At the beginning of nightfall, a palace "suspended" in mid-air is illuminated, a waterfall with condensed lights falls from the sky, and the "phoenix bird" hovers in mid-air. The streets and alleys under the palace are crisscrossed, and the moats, watchtowers, and tongquetai are full of lights, and tourists walk through them, as if in a dream.
This is a lantern group area located in the Chinese Lantern World in the western Chinese city of Zigong, which uses exaggerated techniques to restore the scene of the Lantern Temple Festival, which is named "Shangyuan Illusion". Tens of thousands of netizens enthusiastically discussed the grand situation of the Zigong Lantern Festival on social platforms - this is a "city that never sleeps".
Special "Spring Mission"
From last year's "Tree of Life" to this year's "Shangyuan Illusion", this is the second year that the Zigong Lantern Festival has exploded on Chinese social networks. The folk lantern festival has developed into an industry that dominates the market, going abroad from the southwest small city, and the Zigong lantern has spent more than half a century to build traditional folklore into another eye-catching Chinese cultural business card. Continuing tradition and innovation is not only the secret of the success of Zigong Lanterns, but also one of the cores of the Chinese story.
The "Shangyuan Illusion" of the Great World of Chinese Lanterns in Zigong City, Sichuan Province, photographed by Tang Wenhao, Xinhua News Agency
Chinese the custom of lighting lamps and praying for blessings on the first full moon night of the Lunar New Year began in the Han Dynasty. Zigong area in the Tang and Song dynasties there are records of New Year lanterns, the Ming and Qing Dynasties began to hold "Lion Lantern Market" and "Lantern Festival" such as a certain scale and fixed time of lantern festivals: after the seventh day of the first month, people light fire trees, hang red lights, and look forward to a prosperous life. At the beginning of the last century, the festival activities such as the "Lantern Festival" and "River Lantern" were endless, and every lantern festival, the lights in the city were brilliant, as if it were a city that never sleeps.
Since 1964, the Zigong government has held spring lantern festivals. In addition to professional lamp-making craftsmen, doctors, civil servants, teachers... Enthusiasts and technical backbones from all walks of life have received special "Spring Greeting Tasks" and joined the production of lanterns at the Lantern Festival.
Wan Songtao's father, a senior arts and crafts artist in the lantern industry and a representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage projects, was once a middle school art teacher and was the "main force" in the teachers' lamp-making team.
"After receiving the task of making lamps, my father went out to make lamps for more than a month." Wan Songtao recalled.
With the success of the lantern festival, the demand for colored lanterns is increasing, and the requirements for innovative ideas are also getting higher and higher. People try to integrate the technology and experience of their own industry into the lanterns. Porcelain dragons fly in the air, medicine bottle lights are full of light, glass medicine bottles, household porcelain, silkworm cocoons, CD discs, silk cloth... All kinds of materials at hand can be used as lamps. In order to make the lantern stand out, the makers did their best to unconsciously sound the precursor of the innovation of zigong lanterns.
The "Beihai Dragon Lantern Festival" sensationalized Beijing
In the 1980s, the Zigong Lantern Festival became more and more famous. Following in the footsteps of the opening, the local people began to try to make the lanterns into a business. In 1988, the Zigong Lantern Festival was invited to Beijing to hold the "Beihai Dragon Lantern Festival". The zigong lanterns first went out of Sichuan and caused a sensation in the capital, and when they were subsequently exhibited all over the country, they almost went everywhere "the lanterns lit up and the alleys were empty".
This is an admission ticket to the "Beihai Dragon Lantern Festival" in Beijing in 1988. (File photo)
Such a strong market demand has made many lantern makers in Zigong change the production of lanterns from hobbies to professions: some contract the art department of enterprises, and some set up township enterprises to receive orders to make lanterns nationwide. In this way, Zigong began to appear a number of the country's earliest lantern enterprises.
Nowadays, Zigong has more than 1,000 lantern business enterprises, more than 50,000 perennial employees, more than 130,000 seasonal workers, accounting for about 85% of the domestic market and about 92% of the international market, forming a large industry with an annual output value of more than 5 billion yuan, and the reputation of "Southern Light City" and "the world's first lamp" is far and wide.
Wan Songtao counts as "halfway out of the house", and his father's experience of making lanterns has always influenced him. After leaving the company, he entered the lantern industry, starting from art. For more than 30 years, Wan Songtao has witnessed the whole process of Zigong Lantern subverting traditional flower lanterns and moving to the top of the industry. In his view, the success of Zigong lanterns is inseparable from innovation.
