Yu Garden Shines in Year of the Mouse Light Show

Source：chinadaily.com.cn Published：2020-01-13 11:33

Lanterns of various shapes illuminate Shanghai's Yu Garden on Jan 10, 2020. [Photo by Xing Yi/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Shanghai's Yu Garden historical tourist site will be illuminated by modern and traditional lantern installations from Jan 10 to Feb 11. The annual light show for Spring Festival and Lantern Festival is a city tradition, first started in 1995.

The upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year will be the Year of the Mouse, and therefore a variety of mouse lanterns are featured in the light show — from the traditional style of a lucky mouse to the Disney cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Lanterns of various shapes illuminate Shanghai's Yu Garden on Jan 10, 2020. [Photo by Xing Yi/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Lanterns of the 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, first domestically built narrow-body passenger jet C919, and the Fuxing (Rejuvenation) high-speed train are also displayed in the show, along with lights representing the country's other big projects and achievements.

Among the traditional Chinese lanterns, a futuristic light installation stands out on the surface of the central pond — a school of fish in abstract form. Consisting of around 3,000 polarized plastic pieces, the modern and artistic light display was designed by a team from Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design.

Lanterns of various shapes illuminate Shanghai's Yu Garden on Jan 10, 2020. [Photo by Xing Yi/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Wang Zhigang, leader of the team, explains the elements in the work — the water is a symbol of the culture of water towns in the Yangtze River delta and the fish is a pun in Chinese for overflowing affluence, and modernity is a feature of the metropolis of Shanghai. The team spent almost six months designing, building and setting up this light project, and the piece will be kept in the pond through all of 2020.

The organizer of the Shanghai Yu Garden light show said they will partner with the Qinhuai River light show in Nanjing, Jiangsu province and the City Wall light show in Xi'an, Shaanxi province to exchange some light installations.

Lanterns of various shapes illuminate Shanghai's Yu Garden on Jan 10, 2020. [Photo by Xing Yi/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Editor：Zhao Xichen