Shortly after organizing the Lantern Carnival, which took place on September 24 at Aldrich Bay Park in Hong Kong, Wan Songtao and his team hurried back to Zigong, their hometown located in Hong Kong province. Sichuan, where another major light show was scheduled.
After landing in Zigong early in the morning, Mr. Wan went to the "Chinese Lantern World" to conduct an inspection.
On September 27, the installation work completed, the place was transformed into an ocean of lights and colors, illuminated by enormous lanterns in various shapes: people, animals, flowers and buildings, on the occasion of the joint celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 29 and the National Day on October 1.
“For this Lantern Fair, we were inspired by ancient Chinese poems on the theme of the Mid-Autumn Festival
,” says Mr. Wan, who adds that the
Tianshang Gongque
(“the moon palace”), the centerpiece among the 21 major lantern installations at the fair site, has its origins in
The
Mid-Autumn Festival (to the tune of Prelude to the Melody of Water)
, the work of the poet Su Dongpo, who lived under the Song dynasty (960-1279)
.
The 19 palatial-style structures made up an ensemble spanning 270 meters and rising high into the sky, which encouraged visitors to look up at a round LED screen depicting a "full moon" on which they could see Chang' e, the goddess of the Moon, flying towards her palace.
Lantern Festivals have traditionally been held in the city throughout the Lunar New Year since the days of praying for blessings during the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties;
they experienced their full development during the second half of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the city, specializing in the production of salt, attracting merchants from all over the country.
These deep-pocketed businessmen financed impressive new-style lanterns during the Spring Festival to display their opulence and distract the workers extracting the brine.
In 1964, the city launched the annual Lunar New Year Lantern Festival and commissioned companies to design luminaries that would be displayed in a downtown park.
In 2008, the Zigong Lantern Festival was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in recognition of its long history, majesty, innovative design and ingenious use of materials.
Presentation of animal-shaped lanterns at the Dragons and Lanterns Festival in Paris on December 14.
GAO JING / XINHUA
Every year, manufacturers full of enthusiasm competed in creativity to eclipse the other competitors.
For their patterns and designs, they drew inspiration from the animals of the Chinese zodiac, mythology and classic literary works.
For materials, they chose silk, fiberglass, light bulbs as well as more unexpected components, such as CDs, porcelain tableware and silkworm cocoons.
A celebration that is both modern and traditional
Mr. Wan, now 54, has been making lanterns for thirty years.
He specialized in using porcelain, including cups, plates, bowls and spoons to fashion lanterns in the shapes of dragons and elephants, a traditional craft that fewer than a dozen people controlled locally.
In 2015, he was promoted to “heir” of this know-how at city level.
Having studied painting at university, Wan Songtao was led to think about how he could draw on his artistic training to design lanterns, particularly in modeling and color theory.
Dragons and Lanterns Festival in Paris on December 14.
GAO JING / XINHUA
In 1987, the Lantern Festival was renamed the International Dinosaur Lantern Festival and Zigong Trade Fair, because that year the Dinosaur Museum, which showcases the region's vast collection of fossils, opened its doors. doors in the city.
In 1988, Zigong craftsmen staged a dragon-shaped lantern show in Beihai Park to mark Beijing International Tourism Year.
The 35 installations and some 1,200 traditional handcrafted lanterns attracted many visitors.
Two years later, a Zigong Lantern Festival was held in Singapore, marking the first step in the global expansion of the Sichuan folk festival.
To date, similar festivals are held in nearly 500 Chinese cities as well as more than 80 countries and regions.
In the first half of 2023, Zigong has completed 40 overseas Lantern Festival projects, according to local media.
The city provided the lanterns used in the Shanghai Yuyuan Garden show on display until February 25 in Paris at the Jardin d'Acclimatation to celebrate the Spring Festival and mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France.
As part of the Dragons and Lanterns Festival, 60 installations on the theme of the dragon, zodiac animal of the year 2024, and other mythological characters and animals are offered to Parisians, to which is added a selection of Chinese folkloric performances, says Chen Jia, chief culture manager at Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart.
The Zigong Mid-Autumn Festival illuminated by lanterns, in the background, the Tianshang Gongque (“the moon palace”).
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
In 2018, Zigong Municipality and Sichuan University of Science and Engineering joined forces with Zigong Lantern Group, a conglomerate of local businesses, to establish Chinese Lantern College, an institution dedicated to training professionals of the sector as well as research and development.
To prevent Zigong lanterns from ending up in exhibition cases – the fate of many heritage objects – Mr. Wan recommends finding original ideas, being inventive and using new technologies.
Creators are now using generative design tools driven by artificial intelligence and the lighting of modern Lantern Festivals is largely done digitally.
Mr. Wan, who is also vice-president of a large lantern manufacturing company in Zigong, says he likes to go to the beautiful neighborhoods of Paris, Shanghai and elsewhere to admire public sculptures and shop windows. artistically decorated department stores, where he draws inspiration.
Furthermore, Mr. Wan knows the Lyon Festival of Lights well since his company has been involved in it since 2015. Having observed during his stays in the capital of Gaul that the shows combining light and music keep the public in suspense for hours , he believes that the Zigong lanterns need artistic renovation to resonate better with spectators.
To deepen the exchanges between traditions, he therefore got into the habit of bringing a French artist specializing in lighting to his city.
Which the Chinese Lantern College, to which the latter was introduced last year, decided to hire him as a visiting professor.