Xiaolan Chrysanthemum Fair

The Xiaolan chrysanthemum fair is held in Xiaolan town of Zhongshan, rising in the Ming dynasty and now over three centuries old. From the Qianlong reign came first "chrysanthemum contests," then "chrysanthemum societies" and "chrysanthemum fairs," with a grand fair every sixty years in the jiaxu year, centred on admiring, competing in, chanting, painting, tasting and floating the flower with operatic plays—a folk event of masterly craft and grand scale. In 2006 it entered the first national ICH list.

Taking the flower as its medium and meeting friends through it, the fair sees master growers train "large standing," "cliff" and "pagoda" chrysanthemums, a single plant carrying hundreds or even a thousand blooms, joined by chrysanthemum banquets, wine, lanterns and water-borne floats, weaving floriculture, food, opera and procession into a single whole.

The Xiaolan chrysanthemum fair is the core vessel of Lingnan chrysanthemum art and a calling card of Zhongshan, carrying the clan culture, mercantile tradition and literary-painterly pursuits of Xiaolan, an important specimen for studying traditional Chinese flower aesthetics and festival folklore.

The fair's main venue is in Xiaolan town, Zhongshan, with a grand fair every sixty years in the jiaxu year and an autumn chrysanthemum show in recent years.