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On February 3rd, the 13th day of the first lunar month in the Year of the Rabbit, a fish lantern pageant, which has been prepared for a long time, was finally about to begin in Wang Mantian Village, Xitou Town, Shexian County, Huangshan City, located deep in the mountains of southern Anhui. 
Like all ancient villages in southern Anhui, Wang Mantian Village has white-walled and black-tiled houses and is surrounded by running water and lush trees. What sets it apart are the pair of fish sculptures at the entrance to the village, the colorful fish lights hanging from the street lamps, and the many small fish lanterns held in children's hands. This is a village where fish is at the heart of everything. 
Local villagers make small fish lanterns at home After 7 in the evening, following a sonorous drum beat as the night fell, the village resounded with the music of gongs and drums. The fish lanterns from all the local fish-lantern clubs gathered at the Wang family ancestral hall, with banners inscribed with the words "May the winds be favorable, the crops abundant, the country prosperous, and the people content" leading the way. With the ancestral hall fish-lantern club in the lead, hundreds of fish lanterns of varying sizes paraded through the streets and alleys in the predetermined route, with fireworks and firecrackers bursting all around and everyone cheering with joy. This lively fish lantern event lasted for two to three hours. 
The Wang Mantian Fish Lantern event dates back to the early Ming dynasty. It is said that this event has something to do with "fire." As houses in the village were usually wooden, fires were easy to break out. As fish is often connected with water, which can extinguish fires, a fish lantern event that resembles offering fish sacrifices to the gods to prevent fires gradually came into being and became popular. Due to its unique geographical and cultural characteristics, the Wang Mantian Fish Lantern event has developed into an independent art form with its unique style, and six fish-lantern clubs have been developed. 
The Wang Mantian Fish Lantern is modeled after the carp fish. The frame is made of bamboo and covered with cotton paper, with the head and scales of the fish painted in several bright colors. On the fish head, there is a Chinese character "wang", which means "king", and there is a pair of whiskers on two sides of the mouth. The largest "fish king" lantern is about 8 meters long and over 2 meters tall, with hundreds of candles inside that require over 20 strong men to carry. There are also other fish lanterns in a variety of shapes and sizes, some requiring 6 to 7 people to carry and others can be carried by just one person. 
A villager ties a fish lantern skeleton, attracting the attention of tourists Every year, after the third day of the Spring Festival, each fish club elects a young person as the "fish head". Wang Chunyan, a 29-year-old lady who sells torreya grandis nuts through online streaming, was elected as this year's "fish head" of the Wang Mantian ancestral hall fish club. The "fish head" is the leader and commander of the fish club and bears the responsibility of fundraising, purchasing, organizing lantern makers, carriers, and repairers, etc. From the 13th to the 16th day of the first lunar month, all kinds of newly made fish lanterns make their debut on rites praying for good fortune, exuding a unique charm. 
Wang Chunyan, this year's "fish head" of the ancestral hall fish lantern club, is making her fish lanterns In May 2022, the Wang Mantian Fish Lantern was included in the sixth batch of Anhui Province's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. 5 young villagers, including Wang Chengfeng, thus became the locally-trained key inheritors after the last provincial intangible heritage inheritor. They work in other cities but will return to the village to make fish lanterns and conduct performances when festivals come. 
Wang Chengfeng (left) puts a festive whisker on a big fish lantern. In recent years, during the Spring Festival, tens of thousands of tourists from across the country and even abroad have rushed to Wang Mantian to experience the Chinese New Year atmosphere. The auspicious and romantic shapes of the big fish lanterns have been favored by photographers and internet celebrities who come to take photos or stream on social media to catch up with the "Guochao" (Chinese fad) trend. The fish lantern performance by students of Anhui Normal University at the university's sports meeting last year amazed the entire audience and even appeared on the CCTV program "Chinese Poetry Competition" during this year's Spring Festival. The lanterns have also appeared in online games such as "Genshin Impact" and "Canal Towns". In the 4 days before and after the Lantern Festival this year, the sales of small fish lanterns online and offline reached 690,000 yuan. In the meantime, the rooms in the homestays during next year's Spring Festival have already been pre-booked... Villagers of Wang Mantian start to get aware that their fish lanterns are indeed viral now. 
One scene in the short film Fish-shaped Lanterns released by the online game Genshin Impact during the 2023 Spring Festival
Fish lanterns in the online game Canal Towns The fish lanterns, which have been around for over 600 years, are blessing the villagers of Wang Mantian, bringing them happiness and abundance year after year. 
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