"In fact, Zigong lanterns do not have a unique point in terms of production technology, and there is no fixed 'exquisite'." Wan Songtao said. But precisely because there is no system or process constraint, the imagination and creativity of craftsmen can gush out.
Wan Songtao (center) in 2019 with members of the organizing committee of the Lyon Light Festival in France. Courtesy of respondents
Today's Zigong lanterns are rich in craftsmanship, and the boundaries of the lamps are constantly expanding with the support of new technologies such as remote control, numerical control, and voice control. The choice of materials is the same as that of the original folk lamps, advertising boards, recycling of old things... "everything can be a lamp." The Zigong Lantern Festival has also changed from a new year's festival to a normalized cultural tourism project throughout the year.
In early January 2019, the Palace Museum in Beijing launched a series of exhibitions entitled "Celebrating the New Year - Celebrating the New Year in the Forbidden City", and 116 palace lamps of different shapes, including "Copper Tire Painting Enamel Gourd Hanging Lamp", were reproduced by Zigong Lamp Enterprise.
"We used to draw drawings all by a pair of hands, quasi-whether it was based on experience, and now we use computer modeling, fast and good." Wan Songtao said. Such an innovative and energetic industry naturally attracts many young people, and the vast majority of designers in Wan Songtao's company are "post-90s". There are also many young people in Zigong who grew up watching the lanterns grow up, and now they have become a new generation of lantern craftsmen, injecting new vitality into the Zigong lanterns.
In November 2017, the scene of the Chinese Lantern Festival in Gaillac, France. Courtesy of respondents
Light up the night of France
In November 2017, the Gaillac Chinese Lantern Festival opened in The Foucault Park in Gaillac, France. The Lantern Festival lasted for 52 days and took traditional Chinese culture and local historical customs as the theme, which caused unprecedented repercussions. The Tea Horse Trail and Chinese pavilions made of colorful lanterns shine in the night in France, and the surrounding tourists flock to the surrounding area, and the originally quiet town is bustling, and the small town of Gaiak, with a population of more than 17,000, has welcomed 250,000 tourists to watch the lights.
From 1990, when the Zigong Lantern Festival first went abroad to light the lights in Singapore's Yuhua Garden, for more than 30 years, the footprints of Zigong lanterns have spread across five continents of the world and have been exhibited in more than 80 countries and regions. In 2018, Zigong Became the only one in Sichuan Province and one of the first thirteen national cultural export bases in China.
The scene of the Chinese Lantern Festival held in Blagnac, France from December 2021 to February 2022. Courtesy of respondents
While "going out", Zigong lanterns have also attracted many foreign designers to come to China for exchanges and cooperation. Independent artists from Lyon, France, have worked with Zigong lamp companies for many times, staying in Zigong for a month or two, and collaborating with Chinese designers to design many interesting lighting works. In 2018, the "Bubble of Hope", co-created by Chinese and French designers, was widely loved by tourists at the Lyon Light Festival in France that year, blowing air on this group of lights, and the light group will change with the power of blowing, lighting up different numbers of lights, shaped like bubbles.
The Zigong lanterns lit up abroad are no longer satisfied with merely showing traditional Chinese symbols such as "Chinese dragon" and "panda". In 2019, a theme park in downtown Dubai held a light exhibition with the theme of returning to nature, and the designers and craftsmen of Zigong Haitian used environmentally friendly materials, modern light sources combined with traditional lantern technology to produce a series of lifelike animal and plant theme light groups to convey the concept of environmental protection.
Zigong City China Lantern Big World (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi
Brilliant lanterns decorate one "city that never sleeps", and the magnificent light group tells a long Chinese story in the night. Today's Zigong lanterns, not only born from traditional folklore, but also beyond the boundaries of the "Lantern Lantern", reflecting the understanding and expression of traditional culture and global issues in Chinese, lighting up the world and opening the "window of charm" that tells the story of China.
Chief planner: Zhao Danping
Coordinator: Wei Tiemin, Liu Kai
Producer: Min Jie
Reporter: Tang Wenhao
Video: Wang Xi, Xue Chen, Tang Wenhao
Editor: Jie Min
Xinhua News Agency to the outside Xinhua News Agency Sichuan Branch co-produced
Produced by China Story Workshop