An event to promote China Media Group's (CMG) 2026 Spring Festival Gala broadcast was held in Belgrade, Serbia on Wednesday, with around 300 guests on hand to enjoy the festive atmosphere.
The "Prelude to the Spring Festival Gala - The World Watches the CMG Gala Together" event was jointly hosted by CMG, the Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information, the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, the Serbian Embassy in China, the China Cultural Center in Belgrade, and the Belt and Road Institute in Belgrade.
President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic attended the event along with several Serbian senior officials and Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Ming, who addressed the event.
Shen Haixiong, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and president of CMG, and Serbian Ambassador to China Maja Stefanovic also delivered speeches at the event via video link.
Shen vowed to present a cultural feast in 85 foreign languages to global audiences through the innovative application of "5G+4K/8K+AI" technologies.
During the event, Serbian singer Slobodan Tegula sang the Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower, and a group of Chinese-made humanoid robots performed a dance.
A promotional video for this year's Spring Festival Gala, highlights of the "China Travel with Chinese Films" initiative, a video about the China-built Hungary-Serbia railway, and a short documentary about staff working on a Belt and Road project watching the gala's promotional video were played during the event.
Reports on the event have been reprinted or quoted by several European media outlets, including Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), Politika, Tanjug, Euronews, RT, and Sputnik.
CMG has held "Prelude to the Spring Festival Gala" events around the world for three years in a row.
Recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's most-watched TV program, the Spring Festival Gala, also known as "Chunwan" in Chinese, has been a major cultural symbol for the Chinese New Year celebrations in China since its debut in 1983. On every Chinese New Year's Eve, families and friends across the country gather to enjoy a mixed show of songs, dances, comic sketches, operas, and folk arts, among other performances.
This year's Gala broadcast, ushering in the Year of the Horse, will begin at 20:00 Beijing time on Feb 16 and will be aired across multiple platforms, including CMG's 4K UHD channel, its 8K UHD channel, and various new media platforms.
The English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian-language channels of China Global Television Network (CGTN), along with 85 foreign language communication platforms, will cooperate with more than 3,300 overseas media outlets in over 200 countries and regions around the world to broadcast and report on the gala.
CMG 2026 Spring Festival Gala broadcast promoted at event in Serbia
An American content creator has given his take on a surprising new viral trend which has taken social media by storm, as global internet users joke about entering a "very Chinese phase" of their lives.
The unexpected phenomenon which is sweeping across the online world shines a new spotlight on Chinese culture and lifestyle, and sees users declare they are "becoming Chinese" alongside the phrase "you've met me at a very Chinese time of my life," accompanied by videos of them adopting Chinese habits on various social media platforms.
U.S. influencer Paul Mike Ashton, known online as 'BaoBaoXiong', gained fame for coining the phrase which led to the "city or not city" meme back in 2024.
As for this latest online sensation, Ashton believes it's not just another amusing meme, but also a casual way to experience Chinese culture through everyday details, rather than abstract stereotypes.
He said the current wave is giving foreign audiences a fresh, tangible perspective on China, which makes cultural exchange more engaging and relatable.
"As a content creator, I absolutely think that this is going to be changing the way people perceive China in general. Oftentimes when we need simplified stories, we need people to see things as a whole unit as opposed to their little parts. I would say even just the practice of doing these things is giving you a chance to engage with the culture and engage with specifics instead of just kind of this big overall idea and getting new experience like 'OK, this particular form of life actually does really feel very nice and very comfortable'. I think it also gives a chance for Chinese creators to take more of a spotlight and actually talk a little bit more about their culture in ways that people will listen because there's a curiosity about this," he said.
Ashton also believes there are other deeper reasons for why this "becoming Chinese" trend has taken off, pointing to the current challenges and level of discontent many people feel in the U.S., which means many are looking for some form of escapism.
"I think I've heard somebody mention before kind of this idea that the U.S., politically and economically, is in a very sensitive time. There's a lot going on and there's a lot of unrest and a lot of unhappiness and a lot of unsatisfaction. So, I think that it's been proposed this idea that people are kind of looking for stuff outside of these sorts of traditional cultural superpowers to kind of find a sense of either excitement or safety or comfort," he said.
Ashton also pointed to how concerns over the future of the popular TikTok app early last year saw many online users flocking over to the Chinese mobile app RedNote as being another notable factor driving the emergence of these online trends.
He said this renewed global interest in Chinese culture has created fresh engagement channels on other international platforms.
"This is almost a year now since the initial TikTok refugee exodus last year in which a lot of people suddenly took interest in Chinese culture in a new way than before. So, I think there's been since then some opportunities to engage with and interact with Chinese culture in TikTok, in international social media, besides just China on its own that definitely I think has influenced this becoming a bigger trend," he said.
US influencer shares thoughts on 'Becoming Chinese' trend
