Photo: South China Morning Post | Millions of Chinese — perhaps even over a billion! — tune in each year to watch China Central Television's Lunar New Year Gala. A TV spectacle to end all spectacles, the Gala features musical performances, skits, and more, ushering in the new year with a collective celebration. The hosts, or emcees, of the program are famous Chinese celebrities; they spend the evening entertaining the audience with jokes and banter while introducing each act. (Think Ryan Seacrest on American Idol.) |
This year, the Gala's theme is "Family Harmony Yields Success," and perhaps in an effort to emphasize harmony between the nation's different ethnic groups, CCTV has made an unprecedented choice in selecting Negmat Rahman, a TV personality who is an ethnic Uighur, as one of the program's hosts. Read about the possible political and cultural reasons for this choice in this New York Times article, or in this report from the South China Morning Post.