Video of Chinese Fireworks Display in Hunan, China–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A video that supposedly shows a breathtaking fireworks display in China’s Hunan Province has gone viral.
The Truth:
Hunan Province in China is famous for fireworks, but this video isn’t real.
The video shows fireworks explode into hearts and other shapes over a city skyline. It first appeared in a thread on the Minnesota Trapline Products website under the title “Best Ever Chinese Fireworks!” The thread says:
“This Hunan Province town is where fireworks were invented, and the show has never been equaled in the west. The Chinese are not only the inventors of the fireworks, they are still the masters.”
That claim has been repeated in chain emails, and the video has been viewed more than 7 million times on YouTube.
The problem is that the video doesn’t show real fireworks. It was made with fwsim, a website that lets people use animation software to create simulated fireworks displays.
Even though the fireworks in the video aren’t real, fireworks were invented in Hunan Province, and local there take them very seriously. This video shows an amateur fireworks display in Hunan Province from 2013 that is better than most professional fireworks displays in the U.S.