The main lantern of the Taipei Lantern Festival has hatched from its egg — the "Little Qi Chicken Family" custom-designed by No2good is super adorable

▲ The Taipei Lantern Festival's main lantern “Little Qi Chicken.” (Photo / Provided by Taipei City Government Tourism and Travel Bureau, the same applies below)

Reported by Yu Jia-yun / Taipei

The 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival’s main lantern was finally unveiled today (the 26th), on Little New Year’s Eve.Created by internationally renowned anime aesthetics artist No2good, the “Little Qi Chicken Family” includes not only the main lantern “Little Qi Chicken,” but also family members: “Victory Bro, Pinky Beauty, and Little Egg Calm”, breaking away from the traditional setup of a single main lantern as the centerpiece, it introduces four uniquely characterized characters.

▲ Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (center) displays the festival’s main lantern at the press conference.

The press conference also premiered a simulated performance video of the entire lantern area. Starting dynamically with the light sculpture “West Street Party” at Beimen, it sequentially lights up the “Universiade Interactive Zone” along Section 1 of Zhonghua Road; the light sculpture show “West Side Grand Theater” at Zhongshan Hall; the festive “Landscape Creation Zone”; the “Free Creation Zone” that reconstructs the lost West Buddhist Temple through flowing, changing light; and then to the main performance area where the Little Qi Chicken Family takes over the entire Ximending — some perched atop rooftops, others climbing onto MRT station roofs, and even jumping onto stages, creating a situational thematic performance mode that goes far beyond the traditional format of a single main lantern display.

▲ “Light Sculpture Zone” artist Chen Yijie with her work.

This year’s Taipei Lantern Festival invited over ten Taiwanese artists to jointly participate in the design of the lantern zones. The “Main Performance Area” designers include artist No2good and visual performance producer Feng Jianzhang; the Beimen and Zhongshan Hall “Light Sculpture Zone” artist is Chen Yijie. In the design of each lantern zone, besides preserving the historical feel of the western district, local characteristics of Ximending were integrated, and for the first time, performance art was combined with landscape design for presentation. It is hoped that holding the Taipei Lantern Festival in the western district will help revitalize the old city and boost tourism, balancing the development between Taipei’s eastern and western regions. Domestic and international travelers are welcome to visit the western part of Taipei from February 4 to 12 to enjoy a visual feast of light and shadow.

2017 Taipei Lantern Festival
Main venue: Beimen, Section 1 of Zhonghua Road
Exhibition dates: February 4–12