China's space hero to host Spring Festival gala

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 20, 2004

China's space hero to host Spring Festival gala

Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, will host China's most extravagant gala on Jan. 21 to send his new year greetings to Chinese worldwide on the night of Jan. 21, the eve of Spring Festival.

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Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, will host China's most extravagant gala on Jan. 21 to send his new year greetings to Chinese worldwide on the night of Jan. 21, the eve of Spring Festival.

As a guest host of the spectacular four-hour Spring Festival gala, Yang, a hero to million upon million of Chinese, will extend festive greetings to the nation with China's five-star red flag in hand, an event regarded by many as a coup for China Central Television (CCTV) in attracting viewers.

The country's biggest annual holiday celebration, filled with cross-talk sketches, singing and dancing, has been in the spotlight for 22 Spring Festivals ever since its debut in 1983, boasting an average viewer rating of more than 90 percent or approximately one billion viewers worldwide in recent years, according to CCTV statistics.

The pageant is viewed as a fast track to fame. Many celebrities have scrambled to appear in it, occasionally through under-the-table deals, making it somewhat difficult to determine the gala's cast and list of programs.

Unlike its past practice of keeping the line-up secret until the last moment, CCTV presented a clear picture of the show this year, after reshuffling the performers and the program during rehearsals.

"We have learned from the past that to hide the news about the program will result in too high expectations among the audience, who often later find the gala fails to meet them," explained Yuan Dewang, the general director of the gala.

Some people welcomed the changes, but others believe that CCTV changed its ways due to greater competition from local television stations and an increasingly critical audience.

A media worker called Chen Tao attributed CCTV's change to a need to dispel public concerns about corruption related to the show.

Zhao An, a former entertainment program producer with China Central Television who directed several CCTV Spring Festival galas, was sentenced Monday at the Beijing Higher People's Court to 10 years in jail for taking bribes from performers desperate to star on the nation's biggest TV channel.

"It is very good to make the line-up public earlier. Then any changes in the cast or the program will prompt directors to explain. It may help eliminate under-the-table deals," said Chen.

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