Technological upgrade creates lasting impact for Zigong lanterns

The 32nd Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival recently drew to a close after a five-month run, nearly twice as long as the sessions held a decade ago.

The extended season allowed the city to reduce peak-period crowding and host more than 350 cultural and tourism events across Zigong in Southwest China's Sichuan province, including folk parades, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, music performances, temple fairs, and night tours.

The longer run was made possible by innovations in the lanterns themselves.

Zigong has made lanterns for generations. Its festivals are legendary, drawing millions of visitors from across China and around the world each year.

The craft dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and for centuries, Zigong's lantern makers have passed their skills from master to apprentice. But for most of its history, the craft had a hard limit: the displays were always temporary, lasting two or three months and then discarded. After each festival season, workers would dismantle the lanterns, and the materials would be scrapped. That was simply how it worked.

Shi Fei, chief planner and designer of the 31st Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival in 2025, decided to change that.

His team upgraded the materials, experimenting with new fabrics, coatings and structural designs. Short-lived lanterns now can last from six months to a year. They also introduced thematic designs, digital lighting and interactive rides. Visitors no longer just walk past the lanterns and glance at them. They can step inside some displays, trigger lighting effects with their movements, and even control color changes through touch panels. Those efforts helped turn a seasonal craft into a year-round attraction.

The 2025 festival, which ran from Jan 17 to early May, generated 149 million yuan ($22 million) in ticket revenue, up 46 percent from last year, thanks to a 40 percent increase in visitor numbers.

The longer duration also created a lasting impact. The 32nd festival saw ticket sales reach 106 million yuan by Feb 22, up 12.53 percent from the previous year. The festival this year welcomed its one-millionth visitor just 31 days after opening — a milestone that previously took much longer to reach.

For Shi, the goal was never to freeze tradition in time. He has said repeatedly that intangible cultural heritage cannot survive behind glass. It must be used, experienced, and adapted. The aim is to help tradition endure and attract people to see it.

Across Zigong, the broader industry is following a similar path. Speaking at the China Tourism Entrepreneurs Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province, a major gathering in early June which brought together more than 1,000 industry leaders under the theme of building a tourism powerhouse, Shi notes that the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and modern tourism requires continuous innovation. His work on the Zigong lantern festival, he says, was driven by a simple question of how to make a centuries-old craft relevant to travelers who have seen everything.

Shen Hongyue, president of Zigong's lantern industry association, says that the sector has evolved from simply supplying lantern products to providing integrated services for nighttime cultural tourism projects, which are now steadily becoming part of new nighttime tourism and consumption scenarios across China.

Zigong now accounts for 85 percent of China's lantern market and 92 percent of the global market, with annual industry-wide revenue surpassing 8 billion yuan, according to Shen. The industry employs hundreds of thousands of workers, from traditional craftspeople to digital designers and project managers.

The local lantern craft has become a global export, with Zigong lanterns appearing at festivals in more than 80 countries, including the United States, France, Japan, and Singapore, according to local industry players.

The annual Zigong lantern trade conference held in May saw contracts worth nearly 1.03 billion yuan signed, reflecting the industry's growing commercial reach.

French host and Sino-French cultural exchange envoy Christophe Hisquin, who has participated in more than 400 international events, experienced the emotional pull of lanterns firsthand at an industry conference in Zigong in May.

"I have seen many lights in my life, but Zigong's lanterns are unique; the warmest and most futuristic," he says.

What moved him, he explains, was not just the craftsmanship or that being a visual feast, but the feeling that Zigong lanterns are a living history of civilization.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, has long argued that technology must serve culture, not the other way around.

"Our technology needs cultural leadership," he said during the 2026 Two Sessions. "Without the cultural essence, a purely technical spectacle cannot last."

He believes technology-powered tourism must be "people-centered" and "applied for good" — making traditions more accessible.

What visitors seek, he says, is emotional and cultural connection. Technology's role can enable that connection.

Wang Tayi, a veteran of the Universal Beijing Resort project, believes China now possesses the industrial capacity and technological sophistication to transform traditional crafts into globally competitive attractions.

He points to Huawei and BYD as evidence that Chinese design and engineering can compete at the highest level. The same, he argues, can be done with a lantern.

"We are looking forward to seeing this cooperation set a new benchmark for the innovative development of the cultural tourism industry," Wang says.