2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival will be launched on 1st February in Kaohsiung

KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN
– Media OutReach – 28
January 2022 – The streets and night skies of
Kaohsiung will be bathed in light as the city stages the 2022 Taiwan Lantern
Festival, with this year’s event drawing on both tradition and modern
innovation to mesmerise
visitors to the city.

The Flying Phoenix lantern will light up Kaohsiung in 2022 Taiwan
lantern festival. 

The festival, which will run for 28
days from February 1, will for
the first time provide a model for collaboration between artisans who use time-honoured
methods to construct traditional lanterns and cutting-edge artists from around
the world.

Spread throughout the National
Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts at Weiwuying and the city’s Love River Bay
district, the festival will provide interactive experiences for visitors to
learn about how traditional lantern art can be passed down to modern
generations at the same time as harnessing advanced exhibition technology, such
as high-speed, low-latency 5G for remote artistic displays.

Historic roots

First staged in 1990, the annual
lantern festival is inspired by traditional folk celebrations on the fifteenth
day of the first month, according to the lunar calendar, and to mark the end of
the Lunar New Year. For centuries, people from China have marked the arrival of the New Year by carrying
paper lanterns through their darkened streets, with the designs becoming far
more elaborate and adventurous in recent years.

This year, Kaohsiung will be aglow with works by artists keen to put
forward their own interpretations of light.

Signature Lantern

The event’s signature work is a cross-border collaboration that brings
together lantern designer Benson Lu and renowned calligrapher Dong Yangzi.
Together, they have created a work that transforms the Chinese character
“feng,” which means phoenix, into an illuminated pheasant that is native to
Taiwan spreading its wings atop a mountain.

Lighting up Kaohsiung, the Flying Phoenix lantern will use the
aesthetics of lighting to communicate the message of effective urban governance,
and increase awareness of Kaohsiung City around the world.

The 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival

The artists and organizers
of the festival hope visitors
will be able to put the difficulties of the last year behind them, at least
temporarily, and enjoy an occasion that will be a unique feast for the senses.