The China Media Group (CMG) released the highlights of 2025 Spring Festival Chinese Opera Gala at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
Zhang Guofei, director of CMG's arts program center, presented the main innovation highlights of this year's gala and released the poster of the gala.
The gala was recorded in an ancient county seat of Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province.
The main stage of the gala was designed to capture the enchanting ambiance of the ancient county seat of Taiyuan, with the architecture serving as a natural backdrop for the performances.
The production team also utilized drone aerial footage and outdoor scenes to seamlessly integrate the stage with the city's iconic landmarks, such as the Yingze Bridge, and the Shanxi Provincial Museum, immersing the audience in the timeless beauty of Chinese opera.
This year's gala has brought together nearly 80 opera troupes from across the country, showcasing more than 30 different types of traditional opera in 14 performances.
The star-studded lineup features renowned artists, up-and-coming performers, as well as crossover singers and actors, all coming together to showcase the rich tapestry of China's vibrant operatic heritage.
The gala's poster embodies the concept of "reunion" and incorporates numerous intangible cultural heritage elements, including paper carving, paper cutting, and shadow play.
At the event, CMG's Arts Program Center signed a cooperation agreement with the Publicity Department of the Taiyuan Municipal Committee of Communist Party of China. Both parties agreed to continue launching a series of high-quality cultural projects to develop local cultural tourism brands in a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, and diverse manner, working together to achieve mutually beneficial cooperation.
The gala will be first aired across multiple CMG channels, including CCTV-1, CCTV-11, and new media platforms at 20:00 on Jan. 30. In addition, a series of new media programs about the gala also will be aired during the holiday.
The Spring Festival is the grandest traditional festival in China and an occasion for family reunion. It falls on Jan 29 this year, ushering in the Year of the Snake, the 6th of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese Zodiac.
CMG releases highlights of 2025 Spring Festival Chinese Opera Gala
Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.
Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.
The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.
During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.
A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.
"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.
The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.
In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.
Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.
"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.
Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability
