Zigong lanterns began in Tang and Song Dynasties. In 1964, the Zigong Municipal People’s Government held the first Zigong Spring Lantern Festival Show, which officially opened the prelude to the brand development of Zigong Lantern Festival.
The Zigong lantern industry has continued its tradition and innovation for half a century. It has gone abroad from a small town in the southwest and devoted itself to making this traditional folk custom a dazzling Chinese cultural business card.
The cultural industry of Zigong lanterns has reached a considerable scale. At present, there are more than 1,000 enterprises involved in the lantern business in the city, and the lantern business occupies about 85% of the domestic market and about 92% of the international market, forming a large industry with an annual output value of over 5 billion yuan.
From the “Tree of Life” to “Shangyuan Illusion”, Zigong lanterns amazed the world with their magnificent craftsmanship. Zigong colorful lanterns draw on the strengths of others, integrate modern art, use the latest technological means, boldly innovate, and gradually move towards the top of the industry.
In 1990, the Zigong Lantern Festival went abroad for the first time and lit up the Chinese Garden in Singapore. For more than 30 years so far, Zigong lanterns have traveled all over the five continents of the world, and have been exhibited in more than 80 countries and regions. In 2018, Zigong City became one of the first batches of thirteen national cultural export bases in China.
During the Spring Festival in 2023, the international touring exhibition project of “Lighting the World with Lanterns and Spreading Civilization to the Four Seas” will continue to be held in cities such as Montauban in France, Nashville in the United States, Santiago in Chile, Porto in Portugal, Montreal in Canada and Tokyo in Japan.
Zigong lanterns tell long-lasting Chinese stories through grand lantern groups, carrying the understanding and expression of traditional culture, lighting up all parts of the world, and opening the “window of charm” to tell Chinese stories.