March Third Festival

The most dazzling step in bringing Li Sanyuesan to the world was the appearance of Li brocade on the runway at Paris Fashion Week. Li brocade has been praised as “culture worn on the body” and a “living fossil in the history of Chinese textiles.” The traditional Li techniques of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery have been passed down for thousands of years and constitute a world-class intangible cultural heritage safeguarding project. In 2006, the traditional Li techniques of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery were included in China’s national intangible cultural heritage list. On March 11, 2025, the Véronique Leroy 2025–2026 Autumn/Winter Li Brocade Masters Collaboration Collection, jointly organized by internationally renowned designer brand Véronique Leroy and the government of Wuzhishan City, Hainan, was presented at the historic Cordeliers complex in central Paris during Paris Fashion Week. The garments featuring Li brocade elements incorporated motifs such as the Ganggong Bird, the Strongman, and the dove from Li culture, combined with one-piece tailoring, revealing the profound cultural foundations of the traditional Li techniques of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery as a representative element of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. At the opening ceremony of the main venue for Hainan’s 2025 traditional Li and Miao festival of Sanyuesan, garments incorporating Li brocade elements once again appeared on stage. Combined with technologies involving sound, lighting, and electricity, they created a visual feast for the audience. Holographic projection produced a stage effect blending the real and the virtual, perfectly presenting interaction between live models and virtual characters, while light, shadow, and physical forms merged to reveal the beauty of Li brocade. Dong Yujing, a young Li man from Sanya, said: “It is something to be proud of that ethnic clothing can step onto the international stage.” The journey of Li brocade from Wuzhishan to Paris offers one of the most vivid illustrations of Li culture “going global.” From rainforest villages in central Hainan to the runway of the world’s fashion capital, Li brocade has demonstrated that traditional craftsmanship can not only be protected in museums, but can also be reinterpreted and recreated within the language of contemporary fashion.

If Li brocade is the most dazzling visual symbol through which Li Sanyuesan reaches the world, then Li songs are its most moving sonic calling card. The Wuzhishan Li and Miao Children’s Choir: from Wuzhishan to Paris and Seoul. At the opening ceremony of the main venue for Hainan’s 2025 traditional Li and Miao festival of Sanyuesan, a children’s choral performance from deep within the mountains of Wuzhishan, Hainan, drew particular attention. In May 2024, these children traveled abroad for the first time, going to Paris, France, to participate in a series of events marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, where they performed together with the Paris Polysons Children’s Choir. The choir later traveled to Jeju City, South Korea, to participate in the 63rd Tamna Cultural Festival. Yu Qian, a member of the Standing Committee of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee and head of its Publicity Department, said: “This May, we are preparing to return to Paris to reunite and exchange with the children of the Paris Polysons Children’s Choir.” The appeal of Li and Miao culture is drifting toward the international stage through song, entering into dialogue with the world. From the Li and Miao villages of Wuzhishan to performances in front of the Louvre in Paris, from the depths of Hainan’s rainforests to the Tamna Cultural Festival on Jeju Island in South Korea—these “little leaves” from the deep mountains are now flying toward the great international stage. The voice of the “Li skylark.” Folk singer Huang Tingdan, known as the “Li skylark,” performed the Li folk song 捡螺歌 during the Sanyuesan parade. She said: “We welcome everyone who comes to Wuzhishan with our songs.” At the opening ceremony of Sanyuesan in 2026, Li folk-song inheritor Fu Huajin sang 欧欧调, an ancient melody long passed down beneath Exian Ridge. Beginning on the stage of Sanyuesan and traveling through international communication channels, these voices are now being heard by more and more people.

