Dongpo Cultural Festival to be held in Meishan, China, the hometown of Su Dongpo

From November 17 to 20, the 12th Dongpo Cultural Festival will be held in Meishan, Sichuan Province, southwest China. This cultural festival is jointly sponsored by Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Meishan Municipal People’s Government, and the Chinese Academy of Aesthetics, aiming to prosper Dongpo’s cultural industry, promote exchange and mutual learning of Dongpo culture, and make it go global.

Su Dongpo, a famous litterateur in Chinese history, was born in Meizhou in 1037, where now Meishan City. He was a great person who made contributions to world culture and made outstanding achievements in literature, calligraphy, painting, medicine and food. In the year of 2000, Le Monde of France selected 12 “Millennium Heroes” (1001-2000) in the world, and he was the only Chinese selected.

Many Chinese delicacies are named after his name, such as Dongpo Elbow, Dongpo Fish, Dongpo Meat, Dongpo Pickles, etc. In 1058, at the age of 21, Su Dongpo set out from his hometown Meizhou and traveled all over China. Meishan, the beautiful and rich hometown, gave Su Dongpo a good taste gene, so that he looked for local specialties during his travels and made delicious food himself.

But what really made Su Dongpo famous in the world was his poetry. Su Dongpo’s poems are permeated with the essence of Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism culture in the bold and unconstrained way. Over the past thousand years, he has accumulated countless fans around the world, deeply affected the spirit of Chinese people for generations, and more profoundly shaped his hometown Meishan.

Today, Dongpo culture has been integrated into every corner of the city. Meishan people are fond of reading and cooking and have accumulated thousands of years of humanistic flavor and “Dongpo flavor” from generation to generation. The interesting Dongpo stories can especially stimulate the interest of teenagers. The Legend of Young Su Dongpo, which is broadcast this year, has restored the style and features of Meizhou in the Northern Song Dynasty by means of animation, showing the lovely image of young Su Dongpo growing up in Meizhou.

In August 2022, Meishan City proposed to build Dongpo Culture Inheritance and Development Center, and to build a global highland of Su studies, an excellent traditional culture and education base, and a humanistic tourism resort, and identified November as the “Dongpo Culture Month” of Meishan City. Since November 1, colorful cultural and tourism activities have been carried out. In addition to the special exhibition of “Three Su” themed cultural relics and large-scale poetry, music and dance performances, Meishan, together with 17 other Dongpo ruins cities, Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, Chengdu-Deyang-Meishan-Ziyang Development Economic Circle and other sister cities in China, launched a series of activities, such as 10,000 People Chanting Dongpo, cultural experience and refined tour. Dongpo Cultural Festival is the highlight of Dongpo Culture Month.

“Dongpo” is a calling card Meishan handing to the world, and also embellishes the historical chapter of world culture. The millennium inheritance of Dongpo culture also gives Meishan people confidence to make Meishan become a national historical and cultural city, which will be another national city card of Meishan besides a national forest city, a national civilized city and a national health city.

Source: Meishan Municipal People’s Government