This week, on Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #166, Leya challenges everyone to find beauty in Artificial Light.

The topic of Artificial Light brings me back to Chinese New Year 2017, the first one spent in my hometown in China after 16 years. I had actually forgotten how festive it was – the lights, the positive music in every store, and how quiet the streets were this was the time of the year every one rushed home to spend 10+ days with their families.

After being away for so long, I was somewhat culture shocked, especially in my first month, and it wasn’t just the holiday. I felt like a small town girl being thrust into a big city and it some ways, I was as I have lived in suburbia for 16 years (now almost 20 years).

I had completely forgotten the traditions of the new year – to welcome in spring, to welcome the new and do away with the old. For the most part, I had forgotten the lantern displays and the lights. which I used to go see all the time when I was a young girl. It was different back then, just simple colorful artistic lanterns lit by candles. It’s gotten so much technologically advanced over the years.

If you walk through this in the daytime, you wouldn’t be able to tell what was going on. Just like most cities around the world, things come alive after dark and I was glad I got to experience it.