Zhongxin Festive Lantern

Zhongxin Festive Lantern

Nominating Unit: Lianping County, City of Heyuan

In Lianping, the locals hold a traditional custom of feasting eyes on Zhongxin festive lanterns, which has existed for over 200 years. Its earliest record can trace back to the Lianping Chronicles in the reign of Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty. The lantern printing plates dated from the Qing Dynasty still remain in 6 counties, such as Zhongxin, Youxi, Gaoguan, and so on.(https://www.daowen.com)

Zhongxin festive lantern, chiefly in bamboo and red, green, and white paper, is made with various manual skills, like tying, drilling, chiseling, cutting, printing, drawing, pasting, and mounting. It consists of two principal categories, namely, Liaosi lantern and Can lantern, the former being the most representative. 5 Chi high (Chi is a unit of length equal to one-third meter), and 3 Chi wide, Liaosi lantern has an octagonal shape in column. It is composed of an inner layer and an outer layer. The outer layer is reserved mainly for decorative patterns, featuring border column and circular ambulatory which is a common Chinese traditional construction; the inner layer, which is divided into 8 facets, featuring checked patterns in rectangular and square shapes, is mainly for design use. Mounted in its middle is a revolving scenic lamp with a windmill. On the lid, body, and skirt of the lantern, paper-cut decorative patters and designs can be seen everywhere, such as Dahua, Qingtoulong, Caimen, Huajiao, Qinkou, Huapan, and Zhudun. Designs are often originated from Chinese folklores such as Chang’e Flying to the Moon and the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea. Its decorative patterns highlights festive atmosphere and signifies good auspice. Each and every angle is decorated with red ribbons on which are Chinese poems and couplets. At night, the lit lamp within the lantern body makes the lantern present revolving pictures, beautiful and brilliant.

By employing varied artistic skills, Zhongxin Festive Lantern integrates folklores, legends, poetry, couplets, Chinese painting and calligraphy into a great whole, creating a marvelous art space within a tiny space. As it carries rich aesthetic meaning and high appreciative values, Zhongxin Lantern becomes a spectacle during the Lantern Festival, and embodies, by and large, the lantern custom of the local Hakka people.

Zhongxin lantern was forbidden for a time in the past due to some historical reasons. Though it has been restored since the inception of the reform and opening-up, skilled craftsmen are increasingly rare, lantern types begin to thin out, and its fabrication becomes more and more simplified. It is high time this lantern-making industry was preserved and supported, in as much as it is dwindling day by day.