Yunlin County Government hosted the lighting ceremony for the “Yunlin Sustainability Micro Lantern Festival” at the Yunlin HSR Station square on February 10. County Magistrate Li-Shan Chang, County Council Speaker Kai Huang and a number of other guests lit up the lantern festival together to symbolize the launch of the sustainable living concept. The lantern festival will run until February 23. Magistrate Chang said that this was the first lantern festival in Yunlin with “Sustainability” as its theme. Sustainable cultural, environmental and agricultural developments can be achieved through a circular economy and waste reducing design. She invited everyone in Taiwan to join in embracing sustainability and protecting our home planet.
The lighting ceremony opened with an exciting performance by the INFERNO dance troupe that incorporated sustainability ideals into the artistic performance. As Yunlin is an agricultural county, Magistrate Chang emphasized that most of the lantern zone was designed to make use of waste from agriculture and fishery waste. These were then combined with local cultural and industrial attributes through the creativity and ingenuity of local teams to craft artistic lighting installations with their own unique aesthetic appeal. Net zero, waste reduction, and circular economy concepts were promoted at the lantern festival as well to give visitors an in-depth look at all the efforts and initiatives made by Yunlin in sustainability issues.
The lantern festival featured a varied and diverse line-up. The 23 original lighting installations were divided into three zones, A, B, and C, that corresponded to the three components of ESG. Zone A focused on the Economic aspect, Zone B on the Environmental aspect, and Zone C on the Social aspect. The lantern festival also embodied the trinity of “Life, Ecology, Production” in community building.
From the HSR station, pass through the “Bamboo Corridor of Light」” to reach the “Echoes of Bamboo Mountains” and “Voice of Bamboo Waves” co-created by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Yunlin County and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. The two lighting installations each had their own unique charms but both resonated with the theme of the sustainability lantern festival. The sustainability motifs of the “mountain” and the “sea”, as well as the innovation value of waste reclamation reflected the “Resonance of a Sustainable Land.” Together, they expressed the deep connection between land, nature, and humanity. Waste reclamation represented human introspection and response to environmental action. “Resonance” symbolized the dialogue between nature and society during the circulation process. From this emerges a rhythm of life that is transmitted from the mountains and the sea to the heart before returning back to Mother Nature once more.
