In the early morning, strive to be a conspicuous bag for the Mid-Autumn Festival and a hand-made cockroach lamp? Sanxingdui mooncakes? This year's young people
"The cockroach lantern I made this Mid-Autumn Festival will win."
The "cockroach lantern" made by a netizen in Shanghai for the Mid-Autumn Festival has become popular in small red books. This note received over 9000 likes and became a hot topic on the platform yesterday.
Like the "Seventh Five Year Plan", with the approaching of the Mid-Autumn Festival, many netizens showed off the equipment prepared for this year's Mid-Autumn Festival on social media: some people made the necessary lanterns for the festival into hairpins to be inserted in their heads, some people made the artistic conception of light and shadow with mineral water bottles, and some businesses have launched special material bags to help buyers surprise in the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Traditional culture is loved and pursued by young people, and it also allows businesses to see new business opportunities. In the eyes of some people, this innovative and even quirky way of celebrating festivals injects new vitality into traditional culture. But some people are also concerned that having too much imagination can distort the original meaning of traditional culture, which is not conducive to the inheritance of traditional culture.
This "cockroach lamp" uses brown paper to make its body, two white circular paper to make its eyes, and the light is hidden at the tail. The green light highlights the "eerie feeling". Although many people dislike cockroaches, this cockroach lamp has gained appreciation for its round shape and unique creativity. Some netizens commented, "Before clicking in, how could someone prick cockroaches! After clicking in, let me get closer!" The netizen also posted a hand-painted production drawing in the comment section, and some commented, "This Mid Autumn Festival, please be beautiful alone."
Cockroach lights are not the only Mid Autumn Festival articles that have been "blown apart" by many netizens. Others made a Mid-Autumn Festival lantern from a deep-sea anglerfish with a lamp on its head. This anglerfish is made with a balloon as the base, coated with several layers of paper, and then pasted with fins, teeth, etc. After forming, remove the balloon and install a small light bulb. This creative concept of "combining divine form and form" has won tens of thousands of likes for the producers.
In the Mid Autumn Festival lantern notes on Xiaohongshu, there are styles that win with imagination, as well as lanterns made of discarded materials with exquisite traditional shapes.
In addition to being imaginative in terms of design, some people have also taken a different approach in terms of materials. A "ancient style calligraphy lamp" reflects the calligraphy handwriting on the lantern. In fact, it uses an abandoned mineral water bottle as the base, wraps the discarded paper pages after practicing calligraphy around the bottle, and installs tassels, strings, and candles to complete it. Some people evaluate it as "waste utilization, simple and easy to learn". The advanced version has a goldfish lamp that looks similar to the fish lamp of Anhui Shexian Intangible Cultural Heritage, which has been passed down for more than 600 years: a 5-liter plastic bottle containing mineral water is cut open from the top, with a section of the bottle mouth as the fish head and the bottle body as the fish body. After adjusting the shape, it is wrapped in rice paper and colored. Then, the discarded plastic folder is used to cut out the fish fins and tail, which are also colored on rice paper, and combined into the shape of a goldfish and installed with a light bulb.
"It was hard to buy seasonal goods for traditional Chinese festivals a few years ago, but now people can't see how creative they are." During the Mid Autumn Festival in 2020, Tang Yun, who worked in a foreign company, complained to reporters that "Christmas supplies are easy to buy, but only moon cakes are available for the Mid-Autumn Festival." But this year, she felt totally different, "there are more interesting Mid Autumn commodities."
A Mid Autumn Festival crab lamp, not only covered in traditional painted patterns on the body, but also able to control movement with crab claws and body. Carrying this lamp, the crab feels like swimming in the lake. This crab lamp is a material package launched by merchants, and consumers can color and make it according to their own ideas. And another fish lantern has been reduced to the size of a palm, embroidered all around, not only emitting light, but also worn as a hairpin on the head. Tang Yun said, "This is suitable for the brightest person on the Mid Autumn Festival night." She remembers three years ago when she searched online for keywords such as "Mid Autumn Festival", "Traditional", and "Lantern" while purchasing seasonal goods for the company. The ones that popped up were either red lanterns or Japanese paper lanterns. Some lanterns that advertised as "Traditional" were printed with ukiyo-e patterns. "Nowadays, such products are advertised as traditional Chinese seasonal goods and will definitely be criticized."
The exquisite patterns and lively Mid Autumn Festival crab lanterns displayed in the merchant's videos can also be assembled by ordinary people.
The essential mooncakes for the Mid Autumn Festival will continue to play new tricks in traditional culture this year. Following last year's collaboration with Harry Potter to launch the "Admission Luggage" and "Monster Book" Mid Autumn Festival mooncakes, the pastry brand Holliday once again launched the "Quidditch" gift box in August this year. And cultural and creative mooncakes from major museums are also not absent: the Dunhuang Research Institute has a layer of cloth covered with mural patterns on the surface of the mooncake box, like an ancient bundle; The mooncake, co named with Sanxingdui, has launched its third season "The World of Divine Birds". Not only does the mooncake surface adopt the shape of a bronze mask and a bronze sun wheel from the Sanxingdui Museum, but the box is also based on the bronze divine tree from the Sanxingdui Museum. After the gift box is opened, it takes the meaning of Tang Gu from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" and even comes with a wearable golden mask.
Welcoming traditional festivals in creative and quirky ways is becoming a new way for young people to play. In the 2023 Little Red Book Annual Life Trends released jointly by Little Red Book and the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the "four trends of study" of integrating the Internet entertainment spirit into traditional culture is listed as one of the top ten life trends this year. The analysis in this report suggests that Generation Z, who have grown under high-speed economic growth, have higher national confidence, and their interests are increasingly important in mainstream aesthetics.
"There are many beautiful things in traditional culture that can be passed down in a more relaxed way." Shi Yu, a "post-90s" office worker, remembers that when he was a child, he used to attend traditional festival family gatherings and was often called out to recite seasonal poems. "Talking about traditional festivals is awkward and tense." Now that he is a parent, "I want to play with my child and make him understand that traditional festivals are a fun and beautiful thing."
Hu Ying, who works in the education industry, also found that from educational institutions to young parents, traditional festivals are increasingly valued. "In the past, some preschool education institutions would celebrate Halloween and Christmas in the West, and it would be grand for parents to prepare a set of prince or princess clothes for their children; now, from the Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Festival to the New Year, there are many traditional festival activities, and young parents will have many creative ideas, such as dressing their children as Xiake and Huludawa, and preparing holiday products with great creativity, such as transforming milk bottles into lanterns."
Some people are concerned that mobile games may mislead teenagers by adapting historical characters.
Despite young people competing to be eye-catching bags for traditional festivals, there are still concerns that the reserved and reserved aspects of Chinese traditional culture may dissipate under commercial pressure. During this year's Spring Festival, blessing couplets such as "overnight prosperity" and "eating excessively without gaining weight" were widely circulated. Commercial terms such as "making money" and "getting rich" in traditional calligraphy and ink painting also made some people feel that they have dissolved the beauty of traditional culture and appear straightforward and rude.
"Being reserved and reserved is a kind of beauty, and being direct and efficient is a requirement of contemporary life." Shi Yu does not reject this way of inheriting tradition. "Traditional culture should not only be a record on paper, but also enter life in a modern way. Inheritance is not only restoration, but also progress and change." Hu Ying also believes that traditional culture should not only have beauty and educational significance, but also have fun. "It is positive for young people to celebrate traditional festivals in creative ways, just like Hanfu. As more people like it, more people will learn and learn about it."
