The Journey of a Lantern: How Chinese Lanterns Traveled from Local Paths to the Center of the World

Last week, I was scrolling through my Moments and saw a photo posted by an old classmate who lives in France: she and her French husband were smiling brightly, leaning against a panda lantern in their own garden. The comment section exploded: “Is that a lantern at your house?” “Is it exported from Zigong?” “Are French people celebrating Chinese New Year too?” She replied: “I fell in love with it at first sight at the Montauban Lantern Festival last year, and pestered the organizers to let me borrow it—my wedding couldn’t be without it.”

It turns out these lanterns, which we’ve grown up seeing, are quietly changing the nights of the world.

I. 2025: Lanterns Become the “Main Venue” for Intangible Cultural Heritage

This year’s Spring Festival is special—it’s the first New Year after the successful UNESCO inscription of “Chinese Spring Festival” as intangible cultural heritage. In Zigong, Sichuan, “Intangible Cultural Heritage Greets the New Year – Lighting Up Chinese Lanterns” became the national main venue. The site not only featured giant lantern groups from Zigong, but also showcased 27 national intangible cultural heritage lantern arts from 15 provinces and cities across China. The 47 diverse lanterns were like a silent dialogue: the rotating lanterns from Jiangsu were as exquisite as antique clocks, the gourd lanterns from Qinghai were joined by mortise and tenon structures, and the Páncūn lanterns from Guangdong exuded the humid warmth and vibrancy of Lingnan.

What moved me most were the details:

• In front of the Daming Palace historical site in Xi’an, 13 sets of flower lanterns quietly told the stories of 17 Tang Dynasty emperors. The light reflected on the loess, as if history was breathing.
• By the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, on the workbench of Gu Yeliang, an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, lotus lanterns and cartoon rabbit lanterns sat side by side. He smiled and said, “Children like rabbits, they represent ‘raising eyebrows in triumph.’ “
• In the Zigong Lantern Festival, animal lanterns themed after rare animals like giant pandas and golden monkeys are adorned with cyberpunk attire, seeming to remind people to enjoy life’s pleasures while keeping in mind their responsibility to protect these precious creatures.

Tradition wasn’t put in a glass case; it was there amidst the bustling crowds, mingling with the aroma of grilled skewers and the laughter of children.

II. Hanging a Lantern Means Lighting Up a Family’s New Year

In Shanxi, hanging lanterns for Spring Festival has long ceased to be just a “custom”; it has become an instinct. Yang Ruiguo, an old Shanxi local, put it bluntly: “Where you can hang a lantern, you must hang one; where you can’t? Create the conditions to hang one!” No hook on the balcony? Tie it to the clothesline. No bracket? Wrap it with wire a couple of times.

Hanging lanterns is an unspoken “competition” among neighbors: your family’s lights are static, my family’s can change color; your family hangs a pair, my family hangs three strings. Young people buy smart voice-controlled lights, while elders insist on hand-made red lanterns. But when the lights turn on, everyone looks up and smiles—at that moment, returning wanderers know they’re home, and those far away remember their childhood alleyways.

A Fujian boss who sells lanterns in Shanxi told me: “As I sold them, I couldn’t imagine my own family’s New Year without them.” Lanterns connect more than just circuits; they connect the deep-seated reflex for “reunion” in people’s hearts.

III. Artisans: The Light Under Their Scissors Outlives Us

Liu Juncai, a 58-year-old master artisan from Zigong, leads his team in crafting the “Soul of the Peacock” lantern. Each tail feather requires over 3,000 precise cuts. For 500 feathers, that totals 1.5 million snips of the scissors. When the lights glow, the iridescent acrylic flows with light and shadow like real plumage—yet the old man just waves it off: “It’s nothing special. Isn’t this just how lantern-making works?”

What truly resonates with me is how cultural inheritance silently takes root:

• Huang Mingshu has been making lanterns for over 30 years, and this year he celebrated Chinese New Year at home for the first time—because his son took over his traveling suitcase and is currently setting up an exhibition abroad.
• ForestPaintingLantern offers internships to students majoring in Zigong lantern art whenever it undertakes large projects, providing every child who loves lanterns with more hands-on opportunities.
• In Haining, Zhejiang, Fei Zhitao, a post-90s inheritor, brought Haining Xiashi needle-pierced lanterns to a school in Malta. Children gathered around him, learning to fold red paper “Fu” character lanterns, exclaiming “It’s like magic!” He, meanwhile, remembered the night thousands welcomed lanterns in his hometown.

New technologies are also flowing in: using discarded plastic bottles for flower petals, using AR technology to make lantern groups “come alive,” and even collaborating with Honor of Kings to create IP lanterns. Old crafts are not dead; they have simply put on clothes that young people like.

IV. Lanterns Going Overseas Become the Most Gentle Cultural Translators 

Zigong lanterns have traveled to over 80 countries, accounting for 92% of the global lantern exhibition market. But “going overseas” is far more than just data:

• In France, they once struggled because “no one understood the Classic of Mountains and Seaslantern groups.” Later, they tried integrating Snoopy and Doraemon—the result was that local children dragged their parents to see them, and incidentally asked about “the story of that Chinese dragon.”
• A hospital in the Netherlands decorated its pediatric ward with panda lanterns, and crying among children reportedly decreased by 37%—warm light knows no borders.

The most moving story is about a French girl named Alanka. She fell in love with a panda lantern at the Montauban Lantern Festival and sent over a dozen emails to the organizers, just so that her wedding could have “Chinese pandas witnessing love.” When the lantern group lit up for her, cultural differences dissolved in the light.

Epilogue: Reunited Under the Lanterns, We Are Closer Than We Imagine

This Lantern Festival, I squeezed through the crowd at the Zigong Lantern Festival to see the main Snake Year lantern. Beside me, a French tourist held his camera and murmured, “This is more magical than Disney fireworks… because it has a human touch.”

Suddenly, I understood— The red lanterns hung by the old man in Shanxi, the 1.5 million cuts made by the Zigong artisans, the panda lantern at the French bride’s wedding… All those dedicated to light are responding to the world with the same lantern: Look, beauty doesn’t have to be identical, but the heart that yearns for beauty is ultimately connected.

As I was leaving the park,

I heard a little girl ask her mom, “What happens when the lights go out?”

Her mom replied, “The lantern artisans will light new ones again next year.”

So, what is called inheritance, is simply this— There are always people willing to light another lantern for the world.

Bonus: The “Spirit of the Peacock” lantern group from Zigong mentioned in this article is currently on display at the China Lantern Museum; you can search for “@灯博导览” (Lantern Museum Guide) to make a reservation. Videos of Zhejiang’s Fei Zhitao’s overseas lantern art classes are being updated on Bilibili’s “Non-Heritage Youth” channel. Click to read more (production process page: https://www.paintinglantern.com/chinese-lantern-display/) about lantern making techniques.