Promotion event of Spring Festival Gala held in Spain

China

Promotion event of Spring Festival Gala held in Spain

2025-01-24 13:49 Last Updated At：16:47

The China Media Group (CMG) hosted the "Prelude to the Spring Festival Gala" event in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday, fascinating visitors with performances showcasing Chinese intangible cultural heritage and interactive folk activities.

In a video address, CMG President Shen Haixiong noted that the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, was listed in December 2023 as a United Nations floating holiday in its calendar of conferences and meetings, starting from 2024, and inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2024. From being a "Chinese New Year" to becoming a "Global New Year," the Spring Festival now shines with its unique charm in the flourishing garden of world civilizations.

The CMG Spring Festival Gala, which has been held for 42 consecutive years, has become the world's most-watched New Year cultural and artistic TV program, Shen said.

As the first CMG Spring Festival Gala since the festival was inscribed on UNESCO's list, this year's gala will fully leverage CMG's communication advantages of 82 languages to present to audiences both at home and abroad a joyful and auspicious cultural feast with the integration of CMG's "5G+4K/8K+AI" technological innovations, he added.

Shen said that CMG sincerely invites global audiences to join this grand cultural celebration, hoping to bring the warmth of home to overseas Chinese and share this rich Chinese cultural feast with international friends through the high-quality program filled with creativity and artistry.

Yao Jing, Chinese Ambassador to Spain, attended the event and delivered a speech.

Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary-general of the United Nations Tourism, highlighted the global appeal of the Spring Festival through a video message.

"We always are celebrating Chinese New Year here in the organization. It's a holiday for everyone. And of course all the world is celebrating it, not only our organization. And this is a big celebration and we are very proud and very happy to be -- an honor to be -- a part of this nice day. I saw this very nice show and performance and I want to wish all the best to all participants. And I'm sure that this year's edition will be also very interesting, nice and beautiful celebration of these happy days," he said.

At the event, a promotional video for the Spring Festival Gala was shown, which received enthusiastic praise and anticipation from the visitors.

"Our whole family will watch the Spring Festival Gala. On the Chinese New Year's Eve, we plan to enjoy Chinese food and celebrate the night in a unique way. We want to teach our daughter Chinese culture, so we will prepare the meal together and then we will watch the Gala and enjoy the meal," said a Spanish visitor.

"I really want to visit China to experience authentic Chinese food and immerse myself in the Spring Festival culture. I have seen many amazing programs in the Spring Festival Gala, including not just singing and dancing, but also drone shows," said another Spanish visitor.

The event also featured performances and activities highlighting Chinese intangible cultural heritage, such as the writing of the Chinese character "Fu," meaning fortune and luck in English, as well as magical face-changing in Sichuan Opera.

China's development never a threat: FM spokesman

China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.

Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.

"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.