The application of Pinghu watermelon lanterns has evolved from a grassroots recreational activity into a government-organized Watermelon Lantern Cultural Festival-a comprehensive cultural brand integrating elements of culture, trade, and the economy.
As the core of the Pinghu watermelon lantern cultural series, the festival features events such as an exhibition of exquisite lantern masterpieces, a mass carving competition involving a thousand participants, and the Yangtze River Delta Watermelon Lantern Carving and Creativity Contest. The latter attracts contestants from Pinghu, Jiashan, and Shanghai's Jinshan District, while also inviting participants from further afield-such as Maoxian County in Sichuan and students from the Xinjiang class at Pinghu Vocational High School-to compete for honors like "Best Creativity," "Best Carving," and "Most Popular."
The watermelon lantern activities are d
eeply integrated with a wide range of cultural, tourism, sports, and trade events. These include "Floating River Lanterns and Making Wishes," weekend cultural and tourism markets, rural fun sports games (such as carrying watermelons on shoulder poles), the "Poetic Jiangnan, Vibrant Zhejiang, Beautiful China" original song concert, an agricultural product exhibition promoting regional production-sales integration, the Zhejiang "Beautiful Countryside" Baseball and Softball Invitational, and the Yangtze River Delta Youth Rowing Challenge.
Watermelon lantern carving techniques have been incorporated into school curricula; for instance, the Primary School Affiliated to Pinghu Normal School developed a school-based course titled "The Splendid Era of Watermelon Art." Experiential activities, such as the "Youth Watermelon Lantern Carving Art Salon," are held regularly, fostering craftsmanship, spatial imagination, and hand-eye coordination among young people through parent-child collaborative carving.
During the festival, large-scale watermelon lantern art installations and displays are set up on the waters and along the streets of locations such as Donghu Scenic Area and Nanhetou Historical and Cultural Block. Outside of the festival period, 3D-printed watermelon lanterns are used for ongoing streetscape decoration.
Watermelon lanterns are frequently used to convey specific themes-such as the culture of integrity ("Integrity in Watermelon Lantern Art") and the passing down of family precepts-through the artistic carving of relevant patterns and text. Furthermore, watermelon lantern elements have been incorporated into the development of cultural and creative products (such as the "Li Yu Pinghu" / "Pinghu Hospitality" series), and innovative dissemination is promoted through technological means like AI and AR digital art exhibitions.