China Central Television's annual Spring Festival Gala is set to brighten TV screens across the country on January 28, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Production crew and performers went through their final rehearsal on January 24. The gala will be broadcast live nationally and internationally. 

The four-hour extravaganza will start at 8:00 PM on January 28 and end at midnight. Audiences will be treated to a total of 31 performances featuring song, dance, acrobatics, comedy and much much more.

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala has become somewhat of a tradition since it was created in the 1980s. 

But with improved living conditions and changing lifestyles, producers face the challenge of having to develop a show bigger, more exciting, more colorful and more entertaining than the one before. Catering to different tastes is also a major challenge.

Lang Kun, the lead director of this year's gala, is confident that audiences will enjoy the performances prepared. Lang reckons that the show stealer will be "Qiao Xi Yang" (Beautiful Sunset), a big dance show. Another audience-grabber will be a 19-minute witty skit entitled "Talk about Things" by popular Chinese comedian Zhao Benshan.

At a press conference on January 22, Hu En, deputy president of CCTV, announced that the program will be broadcast live on five channels -- CCTV-1, CCTV-4, CCTV-9 (English), CCTV-E&F (Spanish and French) and CCTV News. The program will also be broadcast on China National Radio and China Radio International.

This year's gala is entitled "Bring Out the Lanterns and Streamers for the Spring Festival, May Nature and Man Go Forward in Harmony." The underlying theme for each of the performances is "Love and Harmony," Lang said. 

Lang added: "There are five main attractions this year. First, we have a good selection of artistes performing this year." Veteran artists like Wu Yanze and Huang Wanqiu will wow audiences again, and so, too, will younger performers like Internet singer Pang Long and comic artist Zhang Degao.

"Second, professionals and amateurs will share the stage," Lang continued. Professionals including Zhao Benshan, Niu Qun, and Peng Liyuan will share the spotlight with pieces performed by amateurs including "Qiao Xi Yang" and "Ji Xiang San Bao".

"This CCTV gala has opened its doors wide to a whole host of talent," Lang added.

The third attraction is guest performers from outside the mainland including Singaporean pop singer JJ Lin, the comic dialogue (or cross-talk) duo of Zhu Degang and Liu Zengkai, and Harlem Yu from Taiwan, and artistes from Hong Kong and Macao including Ncholas Tse and tenor Warren Mok.

Making up the fourth attraction are the two astronauts from the recent Shenzhou VI space mission. Their greetings to compatriots recorded in space will be broadcast for the first time.

Equally interesting will be the unveiling of the names of the two pandas that will be given to Taiwan.  

The fifth attraction for the night involves hosts from 35 local TV stations or institutes who will be helping CCTV's hosts solve traditional lantern riddles.

Moreover, the festivities are scheduled to last through the night. After the official gala ends at midnight, CCTV-3 will broadcast another seven hours of programming featuring more dazzling performances, according to Zhu Tong, director of the Variety Program Center at CCTV.

At approximately 7:26 AM, the program team will head down to Tiananmen Square for the flag-raising ceremony.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, January 27, 2006)