This year's Spring Festival Gala, an annual celebration organized and broadcast by China Media Group, kicked off on Tuesday, the eve of Chinese New Year. Chinese people around the world celebrated the most important holiday, which is all about family gatherings.
Known as "Chunwan", the gala was the first since the Chinese Spring Festival was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This long-standing tradition, which has been broadcast since 1983, was taken to a new level this year in showcasing human warmth and cultural heritage.
Audiences were treated to a diverse range of performances, from music, comedy and traditional arts such as opera and martial arts to magic and acrobatic acts. For the fourth year, the gala was also available in a vertical format optimised for mobile devices, which had successively recorded 130 million, 190 million and 420 million views in the previous three years.
Celebration of ordinary people
This year's gala placed an even greater emphasis on celebrating the lives and contributions of ordinary people, further supporting the idea of a "People's Spring Festival Gala".
People from different professions and walks of life were invited to the stage - from police officers and railway workers to heirs of intangible cultural heritage and popular internet personalities. They shared their personal stories and presented the various programmes of the gala.
It was also the first time a broadcast accessible to visually and hearing impaired viewers was introduced. Using augmented reality (AR) technology and AI voice recognition, inclusive viewing of the show was made possible. Sign language interpreters, enhanced AR effects, and audio descriptions of each performance ensured that everyone could truly join in the celebration.
Connecting cultures through celebration
As the first Spring Festival Gala after UNESCO recognition, this year's event focused on the presentation of China's intangible cultural heritage.
The inaugural visual show, "Welcoming Fortune," combined state-of-the-art technologies such as augmented reality, interactive screens and 3D effects visible without glasses to showcase traditional customs and cultural elements from across China.
Significant elements included traditional Chinese paper-cutting, copper engravings and "iron flowers", a folk art in which molten iron is thrown into the air to create a firework-like effect.
Another highlight of the program was the performance "The Pillars and Beams", inspired by Beijing's Central Axis, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2024. Using state-of-the-art digital graphics, the structures of ancient Chinese architecture were presented to the audience in detail, offering a unique and immersive experience.
Global Cultural Bridge
The Gala is not just a domestic event, but also a global phenomenon that invites people from all over the world to join in the celebrations.
Evan Kyle, a young American who donated a World War II photo album to China, was invited to the gala. In addition, there were performances by foreign musicians - American rock band OneRepublic sang their hit "Counting Stars" and Chinese and Peruvian singers performed "Condor and Lanhuahua" together, which combines a popular folk song from northern Shaanxi with the Peruvian song "El Condor Pasa".
Broadcast on CGTN and its multilingual platform, this year's gala reached audiences in more than 200 countries and regions.
Live broadcasts in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian, along with coverage by more than 2,900 media entities around the world, helped cement the event's role as a cultural bridge connecting people across continents.
In addition, CGTN launched the Snake Year Dance Fun Challenge to celebrate the Year of the Snake, with people from 70 countries and regions actively participating. CGTN also hosts a special "Super Night" program on the eve of Chinese New Year, bringing outstanding performances in several languages to audiences around the world and promoting cultural exchange.
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