The 14th Asia Arts Festival, which will formally kick off in November in Quanzhou, the largest city in southeastern Fujian province, unveiled its logo and mascot on Monday.
Selected from 517 entries, the logo was co-designed by the Fine Art and Design College of Quanzhou Normal University and Guangzhou Paige Culture Development Limited Company. It includes a combination of sea waves and a sailing vessel, symbolizing Quanzhou as the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, as well Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda, one of the city's cultural landmarks.
The mast of the vessel is shaped like the number "1", and forms the number "4" with a colored ribbon on it, symbolizing the 14th session of the Asia Arts Festival. The dominant hue of the logo is orange, which offers a warm feeling. It implies that Quanzhou locals will respond with enthusiasm to guests from all over Asia during the festival.
Huang Jian, head of the Fine Art and Design College, told local media that he felt very happy that the college's professors and students design was selected.
"Asian Art Festival is a major event in Quanzhou. As a local university, it is our great honor to give full play in designing the logo for the festival. Many teachers and students in our college submitted their works," he said.
The mascot, named Miaomiao, was selected from 231 entries. It was designed by Chen Chaomiao, director of the Department of Animation and Multimedia Design at Quanzhou Normal University, and his design team.
Based on wood carvings of the Miaoyin bird in Quanzhou's Kaiyuan Temple, Miaomiao is a cartoon image with a man's head and a bird's body. Miaomiao holds a nanpa,a musical instrument that is a type of bent-necked pipa used in World-Cultural-Heritage-listed Quanzhou ancient Nanyin music.
According to Chen, he drew his inspiration for the mascot from Quanzhou folk art and handicrafts, such as marionettes and dough figurines. After four revisions in more than one month, he wished to combine the historical and cultural relics in Quanzhou with lively fashion and international elements through the design.
"The key words of the design are Quanzhou, southern Fujian, artistic and international cultural exchange. The mascot must be a perfect visualization of all these characteristics. That’s why I chose the Miaoyin bird as the chief source of my design. It was an achievement of international cultural exchange during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. It means open and inclusive," he said.
The online competition for the festival logo and mascot launched in mid-June at www.2015art.cn. Hundreds of competitors from all over the country, including several noted Chinese designers, submitted their works in less than one month.
Sponsored by China's Ministry of Culture, the festival was first held in Beijing in 1998. Since then, successive festivals have been conducted in different cities across the country. This year's festival will run between Nov 8-15, with the Fujian provincial people's government acting as co-sponsors. The co-organizers will be the Fujian provincial Department of Culture and the Quanzhou municipal government.
Aside from the online competition for the logo and mascot, there were also a global photography and video contest dubbed "Just Share It — Explore the Beauty of Asian Arts and Culture"; an international poster creation competition; an online expo on Quanzhou art and special coverage of the online event on people.com.cn.
Over the years, the Asian Arts Festival has become an increasingly popular occasion for cultural exchanges within the wider Asia region. It has been marked by growing domestic and overseas participation and the showcasing of a number of artistic creations that have helped to promote appreciation of Asia's rich cultural legacy.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture is inviting contestants from across the globe to participate in the Just Share It contest, which aims to explore the beauty of Asian arts and culture.
Recognized by UNESCO as the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, Quanzhou boasts a rich local culture, which includes glove puppetry and Nanyin music, a traditional opera sung in the Minnan (southern Fujian) dialect that has existed for more than 1,000 years.
Along with South Korea's Gwangju city and Japan's Yokohama city, Quanzhou was designated as an East Asia City of Culture during the annual trilateral Ministerial Conference on Culture held in Gwangju in September 2013.
