At 17:30 p.m. local time on January 31, as the 2024 "Happy New Year" mascot of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China - the "Auspicious Dragon" lantern group was lit up at the lantern festival site in Yu Garden, France, 60 lantern groups and more than 2,000 lanterns from China bloomed in an instant, and the auspicious dragons and beasts in the ancient Chinese mythological classic "Classic of Mountains and Seas" instantly bloomed and came alive to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the official opening of the Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism.
This time, the theme of the French Yu Garden Lantern Festival is "Mountains and Seas Have Spirits", which means that China and France still know each other as if they are close to each other, even though they are far away from the mountains and seas. The Yu Garden Lantern Festival, a national intangible cultural heritage that sailed for the first time, is undoubtedly a special Chinese New Year gift from China to France, and the bright night sky illuminated by the light of Sino-French friendship has become the best testimony of the friendship between the two countries.
Paris and Shanghai are lit up
As China's national intangible cultural heritage, Shanghai's Yu Garden Lantern Festival is one of the longest-standing, most well-known and most popular Chinese New Year lantern viewing events in China, and is even more well-known in Shanghai. Every year, the Yu Garden Lantern Festival attracts millions of lantern watchers, and this year it is praised by the audience as the "ceiling" of Chinese romance.
In 2024, the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival explores the sea for the first time, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and France has become the first stop for this gift.
After 9 months of preparation, on the evening of December 15, 2023 local time in France, the French Yu Garden Lantern Festival will bloom in the Paris Style Garden, which was built in 1860. Also on the evening of December 15th, Beijing time, on Ninghui Road in Shanghai Yuyuan Mall, the theme lantern group of the Shanghai Yuyuan Lantern Festival in the Year of the Dragon named "One Night of Fish and Dragon Dance" was also warmed up, and the night sky between China and France was shining, wishing a long friendship.
Xu Xiaoliang, Co-CEO of Fosun International, said: "With a history of 29 years, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival is an important carrier for inheriting Chinese folk culture. This year, we brought the lantern festival to Paris, France, and the Chinese New Year flavor also went to the world. It not only allows the French people to fully experience the charm of Chinese culture and oriental life aesthetics, but also presents gifts for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism. In the future, we will bring the Lantern Festival to more regions around the world, build it into a global Chinese brand, and strive to realize the global expression of Chinese culture. ”
The French lined up to see the Chinese lanterns
How to make the French people understand and like the Yuyuan Lantern Festival, the organizer of Fosun's happy industry flagship platform - Yuyuan Co., Ltd. can be described as well-intentioned. It should not only reflect the unique charm of the original Chinese culture and oriental life aesthetics, but also be easy to understand and empathize with overseas audiences.
Guqin and French horn concerto, Go and chess games, Chinese brushes and French quill pens to write together, Chinese paintings and French oil paintings to be exhibited together, fragrant tea and coffee to drink together...... The contrasting presentation of Eastern and Western life scenes allows the French people to intuitively understand the Chinese aesthetics of "qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea", and the auspicious beasts such as Kun, Yinglong, Bailu and Feifei in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", as well as the most representative "dragon" elements in China, have also been given a new design image shaping, so that the people who look at the lanterns in the sea can know the cultural meaning they represent at a glance.
Sure enough, as soon as the finely carved lantern festival in the French Yu Garden was lit up, it received high praise and enthusiastic response from the French people. "I feel that this lantern festival is so wonderful and so rich in content, I am intoxicated"; Watching this lantern festival made me want to visit China even more, and I believe that it must be very wonderful to explore Chinese culture in person...... This is what the local audience in France said.
The French tourists often come early, and there is a long queue that stretches for two blocks before the opening of the park, and the average daily visitors have reached 4,000 for several days, and the French director exclaimed, "I haven't seen such a large flow of visitors for many years!"
Let more Chinese brands go global
It is not only to show the Chinese intangible cultural heritage skills represented by lanterns, but also to set sail to the sea, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival hopes to build a bridge and a platform overseas: so that more Chinese brands, made in China, and Chinese art can be displayed to the world and communicate with the world.
This time, high-quality brands, including a number of time-honored Chinese brands, as well as commercial and cultural projects from China, also went to sea with the Yuyuan Lantern Festival to reach French consumers. Brands and projects such as Nanxiang Mantou Shop, Old Temple, WEI Blue Beauty, Tong Han Chuntang, BFC Bund Financial Center and other brands and projects have participated in this lantern festival in different forms.
Among them, the representative of Chinese dim sum, the time-honored brand "Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop" from Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden area, presented the Chinese delicacy pinched by fingertips on the spot, and created a "hard to find" sales performance, less than half an hour after the lantern festival started every night, there was a long queue in front of the booth of Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop. In order to allow more French people to taste the delicious taste of time-honored Chinese brands, Nanxiang steamed bun shop had to limit purchases during peak hours, and one person could only buy one cage, but even so, it was still in short supply. In the "Fireworks Market" part of the Yu Garden Lantern Festival in France, the rubbing experience brought by the high-end Chinese herbal skincare brand WEI Blue Beauty attracted a large number of French people to participate in the interaction.
The enthusiasm of overseas consumers has injected more confidence and motivation into Chinese brands to "go global". The reporter learned that in the near future, Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop will explore going to sea, so that more consumers around the world can feel China's food culture.
Reporter / Fan Yuhao
Editor / Lulu Chen
Photo / Yuyuan shares
Please indicate that it is from the official WeChat of Shanghai Huangpu