RAISE RED LANTERNS

VILLAGERS’ TRADITIONAL CRAFT HAS GLOBAL FAME,

The small village of Hongmiao in the Huairou district on the northern outskirts of Beijing is known as the “Lantern Village”, as it is famous for making traditional Chinese lanterns. Farmers in the village, many of them women, were hard at work making red lanterns in the run-up to Spring Festival.

There are 12 steps to making a lantern, including making the frame, cutting the cloth, sewing and gluing, and each worker has their own task. Everyone was doing something to ensure the smooth production, and from time to time the workers’ laughter would rise above the pop music playing in the background.

Yan Wanjun, 45, is the village chief and the founder of Hongmiao’s lantern industry.

After carefully researching the market, he led the villagers to begin making lanterns in 2007. In the past, local farmers made a living by planting fruit trees or working in big cities. Now the prosperous lantern making means they can stay in the village. There are about 100 villagers in Hongmiao. Last year, the lantern making earned the village more than 300,000 yuan ($47,600).

The size of the lanterns ranges from 3 centimeters to 2 meters in diameter and as the New Year will see in the Year of the Snake, lanterns in the shape of a snake are popular.

Temple fairs during Spring Festival in Beijing, as well as other festive celebrations nationwide, mean such is the demand for lanterns at this time of year that the villagers find it hard to keep up. The red lanterns, which the villagers make in the traditional way, are also sold abroad, and if you see a Chinese lantern in the United States, Japan or Italy, chances are it was made in Hongmiao.

PHOTOS BY KUANG LINHUA / CHINA DAILY Yan Wanqin, 64, brushes glue on a piece of red silk in Hongmiao village, Beijing’s Huairou district, on Jan 26. She is the oldest worker in the village’s lantern workshop.

A boy and his mother play on a square decorated with a huge red lantern in Beijing’s Shunyi district on Jan 26.

A 58-year-old worker named Liu Shiyou draws the draft of a lantern in the village. Liu’s job is to design a lantern according to customers’ requirements.

A worker constructs a lantern frame at the workshop in Beijing’s Hongmiao village. About 70 lantern frames are made there every day.

Zhou Zhihong, a 46-year-old woman, makes small lanterns at home in Hongmiao. Local farmers work at home during the busy season.

A worker holds a snake lantern in the workshop’s storeroom.

Women cover lantern frames with red silk.