On March 20, the second floor of the Wuhan University of Design and Engineering Library was transformed. Students in flowing hanfu, each representing a floral deity, walked among the bookshelves. This wasn’t a costume party. It was the opening of the seventh Reading Festival, and it began with a procession.
The event folded classroom learning into public display. Fashion students used AI to design the visual setting. Others modeled garments that blended historical reference with modern style. Performers read classical poems aloud, their voices joining the rustle of silk. A reading list, curated by the twelve flower spirits, sat nearby, linking botany to literature.
After the main presentation, the space shifted into an open courtyard scene. Guests tried their hand at pitch-pot, an ancient drinking game, or tested their memory with poetry challenges. There was even a hoop-rolling station, a simple pleasure from childhood.
The idea is straightforward. Books are not just objects to be read silently. Here, they become a reason to gather, to dress up, to play. Tradition is treated as something immediate, not distant. The scent of paper mixes with the movement of fabric. Poetry leaves the page and becomes a shared game. It is a deliberate choice: to make a library feel like a garden in spring.