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Chinese Lantern Festival delights and amazes

Making its Central European debut, the traditional Chinese lantern festival highlights music, dance, costumes and the amazing art of the illuminated lantern, opening September 1st on Vienna's Donau Insel.

Published: 24 August 2016 23:50 CEST
Chinese Lantern Festival delights and amazes
Highlight is this scale model of Vienna's Opera House, as a giant lantern. Photo: Paul Gillingwater

Hundreds of people attended a special preview of the latest cultural phenomena to emerge from the Far East, with the inauguration of a festival that has more than two thousand years of tradition to uphold.

This festival, organized for the first time in Central Europe, showcases the special artistry of nearly sixty artists and performers, who combine dance, stunning acrobatics, music, lavish costumes and with a highlight of beautifully illuminated lanterns dozens of metres long and several metres high.

With prices for tickets being 22 euros for adults and 12 euros for children, the festival is challenged to provide a high level of entertainment — and they deliver.

Chinese artists have crafted an amazingly huge scale replica of Vienna's famous opera house.  There is a tribute to Austria's famous Swarovski Crystal, as well as the goddess Pallas Athene with winged Nike, and some traditional Austrian dishes that everyone will enjoy.

The more traditional Chinese images are stunning — including a massive dragon, which watches over the event from behind the stage.  See if you can spot the tribute to the classical Austrian composer, as well as copies of some famous statues from the Belvedere gardens.  

There is even a pair of Red Bulls on the stage, but we suspect that's just a happy accident.

The performers on stage give everything they have, night after night, and still had time to pose for photographs with fans.  Important tip: the lanterns are best viewed after darkness falls.  The festival runs until October 9th, but get there early — it's going to be popular!

Check out our gallery here.  But trust us — it's much more impressive and beautiful in person.  

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CHINA

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as ‘political farce’

China on Tuesday blasted a democracy conference in Copenhagen attended by Taiwan's president and a Hong Kong activist alongside Danish government officials this week, qualifying it a "political farce".

Published: 11 May 2021 13:30 CEST
China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as 'political farce'
Demonstrators gathered outside the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

The Copenhagen Democracy Summit was held Monday and Tuesday in the Danish capital and organised by the Alliance of Democracies, an organisation targeted by Beijing sanctions in March and founded by former NATO boss Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

In addition to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod also participated in the forum by video link, which Beijing said violated “the one-China principle.”

“This summit is a political farce,” the Chinese embassy in Denmark wrote in a statement published on Tuesday. “Inviting those who advocate Taiwan and Hong Kong ‘independence’ to the meeting violates the one-China principle and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

“Some hypocritical western politicians are good at meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and creating divisions and confrontation in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. They are bound to fail,” it added.

At the conference on Monday, Kofod said it was “deplorable” that Beijing had imposed sanctions on 10 European individuals and organisations in response to EU sanctions on Xinjiang officials over their actions against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Like most countries, Denmark applies the one-China principle — under which Beijing bars other countries from having simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taipei — though it does maintain relations with Taiwan.

Cut off politically from the rest of China since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the territory is self-governing but is not recognised by
the United Nations.

Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province that will one day return under its control, by force if necessary.

China’s sabre-rattling has increased considerably over the past year, with fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers breaching Taiwan’s air defence zone on a near-daily basis.

“Our government is fully aware of the threats to regional security, and is actively enhancing our national defence capabilities to protect our
democracy,” Tsai told the conference in a video address on Monday. US President Joe Biden is expected to present his China strategy soon, as
calls mount for him to publicly commit to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

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