The 2025 Spring Festival Gala delivered a colorful mix of traditional Chinese culture and art during its more than four-hour-long live broadcast on Tuesday evening.
The grand television show has integrated traditional culture with innovative means to entertain audiences on the eve of the Chinese New Year, with many memorable on-stage performances featuring during the annual variety show.
In an energetic martial arts performance, renowned action star Donnie Yen led a group of trainees from a Shaolin martial arts school in Henan Province to express the Chinese cursive script -- a style of calligraphy which is deemed bold and unrestrained in form but demands great skill and discipline -- through the famous martial arts practice of Tai Chi, known for its smooth flow of movement and display of inner strength.
Meanwhile, maestros of various traditional opera genres also shared the stage to deliver a rousing ensemble performance of China's most celebrated opera plays.
The annual gala, also known as "Chunwan", was first broadcast in 1983 and is seen as a major cultural symbol for Spring Festival celebrations in China.
Recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's most-watched annual TV program, the hours-long television extravaganza attracts over a billion views every year.
The 2025 Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, which falls on Wednesday this year, ushering in the Year of the Snake.
Martial arts, opera ensemble lights up stage at Spring Festival Gala
The 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting concluded in east China's Suzhou on Saturday, yielding fruitful results and laying significant groundwork for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November.
The trade ministers' meeting focused on "building an open and predictable regional and multilateral economic and trade order" and "fostering new engines of innovative and dynamic trade and investment cooperation."
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao briefed the media on the meeting's outcomes at a press conference.
Wang said the meeting issued a joint statement titled the Suzhou Statement, and approved the latest edition of the APEC Roadmap for Innovative, Competitive and Resilient Services.
All parties agreed to advance policy innovation and reform in services trade, build an open and predictable investment environment, improve regional trade facilitation and supply chain resilience, strengthen standards coordination, and enhance intellectual property protection, Wang told the media.
He also said that substantial progress was made on a framework document for regional digital trade cooperation and the ministers emphasized promoting inclusive AI development, strengthening AI-related trade, and bridging the digital divide to ensure shared benefits from digital transformation.
The minister noted that the outcomes of the meeting demonstrated strong cooperation willingness, highlighted an innovation-oriented approach, and reflected inclusiveness and shared benefits. "The fact that Asia-Pacific economies can come together, uphold the original aspiration of promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation while supporting economic growth and prosperity, and engage in in-depth discussions on the important issue of 'where multilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation is headed,' fully demonstrates that open regionalism and true multilateralism enjoy broad support, and that mutual success and shared development serve the fundamental interests of all economies," Wang said.
2026 APEC trade ministers' meeting concludes with fruitful results
