Chinese light show brings glow to New York

The LuminoCity Festival, a 16-acre light exhibition featuring Chinese lantern craft, dazzled visitors with its "Let It Glow Christmas" show at Randall's Island Park in New York on Saturday.

The exhibition features the lantern craft by artisans from Zigong city in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The Christmas special was the third themed event of the light festival after Cosplay All Day and Hanfu-sion Night since the show opened at the park on Nov 23 and will run through Jan 5. The last special event, "Electric Light Tonight", will be held on Dec 28.

The festival features more than 23 sets of larger-than-life light art with three themes — Winter Fantasy, Wild Adventure and Sweet Dream — and light installations including an Arctic wonderland, rainforests and deserts.

Zigong city has a long history of lantern displays since the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

"I grew up in Zigong, the epicenter of lantern light festivals, where they host an annual lantern festival that attracts more than 2 million people from around the world," said Chen Xiaoyi, founder and CEO of LuminoCity.

"Every year I saw incredible light artworks and watched as the lanterns evolved," she added. "I want people in the US to be able to experience the majesty I experienced as a child."

Huang Ping, China's consul general in New York, encouraged Chen, who studied in the US, and young people like her to use their imaginations to combine Chinese traditional culture and folk art with local residents' customs and preferences to bring joy to locals.

Huang said it is a way to teach them about Chinese culture and enhance people-to-people exchanges.

The festival hopes to become one of New York City's annual must-see holiday experiences, such as the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and The Rockettes dancers at Radio City Music Hall, according to LuminoCity.