The most direct way for Li Sanyuesan to reach the world is to “invite” the world into Hainan’s rainforest landscapes, allowing international visitors to take part personally in the exuberance of this thousand-year-old festival. The journey of overseas influencers to Baoting. In April 2024, overseas “big V” influencers from around the world visited Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County to experience its distinctive customs and culture together with the Li and Miao people. At the “Thousand-Person Long-Table Banquet” held beside the Qixian River in Baoting, the overseas influencers sang folk songs and drank Shanlan wine with Li and Miao participants as they celebrated Sanyuesan together. Natan Colombo from Italy described his impressions after watching the opening ceremony of Baoting Sanyuesan in three words: “Colorful! Exciting! Culture!” The vibrant folk performances, rich intangible heritage traditions, and distinctive long scroll of Li brocade captured everyone’s attention. Balena from Russia said: “The folk festival is very interesting and eye-opening. At the same time, I also felt the warmth of the Li and Miao people of Baoting.” A bonfire evening for overseas communication officers. As the grand Li and Miao festival of Sanyuesan approached, overseas communication officers participated in a bonfire evening deep in the mountains of Baoting. “The starry sky, the grassland, and the bonfire—this is a shared romance belonging to the Li and Miao people and to the overseas communication officers who have come to visit.” International student experience officers in Baisha. During Sanyuesan in 2025, Baisha Li Autonomous County launched the video VLOG | Baisha‘s San Yue San Festival: International Students Immersed in Vibrant Ethnic Culture. Aijia, a Kazakh international student from Hainan International College of Beijing Language and Culture University, and Huang Yiheng from Hainan International College of Minzu University of China became “Hainan international student experience officers.” Under the guidance of Zhang Chaoying, a representative inheritor of the traditional Li spinning, dyeing, weaving, and embroidery techniques, they danced the bamboo-pole dance, tasted three-colored rice, searched for treasures in tea gardens, and more, completing a double feast for both palate and spirit. At Baisha’s Sanyuesan activities, foreign cultural promotion officers were active across such zones as the “parade ceremony,” “bonfire carnival,” “intangible heritage treasure hunt,” and “long-table banquet,” immersing themselves in ethnic culture. Participation by tens of thousands of visitors. During Sanyuesan, Baisha launched a rich variety of activities, including a ceremonial parade enlivening the mountain town, wedding customs in which newlyweds tossed lucky pouches, and a bonfire carnival ethnic-style party, attracting more than 50,000 visitors from Shanghai, Guangdong, and many other places. On Sanyuesan Avenue in Wuzhishan City, the “Together We Draw the Concentric Circle” joyful grand parade drew enormous crowds, turning the streets into a sea of celebration and attracting large numbers of residents and tourists. After personally taking part in Sanyuesan, these visitors from around the world carried the appeal of Li culture to destinations across the globe through travel writing, photographs, and videos.

Among the achievements in the global dissemination of Li Sanyuesan, one of the most striking has been the extensive attention and reporting it has received from overseas media. Coverage by more than 960 media outlets across 28 countries. The Wuzhishan main-venue activities for Hainan’s 2025 traditional Li and Miao festival of Sanyuesan attracted considerable attention. Xinhua’s overseas platforms released information about the event in multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. To date, the material has been widely republished by more than 960 media outlets in 28 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Ireland, Germany, Thailand, Italy, Canada, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands, as well as outlets including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Kyodo News, Yonhap News Agency, Yahoo Finance, the official website of Fox Television in the United States, and Washington Daily News, reaching more than 250 million people. Five-language releases through the Global Alliance of News Agencies. The Global Alliance of News Agencies released the article Wuzhishan in Hainan, China, Celebrates the Culture of Ethnic Groups in the March 3rd Festival (中国海南五指山举办“三月三”少数民族文化盛典) in English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Italian, allowing audiences around the world to experience the appeal of the traditional Li and Miao cultures of Hainan, China. Baisha’s Li and Miao culture attracts 736 overseas media outlets. After a video of the Sanyuesan celebrations in Baisha Li Autonomous County was released, it was widely republished across 736 media and information platforms, including the Associated Press, France’s Le Figaro, the United Kingdom’s Financial Times, Canada’s National Post, and Vietnam News, reaching nearly 300 million people worldwide. The video was distributed through a comprehensive media matrix including the Xinhua app, Ban Yue Tan app, Reference News app, China National Radio’s website, Hainan Daily, and large screens at Haikou Meilan International Airport and Sanya Phoenix International Airport. Attention from The Huffington Post in the United States and an appearance in Times Square. The traditional Sanyuesan folk festival of Lingshui Li Autonomous County, Hainan, attracted strong attention and coverage from The Huffington Post, described as one of the five most popular news websites in the United States because of the festival’s distinctive character. This subsequently prompted republication by more than 200 authoritative media outlets, including the three major commercial broadcasting companies in the United States, and the festival appeared on the giant screens of New York’s Times Square, known as “the crossroads of the world.” From the depths of Hainan’s rainforests to Times Square in New York, images of Li Sanyuesan were displayed to the world at the “crossroads of the world”—one of the most iconic moments in the international communication of Li culture. Dissemination through Xinhua’s overseas social media platforms. Xinhua successively published illustrated posts on the Spanish- and Portuguese-language accounts of overseas social platforms such as Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, presenting overseas audiences with highlights of Wuzhishan’s celebrations of Hainan’s traditional Li and Miao festival of Sanyuesan.