CMG's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala celebrates traditions with star-studded performances

China Media Group (CMG)'s much-anticipated Mid-Autumn Festival Gala aired at 20:00 Beijing Time on Tuesday, captivating a global audience with its poetic and artistic celebrations of the festival.

The gala, known as "Qiuwan" in Chinese, was filmed in Shenyang City, the provincial capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province. This city, rich in cultural heritage and industrial significance, boasts a 2,300-year history, three world heritage sites, and over 1,500 historical landmarks.

Themed "Moon Culture," the gala presented over 30 artistic performances, including poems, songs, dances, and operas, vividly reflecting Chinese traditional culture with a modern flair.

The program was divided into three chapters, namely "Moon Rise," "Moon Light," and "Bright Moon."

"Moon Rise" opened with a song adapted from a poem by Li Qingzhao, a Song Dynasty (960-1279) female poet, celebrating the sweet osmanthus flower, which blooms at this time of year and has been cultivated in China for over 2,500 years.

This section also featured performances blending traditional Chinese music with contemporary styles, emphasizing family, patriotism, and nostalgia, including a performance featuring popular Kazakhstani singer Dimash Qudaibergen.

The second chapter, "Moon Light," highlighted traditional Chinese culture and Shenyang's local charm with acts which included ancient shadow puppetry and errenzhuan, a two-person stand-up comedy unique to northeast China.

Notable performances included pop star Li Yuchun's duet with a child, celebrating maternal love, and singer Tan Weiwei's performance with Olympic champions Wu Dajing and Deng Yawen, honoring dream chasers. Hungarian pianist Balazs Havasi joined Chinese artists for a stirring performance, spreading a message of warmth and romance.

"Moon Bright," the final chapter, featured classic songs and reunion-themed narratives.

Highlights included a musical adaptation of Tang Dynasty poem "Qing Ping Diao” by poet Li Bai (701-762), which captures the essence of ancient Chinese beauty. A moving performance by a middle-school chorus from Macao Special Administrative Region expressed students' love for the country and hopes for a brighter future.

French musician Richard Clayderman enchanted the audience with his timeless "A Comme Amour" and a breathtaking rendition of "The Butterfly Lovers" concerto, which intertwines Chinese folklore with Western romantic composition.

The gala is now available on various China Central Television (CCTV) channels and new media platforms.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, symbolizing family reunion, was celebrated on Tuesday, September 17.

CMG's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala celebrates traditions with star-studded performances

CMG's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala celebrates traditions with star-studded performances

About 800 interdisciplinary experts from China and around the world convened in Beijing on Friday at the 2024 World Agrifood Innovation Conference (WAFI 2024), advocating a low-carbon transition in agrifood systems through sci-tech innovation to address climate change.

The conference, themed "Climate Change and Agrifood Systems Transformation," highlights the urgent need for innovation in the agricultural sector.

Experts at the conference acknowledged the numerous challenges facing agrifood system transformation and the need for global collaboration to share experiences and results through ongoing dialogue.

"One of the major highlights of the conference is multidisciplinary [observations]. Entrepreneurs and scientists are all on one platform. What we particularly emphasize is the dialogue among scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors, which is very crucial. How can a scientist's research results be transformed into productivity? This transformation necessitates industrialization, wherein businesses must leverage their technological innovations," said Fu Wenge, director of the MBA Education Center, at China Agricultural University.

During the conference, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and investors from over 70 countries and regions will discuss various topics including smart agriculture, AI-driven breeding, transformations in livestock and aquatic food systems, genetic resources and germplasm innovation, as well as food nutrition and security.

David Nabarro, a World Food Prize laureate, highlighted that achieving sustainable agriculture requires not only national policy development but also international cooperation across industries, disciplines and stakeholders.

"This conference is about finding ways that innovation can help agriculture and food in China and beyond meet the needs that we're going to see now and in the decades to come. Well, this is a country that contains some of the world's brightest scientists who not only are good at doing the science, but also applying it and sharing it with others," said Nabarro.

Alongside the gathering of experts, the event is hosting the 2024 World AgriFood Technology Expo, showcasing cutting-edge achievements, advanced technologies, advanced models, high-quality projects, and innovative products in the global agricultural sector.

Initiated last year, WAFI aims to serve as a world-class platform for advancing global agrifood innovation. The conference is co-organized by the local government of Pinggu District of Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Global experts in Beijing explore strategies to realize low-carbon agrifood systems