Lantern Festival

Friday, after watching the CCP's Birthday festivities for a while, we decided to go take a look at the Lantern Festival, being held inside the old Summer Palace--now mostly ruins, but encompassing a fair amount of parks, gardens, and waterways as well. On the way in--literally, as soon as I got my ticket stub back and walked through the gate--I met the paparazzi. By this I mean the random Chinese man with a professional-grade camera (he may have actually be a hired photographer for the events going on) who wanted to snap a few shots of the Americans at the the Festival. From less than two feet away. With the zoom lens fully extended. Well, I did want to be the foreigner for once. I guess this is what I get.

When I first heard "lantern festival" this is what I, and possibly you, expected: 

Or maybe this...

Or possibly even this.

Instead, as soon as I walked through the gate, I was met with this:

And then we saw all the other ones. The Chinese call them lanterns. I don't know what to call them, but walking through the park reminded me of those drive-through Christmas light shows. Except that instead of mostly flat images with small lights, these were totally 3D, made of cloth, and lit from the inside.

We saw a ship first thing. Right on the water, too. Literally.

And then, walking on, we glimpsed these globes through the willow branches.

We paused at a couple of the vendor booths on our way. This man was blowing hot sugar into different little creations. One girl ordered a dragon.

It was amazing. And only twenty yuan for one of these. Which is about three dollars.

I also grabbed a quick picture with this man--he was photographing me not-so-inconspicuously, so I figured it was fair turnabout to ask him for one in return. He looked weirded out. But then, if you're going to take pictures of random people, from less than ten feet away, in public, you have to expect someone at somepoint to do something.

Then we commenced wandering once more.

The bamboo was nice (very Chinese!),

as was the peacock with flashing feathers,

and the floating lotus blossoms were amazingly beautiful,

But as I saw more and more lanterns, it occurred to me that, more than anything, we were walking through the Chinese version of Oz. This shot here really brought it home.

Of course, as a Chinese Oz, it definitely incorporated very Chinese images. Like this imperial dragon and phoenix, facing each other over a lotus flower, and riding on the very real lotus flowers which blanketed the water below them.

Even the people were in on the Oz theme. Everyone was generally happy, and enjoying themselves, occasionally to the amusement of those around them.

This was one of the food vendors. Definitely having a good time.

There were also lanterns representing the other 55 recognized ethnic groups in China. This was one for the Russians.

Which is nice, really, but whoever figured this whole thing out must have made a short lapse of judgment somewhere, because one of the other displays for the Russians wasn't quite so complete. Well, let me put it this way. There was one area that had a whole wall covered with images of each of the recognized ethnic groups. The pictures were all of people in traditional clothing, at celebrations, community events, or performing traditional activities. This was the picture of the Russians:

And yes, that's all cows.

There were also lantern displays depicting major events or pieces of history specifically within the last ninety years, in honor of the CCP's birthday. Perhaps the guy arranging all of this had some deeper issues...

Although, you could ride one of the dinosaurs. It was pretty awesome.

There were other, more normal displays as well.

Which was good, because it gave us a chance to "get our tourist on".

While we were behaving like complete ninnies, and generally getting funny looks...

we met some smaller fans. This little thing--I'd guess three years old--followed us around for a while, until I couldn't help but get a picture with her. She would wave, and then get flustered whenever one of us waved back. So cute. Her parents thought it was hilarious, and when we went to take the picture, her mom "prettied her up" for the photo with the little lace jacket. Which then keyed the girl into the fact that something exciting was going on, so she kept staring at me instead of the camera. But holding my hand out in the (apparently) universal Chinese (and Japanese) sign for "this is a photo", i.e., the peace sign, clued her in. Seriously. Though she got really excited and held up one too many fingers.

And each successive picture she just added fingers. it was great.

 

All in all, a pretty Friday night.