A thousand years ago, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian on a mission to the Western Regions and opened up a "Silk Road".
Nowadays, with its unique charm, Chinese lanterns have paved a "lantern road" from Zigong, Sichuan, to light up the world.
2022 Zigong Lantern Festival Gate
Since December last year, more than 40 groups of Zigong lanterns from China have been lit in The Ritude Park in Blagnac, France, and the lantern exhibition extracts elements of traditional Chinese and French culture, and uses the combination of intangible cultural lanterns and modern light and shadow interaction to show the representative architecture, humanities, folklore, science and technology of China and France.
Zigong lantern set lit in France
Illuminated at night, the colorful fantasy attracts countless tourists into the city of Blagnac.
Entrance to the "Lantern Festival" in a French park
The light show has already crossed December 2021 and will continue to be lit up until February 2022.
This also means that there is a group of Chinese craftsmen who will be silently waiting in France for the Spring Festival this year.
Lantern craftsmen who "travel" abroad
Bring the "Salt Gang Dish" chef with you
Huang Yuanchao, 28 years old this year, followed the team to the French city of Blagnac on September 1 last year, and after several months of installation of light groups, returned to Zigong in China at the end of November. "Because of the epidemic, I chose to come back early to prepare for the Zigong Lantern Festival during the Spring Festival. However, there were also exhibition guards in France. Huang Yuanchao told Red Star News that since the light show in France will last until February, during the Spring Festival, 5 staff members will not be able to go home for the New Year.
The "French Lantern Festival" is full of tourists
"They're definitely homesick. But they are all workers who have been in this industry for more than 20 years, and they have feelings for this matter. At the same time, seeing the lights of our motherland illuminate the night sky of other places at the scene and feeling the praise of foreign tourists, their hearts are actually very satisfied. Huang Yuanchao said that they were "giving up a family reunion and bringing thousands of lights."
Huang Yuanchao
In fact, this is not the first time that the Zigong Lantern Exhibition has gone abroad. Since 2006, the international cultural brand "China Lantern Festival", which was independently created by Zigong Lantern Culture Industry Group Co., Ltd., has exhibited and performed more than 100 times in mainstream countries in Europe and the United States, attracting more than 10 million people of all ethnic groups in all countries and more than 100 million media audiences.
In 2017 and 2019, the Lantern Festival has undertaken two series of activities to accompany national leaders to visit In Hamburg, Germany and Santiago, Chile, and has won many international awards such as the "Bronze Bell Award" and the "Heritage Development Cooperation Award" in the world. The "China Lantern Festival" spreads Chinese culture in a unique way with excellent traditions, fully demonstrating the soft power and cultural self-confidence of Chinese culture.
Make a map of the light show site in France
"Our life abroad is still very interesting, and I would like to share it with you." Huang Yuanchao told the Red Star News reporter that in addition to the need to reverse the jet lag abroad, everything else is very good. In order to take care of the tastes of the Zigong craftsmen, the local chefs from Zigong are also accompanied by each trip, "In the city of Lanjak, there is a salt gang chef who cooks for more than 60 craftsmen every day, and the taste of rabbit, beef and mutton is very authentic. ”
Not only that, Huang Yuanchao said that the partners of Lanjak City also learned to use chopsticks to eat under their leadership, from life to work, the Chinese and French teams are happy and harmonious.
The effect of the light group made in the method after the lights are lit
Huang Yuanchao said that they had encountered a lot of warm things during the production of light shows abroad, and a worker once smelled a man's perfume in France, so he patted the Frenchman's shoulder, pointed to the body, sniffed, and gave a thumbs up, asking where to buy. Unexpectedly, the other party directly bought a bottle of the same perfume and gave it to the worker, "They know that we are Chinese workers doing lighting exhibitions, and they are very respectful and friendly to us." We also use the Ever-Changing and Beautiful Zigong Lanterns again and again to make them feel the strong Chinese culture. Huang Yuanchao said that the previous Gaillac Light Show in France had attracted more than a million tourists, "you know, the population of the whole city there is less than 20,000." We not only brought local popularity, but also boosted the economy. ”
Drawing, lofting, mounting, energizing...
The housekeeping skills of Zigong lantern people amaze the world
You know, it takes at least half a year to carry out a large-scale lantern festival.
