The New Year festivities have passed, but the lights in Shiting Village, Biyang Town, Yixian County, have not gone out.

During the just‑concluded Spring Festival, procession after procession of bamboo‑rib lanterns lit up the ancient village’s night sky — a more‑than‑20‑meter dragon lantern threaded through the lanes, phoenix lanterns spread layered wings, and lively, compact zodiac lanterns dotted the streets. Tourists and villagers walked together carrying lanterns, celebrating an authentic Huizhou New Year in a tableau where “the lanterns move among the people, and the people wander among the lanterns.”

Behind these lights stood a young returnee — Huang Xianhao.

The Huang family has cultivated bamboo‑rib craftsmanship for generations. Huang Xianhao grew up surrounded by the scent of his grandfather’s bamboo and learned the craft thoroughly by hand. While at university, he learned—when his father was building the Shiting Huayi Village Hotel—of a long‑buried story: his ancestors once supplied bamboo ribs for Shiting’s traditional lanterns and handled their processing. He visited elder artisans throughout the village to gather orally transmitted lantern‑making techniques, and the more he dug, the more he felt that “the intangible cultural value of Shiting lanterns would truly be lost if not preserved now.”

After graduating from university, he chose to return home.

He tasked himself with integrating his ancestral bamboo‑rib craft with Shiting’s lantern techniques. The lanterns unveiled this Spring Festival were entirely handmade — from splitting the bamboo, binding the frames, to pasting and painting. Colorful scales and auspicious clouds seemed to come alive on the dragon’s silk body; the horse‑year themed lucky beast lantern carried the blessing of “good fortune is coming at once”; and built‑in energy‑saving light sources gave the traditional lanterns a modern warmth.

Shiting’s lanterns are rooted in Huizhou folk customs and rely on the village’s abundant bamboo resources. They are a handcraft passed down for generations and an important carrier of communal sentiment. Now this young man has brought them out of the “inner chambers” and into the public eye. Although the Spring Festival parades have concluded, the lantern‑making hands‑on experience at the Shiting Huayi village homestay continues; visitors can still make a bamboo‑rib lantern by hand under the guidance of craftsmen.

When asked why he returned, Huang replied: “I’m not just making lanterns — I’m guarding the lights.”

Rural revitalization requires thriving industries and cultural roots. In Shiting Village, the lights illuminate not only the ancient village at night but also the answer woven by a young man’s bamboo ribs — a beautiful countryside needs people to return for it to have a future.