.

In the spirit of the new Five-Year Plan, Premier Li Keqiang has called for a new wave of “grassroots entrepreneurship” and “innovation by all.” The two concepts became “hot” words of the year.

“I have long wanted to have my own business, but my parents always had objections until this year,” said King Liang, a 27-year-old game designer who recently opened his personal work studio. “Their ideas changed after they saw Premier Li encouraging young people to be entrepreneurs. They now realize that we are in a new era.”

The air we breathe

Last weekend, Beijing released its second-ever “red alert” warning for hazardous air pollution, invoking emergency measures to restrict traffic, close schools, shut down construction sites and remove half the cars from the road every day. The first “red alert” was issued only two weeks earlier under a similar miasma of choking smog.

Shanghai, too, has been affected by bad-air days, albeit not as bad as further north. Netizens joked about how the local landmark Oriental Pearl Tower finally took flight into the space because it was invisible under dense smog.

People are scurrying to adapt. They are buying facemasks by the dozen and home air purifiers. Some have gone to the extreme of buying fresh bottled air from Canada. The first shipment of 500 bottles of air from the Canadian Rockies sold out in four days.

The public outcry over foul air heated up after TV reporter Chai Jing released an investigative documentary called “Under the Dome” in March. Chinese Authorities said many policies had been implemented to restrict factory fumes, car exhaust and the discharge of coal-burning stations.

The video reminded many people of the phrase “APEC blue,” one of the hottest buzzwords of 2014. That referred to the clear skies over Beijing after authorities implemented draconian restrictions ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in the capital. The phrase was amended to “military parade blue” this year after similar measures temporarily cleared the skies for the 2015 China Victory Day on September 3.

Family size

Beginning January 1, the nation’s contentious “one-child” policy will be replaced with a two-child limit, capping 37 years of a restriction that influenced the life of the traditional Chinese family. The new policy affects an estimated 90 million Chinese women. Three million more babies are expected to be born every year, though many couples may think twice about another child, given the high cost of living and education concerns.

The end of the “one-child” policy is a means of addressing the imbalance between China’s rapidly ageing population and its declining work force. The new policy is expected to add about 30 million people to the labor force by 2050, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The new policy was phased in. In late 2013, couples were allowed to have a second child if either of the parents came from a single-child family. In 2014, about 370,000 couples in Shanghai were qualified to have a second child, but only 5 percent applied to do so.

“I wouldn’t consider having a second child, at least not for another three years,” said 32-year-old Yang Le, who has a three-year-old daughter. “It’s actually a lot of work already caring for my daughter, and we are under a lot of financial pressure.”

It is common for Chinese grandparents to help take care of children, especially when they are toddlers. But many grandparents might be too old to handle that responsibility by the time a second child is born.

There have even been some reports that single children in households don’t want a sibling because they are used to getting all the attention.