First of all, designers need to make renderings, and hand them over to the artists and modeling teams for specific production, in which the status and role of the artists are irreplaceable. In addition to the design of the lamp group shape, the quality of the painting is directly related to the quality of the flower lamp. A simple chalk head draws coordinates on the ground and connects the dots to become a floor plan of a 12-meter-long vault hanging two lanterns, a step known as "lofting", that is, the plan of the lantern needs to be painted on the ground in a one-to-one ratio. Then the welder saws different angle steel and steel wires into the "skeleton" of the colored lamp.
The style of the lantern, the construction of the skeleton, the collocation of the fabric, and the connection during the assembly process must be experienced by the artist himself, and he must also integrate his understanding of the aesthetics of the lantern.
However, the floor plan provided by the artist is only a rough proportion, and the fine part drawing cannot be fully expressed, which all depends on the experience of the welder. Subsequently, after the electrician turned on the current for the lantern, it was also necessary to mount the paste, and Huang Yuanchao said that this step was to "put on the clothes for the lantern". Most of the laminators are women, and according to the color mark of the cloth strips on the wire, the corresponding cloth strips are glued one by one.
After this step is completed, artificial coloring and coloring, such as the eyes of the characters, hand paintings on lanterns, etc., all require art masters with certain skills to draw by hand. Huang Yuanchao said, "Painting is an important part that determines the aesthetics of the final finished product. ”
The "Jingwei Goddess" at the scene of the 2022 Zigong Lantern Festival
The role of electricians is mainly to install lamps, today's lights and 20 years ago the gas bulb is different, a variety of forms, illumination of the lamp, the effect presented is also different, to the tourists to bring the visual effect is also very different.
"The lamp is very exquisite, if it is next to the wire, the light will reveal the outline of the wire inside; but if it is too far, there will be uneven lighting and insufficient brightness." Huang Yuanchao said that both at home and abroad, the wire used in the light show is made in China, and even the light show opened abroad is also a good wire made in China, "After all, China has mature technology, which can fully meet the needs of the light show." ”
2022 Zigong Lantern Festival Scene "Nuwa Patching Heaven"
When the light group modeling design is completed, lofting, welding, installation circuit, mounting paste, assembly, etc., this link buckle link program, all need to achieve excellence.
However, doing light shows outside is certainly not better than at home, and there will always be some small difficulties. But these difficulties are not difficult for the industrious and wise Chinese craftsmen. "For example, the steel frame we transported to the city of Blagnac in a container this time, when it was installed on site, there was a 7-centimeter mismatch in one link." Huang Yuanchao explained that compared to the tall light show as a whole, this may be a trivial detail that is not easy to notice, but this group of Chinese craftsmen "can't stand it" - they use local welding, cloth covering, etc., to perfectly deal with this small flaw.
It is the son who inherits the father's business, and it is also a two-way journey
More than 400 million Chinese and foreign tourists witnessed the "world's first lamp"
In fact, Huang Yuanchao is already the second generation of lampmakers in his family. His father, Huang Mingshu, was an ordinary peasant man who grew up to a lantern maker who led a team of hundreds of people. When he and his team were making lanterns abroad, they were often invited individually from other countries, but he always refused.
Today, he has traveled all over Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore and other countries and regions with Zigong lanterns. Being a lantern person for a lifetime is Huang Mingshu's lifelong dream, and it has also become Huang Yuanchao's lifelong pursuit.
2022 Zigong Lantern Festival site
If the lantern festival is done in half a year, perhaps the exhibition time is less than half a year, will it feel that the investment and income are not cost-effective? "No, there are some things that can't be found." Huang Yuanchao said that the theme of the lantern festival every year is different, and the content of each lantern exhibition is different, such as this year's lantern festival in the Year of the Tiger, which will involve the image of the tiger, which is only exhibited during the Spring Festival, if you miss it, you need to wait for another 12 years.
The large tiger theme light group at the 2022 Zigong Lantern Festival
Many things need to rely on fate and "two-way rushing" so that there will be no regrets. Huang Yuanchao said that such a trip not only comes from tourists, but also from the support of the local government. French Gaillac and Zigong City in February 2017 as an international sister city, the two sides signed a series of cooperation agreements, and decided to hold a "Global Lights" in Gaiark at the end of 18 years, The mayor of Gaiark City, Mr. Goslang, believes that the "Made in China" under the Chinese cultural business card will shine in France.
Huang Dechun
"The Zigong Lantern Festival is a national folk intangible cultural heritage, a famous festival cultural brand in the country, and the Zigong Lantern Making Technique is the intangible cultural heritage of handicrafts in Sichuan Province." Huang Dechun, chairman of the Zigong Lantern Cultural Industry Group, told Red Star News that since the Zigong Lantern Festival first went abroad in 1989, its footprints have spread across the five continents of the world and the north and south of the motherland.
At present, Zigong lantern enterprises have occupied more than 90% of the market share of domestic lantern clubs, more than 95% of the market share of overseas lantern clubs, and the foreign cultural trade of lanterns has always ranked first in the export and trade volume of traditional cultural products in the province. Zigong Lantern Festival has been exhibited in 63 countries and regions around the world and more than 500 large and medium-sized cities in China, attracting more than 400 million Chinese and foreign tourists to watch the lanterns, deeply loved by audiences at home and abroad, and is known as "the world's first lamp". As the intangible cultural heritage of the state and Sichuan Province, the Zigong Lantern Festival and the Zigong Lantern Making Technique have formed a trend of group inheritance.
Light show production teaching
"In order to improve the theoretical system of Chinese lantern culture, accelerate the cultivation of chinese traditional lantern culture theory and skill inheritors, adapt to the needs of Chinese cultural rejuvenation, and realize the transformation and upgrading of China's traditional lantern culture industry, Zigong Lantern Group has decided to jointly establish China's first lantern art professional college with Sichuan University of Light and Chemical Technology, focusing on cultivating application-oriented high-level professional talents and professional masters with a solid theoretical foundation and adapting to the needs of the lantern industry, laying the cornerstone for sustainable development for the inheritance and development of China's lantern culture." Huang Dechun said.
Glory returned to his hometown, and the lights were still on
This year's Zigong Lantern Festival is also exciting
On the evening of January 1, 2022, Zigong, Sichuan Province, was illuminated in the China Zigong China Lantern World Scenic Spot, and countless tourists came to visit and admire the lights. With the theme of "Viewing Zigong Lanterns and Celebrating the Chinese New Year", the park has uniquely created five major divisions of "Guotai Min'an", "Hometown Nostalgia", "Together to the Future", "Shangyuan Illusion" and "DreamTime", innovating and constructing immersive scenes, leading visitors to appreciate an ultimate lantern night tour feast of "the return of the Five Peaks without looking at the mountains, and the return of Zigong without looking at the lights". Open the interactive, playable and ornamental "Interactive Immersive Night Tour Experience of the New Era".
The "Nine-tailed Fox" at the scene of the 2022 Zigong Lantern Festival
At the scene, 14 distinctive theme plates bloomed:
The "Salt Rhymes and Thousand Autumns" section with local characteristics grown from the profound history and culture of the salt industry in Zigong;
"Color and Fragrance Touch" all-round immersive experience of "Salt City";
Unlock the "Happy Zodiac" where the new perspective of live broadcasting, the blend of annual atmosphere and fashion;
"Mountains and Seas" is based on the beautiful imagination of the ancient people, allowing the ancient divine beasts to "enter reality";
Moving forward with dreams,"Together to the Future" to jointly write a new chapter in a socialist modern power;
Constantly breaking through innovation, "Shangyuan Illusion" creates a fantastic scene hanging in the air...
2022 Zigong Lantern Festival Scene "Salt Rhyme Thousand Autumns"
Among them, the "Salt Rhymes thousand autumns" light group fire out of the circle. "The inheritance of the essence of traditional lanterns and the development and transformation of future lanterns are the directions I have been striving for." Xiong Tenglong, head of its core light group, told Red Star News that the front end of the light group area is a large door, with multiple combinations with great visual impact, integrating "festivals" and "technology", and realizing the integration of tradition and fashion, reality and virtuality.
When it comes to the source of creativity, Xiong Tenglong said that it comes from the hot ideals of the younger generation to pursue art, which are colorful like neon in dreams, and light and shadow are like immortal fortresses. In his view, the integration of traditional salt culture and modern light and shadow MR technology is a set of "tide" and "play" in one, inheriting excellent culture and maintaining the attraction of the public that is constantly changing, and is the enthusiasm of lantern people for life and the creative spirit that never goes out.
Red Star News reporter | Zeng Qi according to the interviewee
Edited | Duan Xueying
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