Vixxie loves chinese light festivals

In an attempt to rebuild the blog and the posts as once were, what follows next are pictures recycled from previous lost blog posts with revisited writing.

When the darkness draws closer and the nights become longer in Winter, you can choose to hide under the duvet and hibernate (which is great!) or you can go for a wonderfully illuminated stroll in the zoo at midnight ! Enter: “China Light”. In 2016, I went to China lights for the first time, accompanied by mom-dear. And seemingly half of Antwerp, too. It was SO crowded. To get a pretty picture of all the light installations, it took us a fair bit of patience and an even fairer bit of elbow work.  

Pretty sure a couple of those creatures would make interesting Pokemon. Sadly I didn’t carry any master balls at the time.

The installations transformed the zoo into a fairy-tale paradise full of lights, with magical lanterns that glimmered throughout the night. I had never seen anything lit up like this. Pandas and penguins, and giraffes, birds and butterflies. Larger-than-life flowers and creatures that only live in the depths of your imagination. They were all on display like a magical menagerie. It was really out of this world. 

So in 2017 we went back and our expectations were sky high!!! 

But it was cold, and very wet. And pretty disappointing in a way that, despite of most installations being new, it didn’t deliver the magic we had witnessed last year. There wasn’t any special theme either, only what seemed like a couple of creative trees and flowers and the extremely long recycled dragon at the entrance of the route that we had already seen the year before. It also seemed like there was a lot less love spent on decorating the Zoo with smaller lanterns. I mean, it was pretty but it just didn’t deliver the same feeling. Last year had live Chinese dance performances as well. The only human animation we had this time around came in the form of an overcrowded hot dog stand. And I thought well that’s fine. I guess it’s just one of those things you do once in your life, get amazed and then leave it be for new visitors to be in awe too.  And so in 2018, when I noticed the new advertisements allover the city center, I didn’t give it any thought and skipped the event. Now, I can only assume the organization had been given the same feedback as what we had experienced, took it to heart and ran with it. Because in retrospect, looking at news coverage and online pictures after the event had ended, China Lights delivered a brand new spectacle with a brand new concept full of Chinese fairytales and love stories… And I missed out!!!!  I felt pretty gutted. 

With renewed expectations, I started looking forward to the 2019 edition, and I bought tickets wayyyyyy beforehand for what I believed would be an enchanting December night. 

And then my grandma died at the end of November that year. We were very, very close. Less so the last years because life happened, but that never made our bond less intense. Do you believe that certain things are just meant to be? My grandma’s favourite Disney movie was the animated Jungle Book. I still remember her running around the house I grew up in, humming the elephant song and mimicking their marsh. Man, she could just get so lighthearted after watching that little Mowgli behave like Baloo, or mess around with Bagheera. Or make angry hissing faces when the monkey king did his thing. Oh she did not like them chimps!!! She so often has read me bedtime stories from the original Kipling book. One of the most important books in her book cabinet. Right in between ‘The Thorn Birds’ and ‘Gone with the wind’. Well in 2019, China Lights organized their annual event around the theme of…. drumroll.. Take a guess ? 
I considered reselling my tickets because the scar hadn’t healed, but then last minute decided to go anyway. Grieving, I kept telling myself I wanted to visit the light show as a tribute to my grandma. Because surely, she was watching down on us all, and by visiting Mowgli, Hathi, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Sher-khan, a piece of her would be here with me. She was. She always is, right here with me.

Here they are, just for you Marrainne. Hathi and his phanties, marching again just for you. Hop, two, three, four. KEEP IT UP! two, three, four!!

As for my guilty pleasure? “Look for the …. bare necessities. The simple bare necessities. Forget about your worries and your strife. I mean the bare necessities, that’s why a bear can rest at ease with just the bare necessities of life!” Chuckle. Yes, I did the dance too.

The 2020 edition didn’t happen because of the covid pandemic. Everything was cancelled for so many months while chaos ensued everywhere. And in 2021, the organization moved the whole spectacle to another Zoo in Belgium: Planckendael, leaving Antwerp in the dark. Literally. I have no idea why !!!!!! But I can only assume it’s because that Zoo is vastly bigger and was probably a safer bet to avoid big crowds of infected people. Now now Vixxie, why being so dramatic? That Zoo is not exactly at the other side of the country? True, a good 30km away from where I live, but the show is supposed to be watched at night, when it’s dark and the light illuminates the night sky. I don’t drive and public transport is a pretty unreliable means of transport here for years. It would be like putting all my money on a 50/50 bet, being able to return home with the last train and bus, or not. I never added “sleeping the night away on a bench in a city station like a hobo” on my bucket list, 

But the theme was … DINOSAURS!! Instant regret. HUGE heartache, but ultimately I chose not to take the risk. Covid was still a big concern again, too. 

In 2022, China Lights chose the universe of bugs and insects as their annual theme in the faraway zoo. No thank you, not even if you pay me 🙂 I can just imagine the size of my nightmares afterwards. But they also organized a smaller installation in Antwerp as well, themed around Alice in Lanternland. Even though I was planning on going for a quick visit after work, N.’s broken leg and need of constant care that month took a hold of my life for a while and I forgot about Alice. I wasn’t really THAT bothered either way. I honestly think the theme of Wonderland is a way overdone. And a beautiful event like China Lights, rooted in the magic of ancient Asian folklore, should never stray that far from their heritage by choosing a commercialized Western subject for their light festival. Authenticity is a thing, y’all.

What about 2023? You can read all about it here.

MORE RANTS, READING ON!