This year’s Spring Festival Gala, an annual celebration that is produced and broadcast by the China Media Group, began on Tuesday, the eve of the Chinese New Year, when the Chinese celebrated the spring festival worldwide, the most important Chinese festival in which the family reunification is .
The gala known as the “Chunwan”, the first since the start of the Chinese spring festival in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity of UNESCO, not only continued their tradition as a compulsory event for Chinese families on the Chinese New Year’s evening since 1983, but also new Standards set in the representation of human warmth and the cultural heritage.
The gala offered a colorful mix of music, comedy and traditional arts such as opera and martial arts to spectacular performances such as magic and acrobatics. It was also the fourth year in which the spectators were able to follow the gala on vertical screens. The vertical format of the gala, optimized for mobile phones, has proven to be particularly popular. In the three previous years, 130 million, 190 million and 420 million views were recorded.
A meeting with heart and soul
This year’s gala focused on the appreciation of life and the contributions of the simple people and thus embodied the idea of the “Spring Festival Gala of the People”.
From simple police officers and train employees to heirs of the intangible cultural heritage and famous Internet personalities, people from all social classes were invited to tell their personal stories and present the gala programs.
At the gala, a barrier-free transmission for visual and hearing-impaired spectators was introduced for the first time, in which virtual augmented reality (AR) technology and AI language recognition were used to offer them an inclusive experience.
Signed language interpreters and audio descriptions of the performances supported by AR effects ensured that everyone could enjoy the celebrations, which further consolidated the role of the gala as a festival for everyone.
Celebrations as a bridge between cultures
As the first spring festival gala after the Recognition by UNESCO, the 2025 edition was all about the presentation of the intangible cultural heritage of China.
The visual opening spectacle “Welcoming Fortune” combined the latest technologies such as AR, interactive screens and 3D with the naked eye to show traditional Chinese New Year’s customs and cultural elements from all over the country.
From the lively art of paper cutting to the copper engraving to the “iron flowers”, a folk art demonstration, in which melted iron is poured into the air in order to create a fireworks effect, every performance was a testimony to wealth and diversity of the intangible Chinese Cultural Heritage.
Another outstanding program was “The Pillars and Beams” (the columns and beams), a vocal and dance number all in the sign of Beijing’s central axis, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.
Modern digital art was also used to show the viewers in detail the structures of the old Chinese architecture and thus enable a close -up experience of the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
The gala is not only a domestic phenomenon, but also a global event to which people from all over the world are invited to take part in the celebrations.
Evan Kyle, a young American who donated a photo album from World War II, were invited to the gala. Foreign musicians and singers also performed during the gala. Among other things, the American rock band ONEREPUBLIC sang her hit “Counting Stars”. Chinese and Peruvian singers sang “Condor and Lanhuahua”, a combination of “Lan Huahua”, a popular folk song from North Shaanxi in China, and “El Condor Pasa “, a Peruvian folk song.
Via CGTN and its multilingual platforms, this year’s gala reached spectators in over 200 countries and regions.
With live broadcasts in English, Spanish, French, Arab and Russian and the reporting of more than 2,900 media around the world, the gala continues to serve as a cultural bridge that connects people around the world.
More than 70 countries and regions actively participate in the Snake Year Dance Fun Challenge, which was launched by CGTN to celebrate the year. On the eve of the Chinese New Year’s Festival, CGTN also organizes the spring festival special “Super Night”, in which the spectators are presented with great programs worldwide to promote cultural exchange in several languages.
For more information, please click here: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-01-28/2025-Spring-Festival-Gala-A-toast-to-humanity-and-cultural-heritage-1AxjvW3Y9eE/p.html
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