Hastings councillor Kevin Watkins with some of the 150 paintings sent by students in China, which will be displayed at this year’s Lantern Festival. Photo / Rafaella Melo
Hastings councillor Kevin Watkins with some of the 150 paintings sent by students in China, which will be displayed at this year’s Lantern Festival. Photo / Rafaella Melo
As Hastings prepares for another year of its popular annual Osmanthus Gardens Lantern Festival, one part of the event has been drawing growing attention since its debut in 2024: paintings sent by children and youth in China.
This year’s festival, running from April 12 to 19at Cornwall Park’s Osmanthus Garden, will again feature the exhibition, which began in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Hastings district councillor Kevin Watkins said the first paintings arrived unexpectedly in 2023 from Guilin, Hastings’ sister city, after students there saw coverage of the cyclone damage.
“They understand natural disasters because Guilin floods every year,” Watkins told Hawke’s Bay Today.
“The paintings that came back, like holding hands, ‘Keep strong’, this sort of thing, it was absolutely emotional.”
The artworks, created by students from Kuiguang High School in Guilin, carried handwritten messages of hope and support. Watkins said he later took the paintings to some of the rural schools hardest hit by the cyclone and still keeps some of them at home.
Some of the first paintings sent by students in China after Cyclone Gabrielle, carrying messages of support and hope for Hastings. Photo / Rafaella Melo
The paintings helped inspire a new Lantern Festival feature. The first exhibition was displayed at the event in 2024.
By 2025, about 80 paintings had been sent from several Chinese cities.
This year, the number has grown again, with about 150 paintings received, many reflecting cultural aspects of the students’ regions.
Watkins said the standard of this year’s pieces was impressive, with works arriving from cities including Guilin, Anhui Province, Xi’an, Dezhou, Mianyang, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Shanwei, Yantai and Shantou.
Among the most moving entries are six large scroll paintings from Yantai, created by young people with disabilities, such as Down syndrome and autism.
“To express their excitement and share a little of their life and skills, they each wrote a very moving, warm, and heartfelt letter,” Watkins said.
“In their letters, these kids are saying, ‘we hope someone will write to us, we’d love to be friends with someone’.”
Kevin Watkins points to one of the letters sent by students with disabilities in China. Photo / Rafaella Melo
He expects the exhibition to spark more direct friendships and even future exchanges between students here and in China.
“For our students here in Hawke’s Bay, that would be a great opportunity to engage with someone from another country and learn something from it,” Watkins said.
“What’s the barrier that’s stopping us from exchanging? Only us.”
He said the costs of maintaining projects like this remained a challenge, but support from sponsors had helped keep them going.
According to Watkins, the painting exhibition costs about $3000 to deliver, while the wider festival costs about $70,000.
This year's Osmanthus Gardens Lantern Festival will run from April 12 to 19 at Cornwall Park. Photo / Paul Taylor
Watkins has another project in mind for 2027, aiming to further strengthen ties between China and Hastings.
Until then, visitors can experience the Lantern Festival from April 12 to 19 at Cornwall Park’s Osmanthus Garden from 6pm to 9pm each evening, with koha entry.
