By Li Qian
As the Spring Festival unfolds, Jing'an is staging a district-wide celebration for the Year of the Horse, turning historic lanes and marquee shopping streets into a platform for heritage, design and seasonal spectacles.
Under the theme "Galloping into the New Year • Encounter Jing'an," the district's culture and tourism authority is presenting 195 events through March 3, the Lantern Festival. They include performances, markets, exhibitions and interactive experiences aimed at both residents and visitors.
Holiday markets showcase time-honored brands, intangible cultural heritage crafts and traditional festive foods. Along Nanjing Road W., designers are weaving zodiac motifs into seasonal window displays, where global aesthetics meet Eastern symbolism.
The centerpiece is Zhangyuan Garden, a commercial and cultural hub carved out of a century-old shikumen, or stone-gate, neighborhood.
Tradition and contemporary culture converge
Events at Zhangyuan began on February 8 with a Shanghai-style Spring Festival garden fair. National-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor Lu Dajie led a dragon and lion dance procession down Maoming Road N., drums echoing through the stone-gated lanes. Nearby, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra performed traditional silk-and-bamboo pieces against the backdrop of the historic compound.
In the square outside Building 12 – a garden residence known for its blend of Chinese and Western architectural styles – calligraphers as well as paper-cutting and printmaking artists worked before visitors.
Inside the building, a different scene unfolded. Emerging designers with international followings staged pop-up showcases that presented contemporary fashion rooted in Eastern aesthetics. Brands included Feng Chen Wang, Susan Fang, Xu Zhi and Une Yea. The pop-up ran through February 23.
From February 15 to 23, Lego joined the celebrations with large-scale brick installations inspired by dragon dances and galloping horses. Maoming Road N., temporarily closed to traffic for the holiday, became a pedestrian corridor lined with interactive displays.
Illuminating the Year of the Horse
After dark, Zhangyuan shifted into a different register. From February 15 to 23, the fourth edition of "Shining Shanghai • Light Up Jing'an (2026)" hosted a light show along the weekend pedestrian street on Maoming Road N., running nightly from 5:30pm to 9:30pm, and extending into Zhangyuan, Fengshengli and other commercial areas across the district.
Along Maoming Road N., overhead installations cast shifting projections of the "Five Blessings" – symbols of fortune, prosperity and longevity – rendered in laser-cut tassels and reflective materials. By day, the structures caught the sunlight, scattering fragments of color. At night, traditional motifs, including gourds, longevity peaches, silver ingots and begonia blossoms, emerged in illuminated form, turning the street into a corridor of auspicious imagery.
At the heart of the show were light displays inspired by Chinese master painter Xu Beihong, best known for his ink paintings of horses. Animated horses seemed to gallop out of his brushwork, moving through made-up landscapes that ranged from classical floral scrolls to textures inspired by textiles and neon-lit futuristic scenes. The shifting visuals blended traditional cultural references with contemporary digital techniques, framing the Year of the Horse through a modern lens. (Source: Shanghai Daily)
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