INLIGHT: Bringing a Thousand-Year Lantern Heritage to the World

For more than 1,000 years, lantern making has been part of the cultural identity of Zigong, Sichuan Province, a city widely known in China as the “City of Lanterns.” Today, this traditional art form is reaching audiences far beyond its place of origin.

Over the course of its development, Zigong Lantern Culture Industry Group, the creator of the INLIGHT brand, has delivered more than 100 festivals and exhibitions across over 200 cities and regions, reaching a cumulative audience of more than 200 million. These projects have transformed a centuries-old craft into large-scale cultural experiences that combine traditional craftsmanship, local storytelling, international IP, and emerging technologies.

At the center of this global journey is a story of preservation, organization, and reinvention—one that began with a group of artisans and an art teacher who believed that Zigong’s centuries-old craft could reach a global audience if the city’s skills, resources, and creative talent were brought together.

Zigong has long been associated with the saying, “Once you’ve seen Zigong lanterns, nothing else compares.” In Zigong, lantern-making is more than a craft — it is a way of life. With tens of thousands of people dedicated to the industry, the city’s lanterns account for over 90% of the global Chinese lantern market.

Yet before 2016, the idea of building such a large and integrated lantern industry would have been unimaginable. At that time, Zigong’s lantern industry was largely fragmented. Family-run workshops operated independently, orders were scattered, and everyone focused only on making their own lanterns. Few had considered bringing these talents together, uniting their strength, and turning a centuries-old tradition into a thriving modern industry.

The turning point came with Huang Dechun, a lantern craftsman with 33 years of experience. He taught in the Department of Fine Arts at Zigong Teachers College (now Sichuan University of Science & Engineering) and later founded the Zigong School of Fine Arts. Years of experience in making lanterns and art education gave him a deep understanding of the limitations of the craft—and the vision to transform it into a modern industry.

“For Zigong’s artists and lantern makers, technical challenges could be overcome through their own expertise. The real challenge was bringing Zigong lanterns onto the global stage,” Huang recalled at an industry summit. “International IP licensing came with exceptionally strict, even  demanding requirements. I personally worked with our artists to develop grid-based designs and guided the welders in shaping the wire frames. The process helped us further refine two defining techniques of Zigong lantern making: wire-frame shaping and precise application of color-separated fabrics onto the structures.”

The word “refine” Huang referred to may sound technical, but it describes an evolution driven by necessity. In 2005, Huang and his team secured an official Disney IP license to create three-dimensional lantern installations. The festival opened in Fengyuan, Taiwan, and in just 15 days, attendance exceeded the city’s population, turning the event into a cultural phenomenon.

The experience made Huang realize that the challenge was never a lack of market demand for Zigong lanterns; it was the absence of an organization capable of serving that demand. As he put it, “A family workshop cannot take on a Disney project any more than a fishing boat can carry shipping containers.”

In July 2016, with support from across the sector, Zigong Lantern Culture Industry Group Co., Ltd. was formally established. One idea captured its founding purpose: instead of setting sail alone, build a larger ship together.

That same year, the new organization received its first major international recognition.

IAAPA Expo is one of the global attractions industry’s leading events. In 2016, Gilroy Gardens’ Lumination created by Lantern Group competed alongside projects from global giants such as Disney and Universal Studios, and won the IAAPA Brass Ring Award.. It was the Group’s first international award and a landmark moment for a Chinese lantern company on the global attractions stage.

The award brought industry recognition. What came next came from the validation of the market. . For the 2017 G20 Hamburg Summit in Germany, the Group was commissioned to deliver a Chinese lantern exhibition. In two months, 60 artisans took the project from design to installation, completing 23 large-scale lantern installations and 500 red lanterns. Among them, a lantern installation measuring 18 meters in diameter drew inspiration from blue-and-white porcelain and incorporated a German-language voice interaction system, allowing visitors to engage directly with the artwork.

With that project, Zigong lantern-making, a traditional Chinese folk art, found its place on the global diplomatic stage.

At the 2019 Lantern Culture Summit, Huang delivered a speech entitled “Preservation and Creation.” He returned to one idea in particular: lantern art is rooted in Chinese culture, but as people around the world come to understand and appreciate it, they also want to see the craft express their own local cultures.

