Hong Kong has put on a spectacular lantern show that for the first time features fictional characters created by popular martial art story writer Louis Cha, or Jin Yong, to celebrate the upcoming Spring Lantern Festival.

The lantern show, now on display at the Hong Kong Cultural Center Piazza until March 1, was created by a designer who said he spent three months visualizing the characters.

The characters depicted in the form of lanterns included Guo Jing, Huang Rong, Yang Guo, Xiaolongnv as well as other well-known characters that appeared in the novels The Legends of the Condor Heroes and The Return of the Condor Heroes.

In terms of time lines, the two novels have overlapping parts.

The Legends of the Condor Heroes is one of the masterpieces by Louis Cha, whose works were among the most widely read by Chinese readers around the globe, old and young alike. It tells the adventurous stories of Guo Jing and Huang Rong, who rose to the status of kungfu masters as they adventured around ancient China over the course of several years, helping the disadvantaged and punishing the villains.

The Return of the Condor Heroes carried on the story left over from the Legends.

The pair of white condors that usually accompanied Guo Jing and Huang Rong on their adventures and a big grey condor that accompanied Yang Guo will be included, too.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, which organized the lantern show, said it will also put on three other major lantern carnivals to celebrate the Spring Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the lunar year's first month, or Feb. 9.

The carnivals will traditionally feature Chinese songs and dance, golden oldies, fortune-telling, games stalls, lantern quiz and roving entertainment.

The East Asian Games, which is to be held in Hong Kong in December 2009, will also be one of the themes for displays at the three carnival venues.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2009)