Chengdu Library and its branch, the Tianfu Humanities and Arts Library, will mark this year’s Qixi Festival (August 19) with a Hanfu-themed program on August 16, Chengdu Daily reported on July 31. From 2 to 3 p.m., Shi Qian, director of the Hanfu Culture Committee of the Sichuan Traditional Culture Promotion Association, will lead the “Fine Robes, Cultural Threads” (Huashang Xu Wenmai) session in the library’s lecture hall on the lower ground floor, delivering a talk titled “Romantic Qixi and Chinese Clothing” that explores the etiquette spirit of traditional dress and national cultural character, decodes folk customs such as airing clothes on Qixi, and links garment culture with the festival’s heritage. The lecture reads the festival through clothing: how ritual dress encoded social order in classical China, and how the late-summer practice of sunning clothes and books — a Qixi custom still observed today — speaks to the seasonal rhythms of everyday life.
From 3 to 4:30 p.m. the same day, a companion event, “Robes, Books and Qiqiao” (Yiyun Shuxiang Feng Qiqiao), unfolds in four sections — wish-making, handcrafted beaded bracelets, flying-flower poetry games and sunning books and clothes — building a Qixi scene that blends the scent of books with ancient elegance. The wish-making and bracelet sections echo Qixi’s older meaning as a festival of beseeching dexterity (qiqiao), when women prayed for needlework skill; the flying-flower poetry game revives the ancient drinking-and-verse pastime of matching lines on a given character. Per the library’s published rules, readers who complete the wish-making check-in and the flying-flower challenge can claim one Qixi-themed keepsake per person, first come, first served, while supplies last; handcrafted bracelets are taken home as souvenirs, one per participant, with materials limited. Both events require no registration — visitors simply show up.
The two Qixi sessions are part of Chengdu Library’s summer “cultural feast.” This summer, Chengdu Library and the Tianfu Humanities and Arts Library are running programs for children, adults and families. The Tianfu branch’s English Corner series introduces science to children aged 3 to 12: August 8 features “Fun Air Cannon: Exploring the Power of Air,” August 15 features “Seed Fridge Magnets: Decoding Tree Rings,” and August 22 features “Moving Caterpillars: Creative Handcraft Science.” On the literary side, Zhang Yong, a national first-class screenwriter and vice chairman of the Sichuan Writers Association, will present a reading-sharing session for The Sleeping Butterfly on August 8; on August 22, Lu Yiping, vice chairman of the Chengdu Writers Association, will discuss highland writing using White Mountain and Wilderness Love Songs as examples.
Both Qixi events take place at the Tianfu Humanities and Arts Library, inside the Tianfu Art Park in Chengdu’s Jinniu District. Shi Qian’s Hanfu Culture Committee of the Sichuan Traditional Culture Promotion Association has long worked to popularize Hanfu culture. By anchoring the lecture in Qixi customs like clothes-airing, the program ties traditional dress etiquette to the festival’s cultural lineage, offering readers a chance to feel the ancient charm of Qixi amid the aroma of books.