Chinese Lantern Festival

At night, the two dragons which tower at the corner of Richmond’s Fantasy Gardens seem to come alive, glowing like movie screens in a theatre. Their purpose: to generate more appreciation for Chinese culture in Canada.

The gateway is through another lantern, a pastiche of traditional architectural detail which evokes impressive entranceways from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall, except topped with rodents. These cartoon creatures, which look like Steamboat Willie, puzzle visitors, but they refer to Chinese astrology; 2008 is the Year of the Rat. They aren't mice at all.

Traditionally, lantern festivals are held at Chinese New Years when the year honouring one of the twelve legendary animal companions of the Buddha progresses to the next. This means they light up the seasons’ darkest hours. The middle of the Canadian summer means long days and late shows, and the astrological significance of the rat goes astray. All the same, its scale, colour, variety and invention present quite a spectacle.

It’s as though organizers couldn’t quite decide what they wanted to do. A stunning tableau of Kylin---mythical creatures which bring good fortune, fashioned from tens of thousands of tiny coloured apothecary bottles which glow like jewels and impress visitors with the ingenuity and artistry of their creation---is positioned next to a kitschy scene of nylon turtles, swans and other cutesy pond critters. This abrupt shift to the absurd with no transition happens throughout the exhibition.

There are breathtaking moments. “Carp Leaps through the Gate of the Loong” features sculptures built entirely out of china---blue-&-white porcelain bowls, cups and spoons intricately strung together. They form fish, dragons, lanterns, and rime the waves like sea-foam. Not only is the piece a novel play on China, quite literally, but its beauty and cleverness stays with viewers.

The sheer scale and diversity of the enterprise is impressive. It covers acres of park. At the heart is a life-sized pagoda stretching up for three fiery tiers into the darkness, its mannequins of court musicians the only nod to China’s ancient dynasties. There are scenes from Journey to the West, the legend of the Monkey King, Taoist legends, and even the Loong, a mysterious deity from whom the Chinese descended.

Some dioramas sport science-y names like “The World of Insects.” Except, a dinosaur world where T-Rexes feasted on prey from different epochs, while unconcerned Duckbills grazed five feet away, never existed. Not even in China. This is the child’s eye on nature, not science itself.

These anachronisms are key: to fully appreciate the lantern show, disbelief must be suspended. Science gives way to make-belief, since facts complicate fantasies. Those who look for the sublime in external nature through art or intellect will be grounded by grinning rats.

The cartoon RCMP Musical Ride, speaking of anachronisms, is bizarre. This includes the row of columns topped by RCMP officers interspersed with sparkly rats like a psychedelic Appian Way. Elsewhere, glowing totem poles are derived from native art in the Pacific N.W. This is Canadian culture reflected back to us, both ridiculous and sublime.

How strangely fitting that show is set within Fantasy Gardens, the loss-leader amusement park with its heritage Dutch-Christian themes of farmhouses, churches, windmills and castles, which brought down the Social Credit government of British Columbia back in 1991. Some things are best enjoyed by not looking too deeply past the first layers of fluff.

Fantasy Gardens Lantern Festival website

Steveston and No. 5, Richmond, BC, Canada

Until 21st September, 2008

Traditional Chinese Gates with untraditional rats

Kylin lanterns fashioned from medicine bottles

China dragon made from bowls, cups and spoons

3-storey Pagoda lantern

RCMP Musical Ride lantern troupe

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