2025 Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week & “Internet Influencers” Visit Qiongshan Successfully Concluded

2025-02-15 Editor

Haikou, Hainan, China, February 15, 2025–Steven Zhao, Canada & World Report –From February 7 to February 13, the week-long 2025 Hainan Haikou Qiongshan District Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week concluded successfully. However, the excitement surrounding the event remains strong. A team of Haikou’s local “internet influencers,” serving as Fucheng Lantern Festival’s “Overseas Blessing Ambassadors,” explored the festival’s historical roots, traditional customs, and intangible cultural heritage. They presented the festivities through high-quality new media content, sparking widespread online discussions and allowing more people to appreciate the profound cultural significance behind this traditional celebration.

Starting from January 20, Haikou’s local “internet influencers” actively engaged in discussions about the festival, drawing public attention to the Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange tradition. Before the event, they released travel guides for the 2025 Haikou Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week, covering transportation, food, and event details, along with a customized event map.

The 2025 Haikou Qiongshan District Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week retained traditional folk activities such as lion dances, Qiong opera performances, and flower exchange dances. Additionally, new attractions like “Double Dragon Playing with a Pearl,” “Flower Exchange Gifts,” and puppet shows were introduced, totaling 23 activities. This provided ample creative material for internet influencers, who produced high-quality media content from their unique perspectives. During the festival, Haikou Qiongshan District launched a special livestream event titled “Deputy District Chief Tells Stories” on February 11 and 12. Qin Lishuang, Deputy District Chief of Qiongshan, and Sun Qirui, a cultural interpreter, teamed up with influencer Xie Jinhua (Hua Ge) to take netizens on a virtual tour of the festival, sharing the rich cultural stories behind the tradition. The two livestreams attracted 145,000 viewers.

On the day of the event, Haikou’s internet influencers visited various activity sites, capturing the grandeur of the 2025 Haikou Qiongshan District Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week. “Hyman, Who Doesn’t Take Photos” used drone footage to showcase the dazzling festival lanterns, distinctive alleys, and lively crowds, garnering over 1,800 shares. The comment section buzzed with engagement from netizens in Hainan, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Shanghai. “Yi Ming Encounters” posted three videos capturing various aspects of the festival, including intangible cultural heritage performances, special activities, and bustling street scenes. “Kan Hainan” combined Chinese and English subtitles in a travel vlog to introduce the festival to an international audience. Foreign influencer Fanyi, acting as an “Overseas Communication Officer,” highlighted the charm of this traditional Chinese festival by focusing on event staff. She gifted flowers to traffic police officers, volunteers, and grassroots police officers as a token of appreciation, adding a unique perspective to the festival coverage.

During and after the 2025 Haikou Qiongshan District Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week, Haikou’s internet influencers produced and published over 500 high-quality media pieces. They explored various aspects of the festival, including customs, food, and blessings, visiting Qiongtai Fudi Food Street and Fucheng’s Seven Wells, Eight Streets, and Thirteen Alleys to uncover the rich New Year atmosphere hidden within the city. Throughout the event, the Qiongshan District Publicity Department collaborated with the Haikou New Media Association to initiate over 10 online discussion topics, accumulating more than 150 million views. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the Weibo hashtag #HaikouFireworksShowFuchengLanternFestivalDoubleRomance, created by both netizens and influencers, reached the top of local trending topics, demonstrating immense public interest in the event.

“The 2025 Haikou Qiongshan District Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange Arts Week, themed ‘Thousand-Year Fucheng, Flower Exchange Reunion,’ introduced a new ‘Flower Exchange + N’ model. By integrating intangible cultural heritage, trendy consumption, and cultural tourism experiences, the event presented citizens and tourists with a spectacular New Year celebration. It is also a key component in Qiongshan District’s efforts to establish the first ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage Spring Festival’ celebration,” said a spokesperson from the Qiongshan District Publicity Department. “The diversified online platforms have brought fresh vitality to the promotion of traditional festivals.” During the event, Qiongshan District assembled the Fucheng Lantern Festival “Overseas Blessing Ambassadors” team, utilizing livestreams, short videos, and graphic posts to cover various aspects—from cultural performances to specialty foods and intangible cultural heritage products. By leveraging the advantages of social media, the event achieved extensive online engagement, with discussions continuously trending. As a result, the festival’s lively atmosphere was amplified in the digital space, reaching a global audience. Moving forward, Qiongshan District plans to build on this successful publicity strategy, innovate communication methods, and establish a multidimensional, comprehensive promotional framework to share the Qiongshan story and expand its influence worldwide.”

Historical Background of the Festival

Every year on the night of the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, Fucheng in Qiongshan District, Haikou City, transforms into a sea of flowers and warm sentiments during the unique Flower Exchange Festival, which has been listed as part of Haikou’s first batch of intangible cultural heritage.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the streets of Fucheng glow with lanterns and are flooded with crowds and flowers. Many Haikou residents, especially young people, gather with flowers in hand, forming a “flower exchange army” along Haifu Avenue towards Fucheng. The reasons for exchanging flowers vary; for most, it is a way to offer mutual New Year’s blessings. Young people, in particular, see the festival as a great opportunity to make new friends and seek companionship. While the tradition evolves each year, it remains a romantic and heartwarming celebration.

The modern Flower Exchange Festival originates from Hainan’s ancient Lantern Festival incense exchange customs. Historically, as the administrative center of Qiongzhou Prefecture, Fucheng held grand lantern festivals during the lunar new year. On these nights, thousands of young men and women ventured out to admire the lanterns. Since there were no streetlights at the time, people carried lit incense sticks for illumination. If they encountered someone without incense, they would offer them some; if they met a friend, they would exchange incense sticks and share blessings. Over time, this custom transformed into an expression of goodwill. With the advent of electric lights, people found flowers to be a better representation of their sentiments—lighter, more elegant, and safer than incense. Thus, flowers gradually replaced incense sticks.

According to folklore experts in Hainan, the “Flower Exchange Festival” traces its roots back to the “Incense Exchange Festival,” which existed as early as the late Tang Dynasty. The “Incense Exchange” symbolized mutual blessings for prosperity and good fortune. However, for safety reasons, the practice transitioned into a “Flower Exchange” in 1984, and over time, exchanging flowers became the main Lantern Festival activity. It also evolved into a new tradition for young people seeking romantic connections.

Once exclusive to Fucheng, the festival has now grown in scale and influence. Since the establishment of Hainan as a province and special economic zone, the traditional incense exchange has transformed into a vibrant flower exchange, bringing together elements of friendship, happiness, and cultural celebration, solidifying its place as a cherished local tradition.

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