On December 9, the visiting delegation consists of translation celebrities and foreign media hosted by the CICG Academy of Translation and Interpretation – “Experience the Vitality of Zhongshan Tour” visited the 2023 Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair.
It is said that the small chrysanthemum has witnessed the development and change of this land over thousands of years. Xiaolan people celebrate the tradition of admiring chrysanthemums, planting chrysanthemums, and appreciating chrysanthemums. As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, the Xiaolan people who have escaped the war began to plant chrysanthemums from the south of the Central Plains. In 1736, Xiaolan people held a “chrysanthemum test” to test each family’s chrysanthemum art, which has become the earliest prototype of the chrysanthemum fair. In 1782, Xiaolan organized the first chrysanthemum fair. Xiaolan holds a large chrysanthemum fair every 60 years since the Jiaxu Year of the Jiaqing Emporer in the Qing Dynasty (1814, 1874, 1934 and 1994). In the year of 1979 which ushered in China’s reform and opening-up, the “Chrysanthemum Fair” resumed in Xiaolan Town has attracted the overseas Chinese and compatriots of Hong Kong and Macao in Zhongshan, returning to their hometowns and beginning to invest in factories, giving rise to the first group of Sino-foreign cooperative enterprises as well as the “households with saving of ten thousand yuan” after the reform and opening-up, which have made an indelible contribution to China’s economic development. The 4th Chrysanthemum Fair held in 1994 attracted more than 6 million visitors at home and abroad. In 2006, the “Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair” was included in the first batch of “National Intangible Cultural Heritage” protection lists. Today, Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair is the most famous cultural and tourism event in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA.
Inside the Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Garden, eight major exhibition areas such as the Chrysanthemum Art Scenic Area, the Famous Chrysanthemum Collection Area, the Sea of Flowers Area, the Cultural and Art Exhibition and Performance Area, the Cultural Exhibition Area, the Food Court Area, the Creative Market Area, and the Leisure and Cyber Celebrities Area are dazzling to the eye. More than 20 groups of chrysanthemum themed landscapes have been created, and more than 800 kinds of chrysanthemums combining poems, paintings, and shadows, further highlighting the cultural charm of chrysanthemums. Furthermore, about 12,000 square meters of the colorful sea of flowers are unforgettable for tourists.
In the chrysanthemum garden, tourists are interested in tasting the “chrysanthemum fair on the tip of the tongue”. The meat cooked with chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum wine, chrysanthemum ice cream and other Xiaolan delicacies, as well as the chrysanthemum culture display experience, all offered the tourists a real treat. “In Japan, chrysanthemum culture also has a long history, and Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair has really opened my eyes. After I return, I will recommend it to my media friends from all over the world, so that they can also experience and report on the Zhongshan Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair next year.” UENO TOMOKAZU a journalist from Japan, said excitedly.
The combination of brilliant Chinese chrysanthemum culture and modern civilization has given Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair a more unique connotation and a broad space for inheritance and development. Zhongshan continues to expand the “circle of friends” with flowers and to enhance the friendship with chrysanthemums, discussing the development and promoting the prosperity with various forces at home and abroad.