The Taiwan Lantern Festival has returned to Taipei for the first time in 23 years. The festival kicked off on Sunday, and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) attended the opening ceremony at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
The Taiwan Lantern Festival started in Taipei and has rotated to different cities and counties every year since 2001. The lantern installations are spread throughout all of Taipei’s districts and are presented in four major exhibition areas. The festival will continue until February 19.
Tsai says this year’s centerpiece lantern is a robotic Jade Rabbit in honor of the Lunar New Year’s zodiac. The rabbit’s designer Lee Ming-tao (李明道) says he modeled the Jade Rabbit’s expressions after Olympic gold medalist Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳).
Chiang adds that this is the first time Taipei has hosted a large-scale international festival since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He says he welcomes people from around Taiwan and the rest of the world to come visit Taipei and witness the special exhibition.