Qixi Fest (七夕乞巧嘉年华) is an initiative spearheaded by festival director Lynn Wong together with clan associations, government agencies and community partners to revive one of the eight traditional Chinese festivals in Singapore – Qixi Festival (七夕节) – "a wish upon the stars festival" said to be once grander than Chinese New Year.
Since 2023, Qixi Fest has been graced by distinguished guests including Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, and attracts over 50,000 international and local visitors annually. It is set to become a UNESCO case study for reviving an important intangible cultural heritage that disappeared for more than 50 years.
Reimagining and reviving the Qixi Festival which has disappeared for half a century
Through fieldwork and first-hand interviews with diverse stakeholders, we uncover the different forms of intangible cultural heritage related to the Qixi Festival (e.g., social practices, rituals, traditional craftsmanship, food heritage, performing arts)
... and collaborate with schools, institutions, and partners to give this traditional festival a new lease of life.
After years pouring through archival data and interviewing diverse community stakeholders, authors Lynn Wong and Lee Kok Leong present the first comprehensive book about the long-forgotten Qixi Festival which has disappeared in Singapore for over half a century.
In conjunction with the soft launch of the Reviving Qixi book on 30 July 2022, a Qixi-themed banquet in commemoration of the Majies was held, featuring traditional Shuntuk cuisine prepared by the Heavenly King at Red Star Restaurant.
Attended by over 180,000 participants from all walks of life, this is an annual flagship event to revive and reimagine the Qixi Festival which was brought over by our foremothers as early as the 19th century.
Authored by Lynn Wong and Lee Kok Leong, this bilingual publication is the first to extensively document the Qixi Festival in Singapore: its trajectory and how it relates to our cultural identity.
This publication is supported by the National Heritage Board.
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© Reviving Qixi. 2022. All Rights Reserved.