In recent years, the revival of traditional Chinese culture has swept through China as more and more young Chinese take pride in the nation’s history. Such revival is not only making a comeback domestically, but also attracts global eye as it evolves into a retro-futuristic style when combining with advanced tech elements.

Being China’s leading construction machinery manufacturer in the global market, XCMG always shoulders its responsibility as an ambassador of the national culture, combining the traditional culture elements with its thriving development of intelligent manufacturing and pioneering innovations.

In XCMG’s recent global emergency equipment design competition – the X-Creators Challenge, XCMG uses innovation to give the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations renewed vigor and let them make a resurgence on four XCMG construction machines.

XCMG invited renowned graffiti artists to paint these four creatures onto the machines, displaying the enchanting ancient oriental beauty through the powerful machinery equipment and embodying the charisma of Chinese manufacturing to the world.

The Four Symbols are four mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations, and are believed to guard the world in four directions. They are known as the White Tiger of the West, the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South and the Black Tortoise of the North.

Each creature represents a direction and a season, and each has its own individual characteristics and origins. XCMG carefully select four different machines to match and best manifest each creature’s uniqueness:

·         The White Tiger of the West – XCA130 All Terrain Crane

The White Tiger is a holy beast representing the force and army, and also the symbol of gold. When placed onto the XCA130 All Terrain Crane, its whiteness adds a lightweight touch to enhance the flexibility of the machine, like adding wings to a tiger.

·         The Azure Dragon of the East – XE950DA hydraulic excavator

Dragon is the supreme holy animal in ancient Chinese culture and is often known the symbol of the emperor. It also represents the season of spring. As one of the pillar product lines of XCMG, excavator is the perfect match for the Azure Dragon.

·         The Vermilion Bird of the South – LW500HV Wheel Loader

The Vermillion Bird is in the color of fire. It is said to have the ability to reborn from the fire, like the immortal bird in the western mythology, so it is also named fire phoenix. When LW500HV Wheel loader is in action, its posture echoes that open wings, and the combination coveys a spirit of resurgence.

·         The Black Tortoise of the North – RP903 Asphalt Concrete Paver

The Black Tortoise is usually depicted as both a tortoise and a snake, specifically with the snake coiling around the tortoise. As the tortoise lives in water, it becomes the water god; and the tortoise enjoys a long life, so Xuanwu becomes the symbol of longevity. Painted on the RP903 Asphalt Concrete Paver, the combo indicates durability and long-lasting performance.

Themed “Embrace Life with Science and Technology”, the X-Creators  Challenge aims to support visionary talents to integrate advance innovation into emergency rescue solutions. This retro-futuristic Chinese ancient culture campaign again puts the competition in the global spotlight, attracting global audience to explore the infinite possibilities of construction machinery and inspiring the talents to boldly challenge the convention.

The X-Creators Challenge originates from the “XCMG Cup” Green Innovation Design Competition – one of XCMG's 14 precisely positioned global public welfare projects that focus on green and environmentally-friendly technologies as well as encouraging young talent to push forward the sustainable development of the industry. The past two “XCMG Cup” competitions amazed the industry with many creative ideas that can be applied practically, oriented towards practical challenges to lead intelligent, integrated and sustainable industry development.

As the upgraded edition, the X-Creators Challenge is composed of two competition categories – intelligent road emergency equipment design and geological disaster rescue equipment design. XCMG has set up a total prize of RMB 2.05 million and a fund pool of RMB 10 million to call for global entries of emergency rescue equipment solutions.

Both categories of the X-Creators Challenge call for ground-breaking equipment design ideas to aid emergency and disaster relief/rescue missions after earthquakes, landslides, mudslides as well as production accidents, especially utilizing intelligent technologies to save lives in urgent situations.

Amid the pandemic, the X-Creators Challenge still manages to shine out during the past year. The number of entrants worldwide hit a record high, and the quality of entries also exceeded beyond expectations. With eye-catching online events and creative offline activities, the X-Creators Challenge attracted global attention as a high-level international design contest.

Officially launched this February, the X-Creators Challenge attracted 2,978 contestants from China, Brazil, the Philippines, the US, the UK, Singapore, and other regions and countries worldwide. After 33 online seminars, 24h online support from 20 professional technicians, 40 designs entered the final round.

This December, the competition came to a successfully closure with the Global Awards Ceremony live-streamed on Facebook, attracting over 2.1 million audience to join online. Construction professionals from XCMG and other part of the world also sent their wishes via video format and shared their latest insights on the industry trend.

XCMG has always been working to rejuvenate the traditional manufacturing industry with various innovative program and the implementation of forward-thinking strategies. The X-Creators Challenge and the revival of traditional Chinese culture on XCMG machines again showcase the company’s determination in promoting the national manufacturing power and the advancement of industrial transformation.

XCMG also released a video series named “XCMG Midnight Diner”, using XCMG machinery models to make traditional Chinese festival food including mooncakes, Zongzi, dumplings and more.

Apart from the global hype of these creative campaigns, XCMG also proved its professional competence with industry-leading performance worldwide. In 2021, XCMG jumped on to Global Top 3 on KHL’s Yellow Table, and took the first place in the long established ICM20 ranking of the world's largest crane manufacturers released by the British KHL Group. 

Envisioning the technological transformation and centering on intelligent equipment solutions, XCMG keeps promoting innovative and sustainable development strategy.

For more information about X-Creators Challenge, please visit: https://www.xcmgapprentice.com/