The Qixi Festival, also known as the Double Seventh Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, falling on August 19 this year.
The festival originates from the romantic legend of the cowherd Niulang and the weaver girl Zhinü, whose love was forbidden, leaving them banished to opposite sides of the Milky Way. According to the legend, they are allowed to reunite once a year on Qixi, when a bridge of magpies forms across the Milky Way.
Traditionally, the festival involves customs such as young women demonstrating their domestic skills, praying for wisdom, and seeking a good marriage. In modern times, it has evolved into a day for couples to express their love for each other, much like Valentine's Day in the West.
Italian luxury brand Prada has released a film starring its brand ambassador and actress Zhang Yifan alongside the five-member boy band TransfOrm Project.
The film was shot at the Chapel of Music in Aranya, Hebei province, designed by Vector Architects under the direction of architect Dong Gong. Conceived as an instrument in which sound, light, and air shape the experience of space, its circular geometry serves as the conceptual core of the film: a timeless environment where movement follows architecture, and presence is sensed even without proximity.
Within this suspended setting, two parallel worlds coexist: on one side, Zhang Yifan; on the other, the five members of TransfOrm Project. They never share the same scene or physically meet, yet remain constantly within each other's field of vision. The same space appears to belong alternately to one world and then the other, while circular camera movements and mirrored perspectives build a silent dialogue — one that speaks not of romantic love, but of affinity, perception, and unspoken connection.
