Against the night skies of global celebrations, Liuyang City's pyrotechnic mastery continues its millennium-old dance between heritage and innovation. A new documentary released this month, Poet of the Sky: The Liuyang Fireworks Art, reveals how this Hunan Province tradition remains vital through generational collaboration.
Guardians of the Flame
At 68, Zhong Ziqi embodies living history as a national inheritor of Liuyang's firework craft. His workshop shelves hold handwritten formulas dating to the Ming Dynasty, which he's spent 40 years adapting using modern chemistry and safety protocols. 'Every color tells a story,' Zhong explains in the film, demonstrating how substituting potassium nitrate for sulfur reduced emissions by 37% without compromising vividity.
Pixelating the Sky
Thirty years Zhong's junior, Huang Cheng represents the new vanguard. His recent Shanghai New Year's Eve spectacle synchronized 2,018 drones with chrysanthemum-shaped fireworks, creating a 3D map of the Yangtze River Delta that trended across six social platforms. 'We're not just lighting fuses anymore,' Huang notes. 'We're coding emotions into the atmosphere.'
The documentary, streaming globally since December 1, arrives as Liuyang prepares its 2026 bid to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list – a campaign strengthened by its 62% global market share in artistic pyrotechnics.
