“Dragon hunting” at Wudianshi marks the beginning of celebrating the Year of the Dragon. This year, ten art installations will be displayed at Jinjiang Wudianshi Traditional Blocks created by the team that created the Zan Hua Rabbit (a Rabbit with Head-pinned Flowers) last year.
These 10 art installations will be jointly created by the Wudianshi Traditional Blocks and Sanxiyi Culture & Creativity Co. Ltd. in various styles to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Among them, there will be five dragon-shaped installations named “Xue Yuan Shu Long” (the dragon with books), “Zan Hua Long” (the dragon with head-pinned flowers), “Long Teng Ci Hai” (the soaring dragon in porcelain sea), “Jin Wu Long Jiang” (the dragon fashioned as a general) and “Yuan Ting Zhou Ying” (the dragon boat) respectively. Another five installations will be created in the shapes of the phoenix, the top scholar's hat in ancient China, and festive flowers.
During the Spring Festival of 2023, five rabbit-shaped art installations, particularly the one with head-pinned flowers, went viral on social media, demonstrating the strong creative capacity of the creating team.
“When designing the five dragons, we took the needs of different audiences into account and featured them with different symbols, such as love, studies, fortune, and so on,” said Zheng Shanhong, creator of the five popular rabbits in Quanzhou and manager of Sanxiyi Culture & Creativity Co. Ltd.
She pointed out that compared with the art installations for the Year of the Rabbit, the creation of this year’s installations will be much bolder and with more consideration. “This year, we challenged ourselves to add lighting to the art installations to create an atmosphere, and to personify one of the dragons as a general in image. We also integrated the local characteristics of Jinjiang into the creation, using its city flower, the white magnolia, in the elements, and incorporating the spirit of Jinjiang’s entrepreneurs, such as innovation and dedication, in our designing concept.”
The art installation is not only a display of art but also a dissemination of culture. “We hope to incorporate the unique elements of southern Fujian into our works, and to tell home stories in a way of combining tradition with innovation.” Zheng admitted that the decision to display their works at the Wudianshi Traditional Blocks was made with a consideration of its distinctive architectural style of southern Fujian. As the main site for Minnan culture and the “reception hall” of Jinjiang City, Wudianshi has a brand positioning that coincides with the design concept of Zheng’s team.