This idea continues to guide the Group today. Its work brings Chinese heritage into dialogue with cultures around the world, creating new cultural experiences and expanding the international possibilities of lantern art.

The aim is not simply to transport Chinese lanterns abroad. It is to use the techniques of Zigong lantern making to interpret what matters locally—from landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, and the Colosseum to regional legends, wildlife, mythology, and contemporary cultural themes.

Through continuous exploration and innovation, the Group continues to bring Zigong lantern art to global audiences in ever-evolving forms.

Today, the Group has secured more than 100 intellectual property rights, along with licenses to create and exhibit lantern installations featuring globally recognized IPs such as Transformers, My Little Pony, Snoopy, Peter Rabbit, Roald Dahl, and Wallace & Gromit.

Since entering Franch market in 2017, the Group has brought its festivals to cities including Gaillac, Blagnac, Montauban, Amnéville, Metz, and Lyon. By 2023, it had staged 20 lantern festivals in France, welcoming more than five million visitors and generating media reach in the hundreds of millions. In 2023, Huang was named an honorary citizen of Gaillac, France.

The Group’s partnership with Longleat in the United Kingdom has spanned for a decade. Attendance grew from 140,000 at the inaugural festival in 2014 to over 300,000 in 2018. That year, the Festival of Light, produced by the Group, was named Best Christmas Experience at the Group Leisure & Travel Awards.

In 2022, The Wondrous Worlds of Roald Dahl featured more than 1,000 individual lanterns, bringing characters and settings from Roald Dahl’s stories to life. It was praised by visitors as “the best light festival they had ever seen.”

While preserving traditional craftsmanship, the Group has steadily integrated new technologies into lantern making and presentation. In 2023, the Group incorporated AI applications, holographic projection, and laser water-screen projection technologies into its projects at Dublin Zoo, Beekse Bergen Safari Park in the Netherlands, Nashville Zoo in Tennessee, for the first time, blending physical lantern installations with digital imagery.

For the Group, globalization does not mean leaving tradition behind. It means using new technologies to expand the possibilities of traditional craftsmanship while preserving the techniques and cultural heritage that define Zigong lantern art.

From the officially licensed Disney lantern project completed by Huang and his team in 2005 to technology-enabled immersive environments introduced in 2023, this journey reflects nearly two decades of development—from international project delivery to the integration of craftsmanship, culture, and digital technology.

INLIGHT: Rooted in Heritage, Illuminating the World

In 2025, the Group began a coordinated rollout of four internationally registered brands, with INLIGHT positioned as its flagship international brand.

The Group’s portfolio now spans six areas: customized themed light festivals and carnivals, licensed IP collaborations, interactive technology, illuminated landscape installations, intelligent animatronics, and professional talent development.

The name INLIGHT reflects this philosophy. “IN” represents the roots, expertise, and capabilities cultivated within, while “LIGHT” represents what the brand shares with the world.

The Group’s innovation portfolio includes copyrights, design patents, invention patents, and software copyrights. Its long-term talent development is supported by the Lantern Academy.

In 2018, the Group joined Sichuan University of Science & Engineering and Zigong Cultural Tourism Investment & Development Co., Ltd. to establish the academy. In 2023, the Chinese Arts and Crafts Society joined the partnership, further strengthening its industry-academia model.

The academy was established as China’s first higher-education platform dedicated specifically to lantern art and remains one of the few institutions worldwide focused on training professionals for the field.

The Group’s international track record also gives INLIGHT a strong foundation built on proven craftsmanship and global project experience.

At the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place in Canada, visitor satisfaction reached 96 percent. The Group’s Symphony of China installation was recognized as the world’s largest lantern display shaped like a set of Chinese chime bells.

Achievements like these are the result of near two decades of practical experience across more than 200 cities and regions.

A heritage spanning more than 1,000 years. Over 100 festivals and exhibitions. More than 200 cities and regions. A cumulative audience over 200 million. These numbers reveal the scale of the journey, but not the stories that made it possible.

Behind these numbers are generations of artisans shaping lantern frames by hand, an art teacher whose 33-year career helped transform an industry, and a city rediscovering confidence through a cultural tradition passed down for more than a millennium.

Rooted in Zigong and reaching out to the world, INLIGHT is bringing this centuries-old tradition into a new era.

Its global journey has only just begun.