Last night the lantern festival opened. Not having access to much Western or contemporary art it seemed like a good idea to go to a traditional Chinese arts event and see what it was. I cannot say how this lantern festival might have seemed to someone from Xiamen who has grown up with it, but to me as a visitor from the West, it was quite simply, insane.
Spread out over the park and also placed in the lake beside it were huge fabric and wire structures lit from inside. There were over a hundred of them. Some were motorised, some made sound, many were as large as a bus and practically all of them featured rabbits. Rabbits dancing, rabbits rotating, rabbits playing trumpets, rabbits digging the ground, rabbits eating and rabbits just sitting there being rabbits. The crowds were out in force on this warm evening and so too were the army. A particularly bizarre lantern set in the centre of an amphitheatre featured a golden dragon sat atop a massive 10 metre tall red lantern, which itself had mini revolving lanterns inside of it, circled at a distance by eight army soldiers standing to attention and at regular intervals and completed by Kenny G style music. At the sight of it, one of the other artists said to me “you don’t need contemporary art if you have this.” I’m not sure I completely agree as this lantern festival was doing something quite different, but I can see how it does fulfil the entertainment and spectacle impulse more than adequately.
