Chinese lanterns in 2013, 2014 & 2015
For twenty years, I have been going to see the Chinese lanterns at the Montréal Botanical Garden and I love this incredible & magnificent visual show.
Sometimes I took my photos while the lanterns were being installed during the day. Other times, in the evening.
In this project, I show you my best photos of the year 2013, 2014 and 2015.
“Autumn and winter: Chinese lantern team members find a new theme. The painstaking design work begins. Precise drawing are made for each lantern, and the order, including dimensions, colours and technical assembly specifications, is sent to China.
Spring: artisans in the Shanghai region make each lantern by hand, following the technical drawings sent from Montréal.
May and June: the lanterns are shipped to Montréal by sea, by rail, and finally, by truck.
July and August: the lanterns arrive in Montréal. It takes two months for electricians, carpenters, painters, plumbers, welders and labourers to build the supports, install the electrical wiring and hang up the lanterns in the heart of the Chinese Garden.
September, October and early November: more than 900 lanterns light up the Chinese Garden!” (Montréal Botanical Garden)
In 2013 : Living treasures of Xishuangbannan
In 2013, the Chinese Garden and its Dream Lake become for a few weeks the rainforest of Xishuangbanna, in mininature and lanterns of all various shapes and colors of animals and plants.
Nearly a quarter of the animals in all of China and one in five plants are in the Xishuangbanna rainforest. Since 1950, the forest area of Xishuangbanna has shrunk by half. In 1958, China established the Xishuangbanna Nartional Reeve to work for the preservation of nature and animals.
Among the lanterns, I saw lanterns of Indochina tigers, the Asian elephant and the white-cheeked gibbon and other endangered species of animals.
In 2014 : Zheng He
Lanterns in the shape of colorful boats float on the pond are the stars of the exhibition. These lanterns evoke the time of the expeditions, to the multitude of products that the boats move in the cities. Bianjing was a capital of medieval China, at the time of the Song (960-1279). China has more than 50,000 km of natural and natural waterways and the largest merchant fleet in the world.
The details of the clothes were made inspired by the masterpiece of the painter Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145). Note, under the Song, the clothes of the people were made of cotton or hemp and the colors were limited. Peasants, soldiers, craftsmen and merchants wore trousers, while the silk dress in different colors was reserved for the literate.
In 2015 : Chinese New Year
The exhibition features legends and rituals surrounding chinese New Year with some 1,000 colorful lanterns. The artistic designer of the lanterns of the Botanical Garden, My Quynh Duong, gives life to this tradition that she illustrates through several giant figures of light, of Chinese legends and rituals.
