Reference News Network reported on February 15th The American Diplomatic Scholars website published an article titled "Interpreting the Chinese Spring Festival Gala" on February 12th. The author was Nick Carraway. The article is compiled as follows:
The Spring Festival Gala held every year by China Central Radio and Television is the most watched TV program in the world, attracting at least one-third of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and its number of viewers far exceeds the Eurovision Song Contest and other similar events. Ceremony. Since its launch in 1983, the Spring Festival Gala has become one of the iconic elements of the contemporary Chinese Spring Festival experience.
The annual Spring Festival Gala is several hours long, broadcast from evening to midnight, and a huge team is involved in the production. Watching the Spring Festival Gala has become the main activity for many Chinese families on New Year's Eve. The programs in the Spring Festival Gala include singing and dancing, sketches, acrobatics, etc., all of which have been strictly screened. The final program will not be announced until the last minute.
The Spring Festival Gala reflects to a large extent the "collective emotions" that the Chinese government strives to shape. It also embodies the self-image China wants to project. The Spring Festival Gala often highlights national achievements or goals, such as railway construction and space exploration. Although the ratings of the Spring Festival Gala have declined in recent years, there are reports that this year's Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Dragon has achieved the highest ratings in the past six years. The dragon itself is a symbol often associated with traditional culture in China.
The Spring Festival Gala provides an excellent opportunity for us to understand how China wants its people to understand and feel about the current situation of the country, including understanding China's position on the international stage.
This year’s Spring Festival Gala has some outstanding features:
First of all, the continuity of Chinese civilization is fully praised. This is consistent with China’s efforts in recent years to vigorously advocate “cultural self-confidence” and emphasize the importance of “excellent Chinese traditional culture.”
China now has the largest number of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in the world. In addition, China has also established its own traditional cultural heritage protection mechanism domestically. While China has made tremendous technological and economic achievements, this year's Spring Festival Gala put more emphasis on its glorious historical heritage, such as paying tribute to famous poets from the Tang Dynasty. The emphasis on civilizational narrative and civilizational identity is more prominent than ever.
This year’s Spring Festival Gala also added a Xinjiang branch venue and invited a large number of Uyghur performers.
China regards the civilized discourse system as a source of national pride and regards the Spring Festival Gala as an important medium to highlight traditional culture. The Spring Festival Gala not only showcases China's rich traditional culture and promotes emotions and morals that are widely accepted by society (such as national fitness, intergenerational harmony, and national unity, etc.), but also serves as an important platform to deal with complex information flows at home and abroad.
This year’s program placed a special emphasis on civilizational pride, showcasing careful planning in international representation and careful treatment of ethnic diversity. Through this cultural, social, and political landscape, the Spring Festival Gala conveys a sense of "rightness" and demonstrates the Chinese government's adeptness at crafting national narratives that resonate at home and abroad. (Compiled/Liu Ziyan)
