2023 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala is due to air at 7:30 pm, January 19 (the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month), presenting 13 shows altogether. There are performers from cultural, film and television, music, and quyi circles, including Li Yugang, Yue Yunpeng, Wang Yibo, Wowkie Zhang, Liu Yuxin, Lin Yun, Liu Yan and Duo of Zhang Xiaowan and Guan Le. The shows include interviews, crosstalk, comedic skits, talk shows, comedic musical operas, zaju, and Chinese opera, which conform to the taste of modern audiences. With the core being traditional Chinese culture and Yellow River Culture, 2023 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala brings out the essence of Spring Festival, i.e. festivity, warmth, culture and family reunion. This program is an “original, novel and special” feast for the audiences across the country, as it takes on the festive atmosphere of the New Year.

Since Night Banquet in Tang Dynasty Palace in 2021 became a sensation and produced a catfish effect, Henan TV has found its own way to success in the field of cultural creation. In recent years, Henan TV has reshaped the audiences’ aesthetic sense more than once. It blazed a trail with its Chinese Festival series and became a leading platform for the publicity of traditional Chinese culture. Unlike the former performances mainly featuring dance, the 2023 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala will revisit the form of “gala on the stage”, so as to create an auspicious Spring Festival atmosphere with narrative tactics, and an innovative performance space with immersive scenes. When the stage “disappears” and the concept of “platform” emerges, and thus performances and the audience are more closely connected.

Meanwhile, each show in 2023 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala aims to showcase as many local elements as possible, such as Henan's landscapes, customs, historical figures and their own emotional journeys. The program is kicked off by two guest MCs, Yue Yunpeng and Jia Nailiang, and two Henan TV MCs Eva and He Wentao in a situational comedy. Each MC breaks away from his or her hosting role and takes on a second identity, either singing opera, performing in a Henan opera or joining an orchestra, to bring the audience a refreshing comedic opening and add to the festive ambience. The children’s dance Surplus Year After Year brings to life “chubby babies in New Year pictures”, heightening the joyful celebration of Chinese New Year with its youthful production. In her song Dream of a Light Year, Chinese singer Liu Yuxin weaves the masterpieces of traditional Chinese arts and intangible cultural heritage seamlessly into a pop dance routine in a bid to honor the legacys and to highlight the wisdom of Chinese inventions.

In his Dance Twins, Chinese actor Wang Yibo takes on two roles simultaneously, one a man of letters and the other a warrior, to communicate the philosophy that all things contradict and translate into each other, and thus produce all things. The dance will be combined with sharp contrast between different colors and different views. Inspired by a Chinese myth, the comedic skit Good Friends in the Moon Palace recounts China’s success in modern aerospace engineering and the value of true sisterhood. The situational comedy The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor (New Version) takes the audience through space and time to catch a glimpse of the everlasting lineage of traditional Chinese culture, its verse ingeniously marrying the melody of Peking opera The Wandering Dragon Teasing the Phoenix with the text of The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor to turn an embarrassing misunderstanding into a romantic duet.

Also added to the mix are the AI dance Auspicious and Blessed, the dances Pangu Separates the Sky from the Earth and Phoenix Dances in the Heavens, the opera song A Song of Six Hundred Years, the songs Nice!, Stars and Roses, and Encounter Henan, and the crosstalk A Happy song of Two. With the help of cutting-edge visual technology, these shows take on brand new forms to wed traditional culture and modern-day trends. While reflecting on the essence of Eastern aesthetics and how it should be passed on, they demonstrate the beauty and the core values of Chinese New Year culture in a visual feast catering to hundreds of millions of viewers.

“Over years of production, we might not have reached a detached mentality state, but at least we’re more at peace with ourselves. Such a mindset motivates us to keep thinking, exploring, searching, and experimenting with all sorts of innovations. We have learned to put in more effort into studying, understanding, and keeping up with our audience. We hope that this program can bring us closer to them so that we will make more high-quality shows,” says Chen Lei, chief director of 2023 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala.

Following the sensational Spring Festival Gala, another noteworthy program produced by the same team of Henan TV, “Spring Glamor and Glory: 2023 Chinese Acrobatics Gala” will be broadcast to global audience at 19:30, Jan 23rd, on Henan TV. Please stay tuned for the program!