New Year’s Gala Celebrates Tech and International Outlook

Executive Summary:

• The Spring Festival Gala, which had 16.8 billion views across all media platforms this year, is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) annual message to the Chinese people and is used to celebrate the last year’s achievements and list priorities for the new year.
• This year’s edition heavily featured advancements in technology, including dancing robots in traditional dress and references to recent successful space missions. This fits with President Xi Jinping’s priorities, which center on “seizing the commanding heights in the new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.”
• The Gala sought to enhance international appeal, featuring a performance by an American band for the first time, as well as a duet between Peruvian and Chinese singers that celebrated the construction of a new megaport in Chancay.
• Ethnic minorities were notably absent compared to previous years. This could indicate that the CCP is deprioritizing ethnic issues, or that it feels more secure in its control over the country.
• Military themes were also relatively light, a possible indicator that the CCP is not preparing the Chinese people for a forceful retaking of Taiwan in the next year.

Billions of people rang in the Lunar New Year this week, and for Chinese and Chinese diaspora communities around the world, the China Media Group’s New Year’s Gala (CMG New Year’s Gala, formerly known as the CCTV New Year’s Gala) was a part of their celebrations. The Gala was originally started as entertainment for New Year’s Eve. With an audience of over a billion people, mostly in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the show is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) annual message to the Chinese people, a celebration of last year’s achievements, and a list of goals and priorities for the new year.

The cultural significance of the CMG New Year’s Gala in the PRC is hard to overstate. Since its creation in the early 1980s, the show has become integrated into the country’s New Year traditions. This year, it racked up a barely believable 16.8 billion views across all media platforms, according to the host, CMG (CGTN, January 31). The show features a mix of roughly thirty to forty musical numbers, comedy skits, dances, and other short performances. Prominent celebrities grace the stage, and a performance at the Gala can make a newcomer a household name, as was most notably the case in 1982 for Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛), the former People’s Liberation Army singer and current First Lady of the People’s Republic of China (Guancha, December 1, 2012). A New Year’s celebration is incomplete without singing along to “Can’t Forget Tonight (难忘今宵),” the catchy closing number that is perhaps as well known as the country’s national anthem (Xinhua, January 29).

The New Year’s Galas of the 1980s were relatively open as organizers experimented with the format and tested audience interest. As the show evolved, the CCP inevitably recognized its propaganda value. With most of the country tuning in, it became more political, and performances were commonly tied in to current events that the Party wanted to amplify. Some years are more Party-heavy than others, with prominent officials, including former Party Secretary Jiang Zemin, making appearances (Sohu, December 16, 2022).

Less Humor, Higher Quality in the Xi Era

Since Xi Jinping’s accession to power in 2012, the Gala has become a strict forum for promoting his values and vision for the PRC, even while it continues to serve its entertainment purpose. The present version of the Gala strives to balance the two objectives within the scope of the skits and performances. Most of the show celebrates Chinese culture and history, with displays of martial arts, poetry, and Chinese calligraphy, which are burnished as demonstrations of Chinese soft power. The show highlights different cultures and foods from different provinces and regions, though this year came without a heavy-handed message of national unity. One trend in the Xi era is the decline in the number of xiaopin (小品, Chinese sketch comedy) and xiangsheng (相声, Chinese “crosstalk,” a form of comic dialogue), which can at times be provocative and controversial, in favor of less risky dance and musical performances. Some viewers felt that the comedy skits were not as funny as before, as writers become more and more unwilling to touch upon sensitive political topics (Baijiahao, January 28). However, the object of certain jokes is revealing of the shifting contours of acceptable discourse. For example, this year’s xiaopin made fun of local-level officials and influencers—rare areas where the CCP and the West see eye-to-eye.

Other elements of the gala include a magic show, a segment which usually delights audiences. This year’s was no different, and exemplified the high production quality that has characterized the show in recent years—a significant improvement on earlier iterations.

The Party keeps a strict eye on the performance and its contents, but past shows have not been without controversy, despite strict rehearsal and coordination with the PRC government. Most notoriously, the 2018 and 2021 New Year’s galas featured cases of Chinese performers in blackface in a segment that attempted to highlight Chinese development in Africa (rfi, February 16, 2018; South China Morning Post, February 12, 2021). This year’s Gala required five rehearsals beginning in early January, and the rehearsals are heavily scrutinized to ensure a flawless and politically correct performance (Guangming Daily, January 27). The results seem to be effective, with no content leading to similar scandal or outrage.

Internationally Oriented Gala Highlights Tech

The Gala performances are a key opportunity for the CCP to showcase what they see as significant achievements from the past year. This year’s edition heavily featured advancements in technology. This accords closely with Xi’s national priorities, which center on “seizing the commanding heights in the new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation (抢占新一轮全球科技革命和产业变革制高点)” (China Brief, May 10, 2024; July 26, 2024). Following on from the first use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the New Year’s Gala in 2024, the tech theme continued this year with a dance number involving robots dressed in traditional clothing with human partners, showcasing the dexterity and coordination of the dancing robots. (The dance itself was an errenzhuan (二人转), a Northeastern Chinese dance where dancers twirl around red handkerchiefs.) In another segment, a member of the Chinese Academy of Scientists presented two adorable children with a model of Chang’e 6 (嫦娥六号), the spacecraft that successfully collected the first moon rock samples from the far side of the moon in 2024 (China National Space Administration, June 25, 2024). This presentation was followed by a song “Jade Plate (玉盘)” sung by children from Sichuan’s Daliang Shan, where the first four Chang’e crafts were launched. The PRC’s space industry has made enormous progress in the last few years. Beyond the successful moon mission, 2024 also saw the launch of satellite constellations and the release of a multi-decadal national plan for space, among other developments (China Brief, September 6, 2024; November 5, 2024).

Planners have also increasingly recognized the New Years Gala’s growing international reach. Recent Galas have been broadcast in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and other languages, including sign language, and seems to have become more cognizant of international sensibilities. Gala hosts highlighted the country’s new opening of travel visas and debated what an itinerary for a trip to the PRC might include before introducing a pop song number titled “China Fun Together” The lyrics of this song intersperse references to tourist destinations around the country and exhortations to visit (“see how happy we are. Let’s have fun together”) with nods to the country’s technological advances (“the high speed trains can take you anywhere … goods are delivered by drones”) (YouTube/CGTN, January 28). Another dance and music segment celebrated the construction of the megaport of Chancay and featured musicians from Peru. The port, unveiled in 2024 and visited by Xi, is the largest deepwater port on the western coast of South America (China Brief, March 15, 2024; Xinhua, December 18, 2024). Nevertheless, this year’s gala lacked official government messages on these international efforts and did not mention the One Belt One Road (一带一路) initiative by name. This is in contrast to earlier galas, such as the 2018 edition, which unveiled a historic “Landscape Map of the Silk Road (丝路山水地图).” A scroll painting offered to “prove that we Chinese already had a clear understanding of the path of the Silk Road as early as the middle of the 16th century,” many online commentators quickly pointed out that it was most likely a much later work (Banned Book, February 17, 2018; China Media Project, February 20, 2018).