Iconic songs from Taiwan region echo at Spring Festival Gala

A group of iconic songs from China's Taiwan region evoked shared memories in the audience at the main venue of the China Media Group (CMG)'s Spring Festival Gala in Beijing on Monday evening.

Several well-known artists from Taiwan performed songs with deep cultural significance.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, is the most important traditional holiday for the Chinese people. It has been inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Dec 2024.

Since its first broadcast in 1983, the Spring Festival Gala, also known as "Chunwan," has been a cherished part of the celebrations every year in hundreds of millions of Chinese homes.

The gala has been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the most-watched annual television program on the planet.

The Spring Festival falls on Tuesday this year, ushering in the Year of the Horse.

The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, went up 0.52 percent to 100.092 at 15:00 (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro declined to 1.1516 dollars from 1.1542 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.3341 dollars from 1.3360 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 159.41 Japanese yen, higher than 159.00 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.7902 Swiss francs from 0.7847 Swiss francs, and it advanced to 1.3701 Canadian dollars from 1.3697 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar climbed to 9.3346 Swedish kronor from 9.2737 Swedish kronor.