2019 Pingtung Hot Expo colorful rice transplanting kicks off early: twin pigs light up to welcome the Year of the Pig

The painted rice field of the 2019 Pingtung Tropical Agriculture Expo has begun transplanting! On the morning of the 3rd, at the Tropical Agriculture Demonstration Park, Pingtung County Magistrate Pan Meng-an led students from Qingshan Elementary School and guests in planting rice seedlings of hope together, warming up ahead of the 2019 Pingtung Tropical Agriculture Expo to be held from January 29 to February 17, 2019. The event included an indigenous blessing performance celebrating the harvest, rice cultivation culture promotion, irrigation canal culture experience, and tasting of domestically produced rice, and the atmosphere on site was lively.

Pingtung County Magistrate Pan Meng-an said that the Pingtung Hot Expo colorful rice has now entered its fourth year, setting new highs in visitor numbers year after year. Following the 2018 Hot Expo event's collaboration with Taiwan Sanrio Company on the Hello Kitty colorful rice, which achieved an excellent 1.82 million visitor admissions, the 2019 Hot Expo colorful rice is a collaboration with Twin Pigs Studio, with the famous painter Du Hansong designing it specially. This painted rice field matches next year's Year of the Pig with twin pigs as the design theme, paired with the hundred-pace snake and wild lily most revered by the Rukai people, showcasing a unique indigenous style. The twin pigs light up together, also promoting next year's Hot Expo and the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Pingtung.

Magistrate Pan Meng-an pointed out that for this Hot Expo painted rice field, thanks go to the Executive Yuan Council of Agriculture for its subsidy, the Agricultural Research Institute for providing domestically bred colorful rice varieties, and the team of the Pingtung County Rice Seedling Technology Improvement Association led by Mr. Lin Qingyuan for planting, and Dongyi Sculpture Company for its 3D image conversion technology, allowing traditional agriculture to combine with modern technology to jointly create large-scale landscape art and boost local tourism. One month after the colorful rice is transplanted, the twin pigs lighting up pattern will appear in the rice field, joyfully welcoming next year's Year of the Pig Taiwan Lantern Festival in Pingtung and the opening of the Pingtung Tropical Agriculture Expo on January 29 next year, accompanying everyone through a happy Lunar New Year.