Does 2012 CCTV Chinese New Year Gala Suggest Shift in State Policy?

2012 has arrived, with Chinese New Year’s Eve close behind. With it comes several months of heavy media coverage, expectations and anticipation centered on one of China’s largest media events – CCTV’s Chinese New Year Gala. The typical questions arise: How would the 春晚 CCTV CNY Gala be presented this year? What responsibilities and missions does it hold for the Chinese state?

Since China’s foremost state-owned television station, CCTV, launched the first Chinese New Year Gala in 1983, the “Gala” has gradually become a new folk custom and ritual alongside eating dumplings, lighting off firecrackers and waiting up until midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Over the past three decades, the Gala has followed China’s societal transformation. In the 1980’s it was a young face full of energy, hope and inspiration. In the 1990’s it’s pop culture representations echoed the rapid marketization and secularization of the society. In the 2000’s the Gala was a powerful carrier of state ideology and image. After thirty years of the Gala, its persistence is no doubt respectable, but it faces a constant problem – the Gala’s relationship with its audience is distancing; criticism and complaints from the public are relentless.

The Gala always has a strong and firm guardian – the Chinese government. The monopoly ban announced by the government in 1986 – all local TV stations were banned to produce and broadcast any similar programme to the Gala – created a monopoly programme giving it the biggest audience in the world. Even after dropping the ban in 2000, the market dominance accumulated by the Gala over its twenty year span left all local TV stations unable to put forth competing television programs. In recent years, China’s netizens have provided a parody alternative – only available online – that offered respite from the Gala, featuring a well-received engaging and casual style. But to rival the long-built dominating position of the Gala is much like a snake eating an elephant – strong in will but weak in power.

With its commanding monopolistic postion, does the Gala need to be reformed? What motivation does it have to change? In 2012, we found out the answer.

Although reforms have been tried in the past, they lacked fundamental changes. The 2012 Gala marked a significant shift in structure and style. CCTV appointed 哈文 (Ha Wen), lead director for the 2012 Gala instead of asking previous Gala directors to bid. The key purpose is to inject fresh blood into the program, or in 哈文’s words, “to change the Gala’s DNA”. The team, with an average age less than thirty, to everyone’s surprise, managed to bring four fundamental changes to one of China’s largest media events.

‘Zero Advertisements’: Pure, Not Commercialized

This year’s Gala removed all advertisement components in order to serve the Chinese people a “pure” CNY celebration. In doing this, the Gala removed its disgusting money-making face from the public. In past years, the massive advertisement sales profit generated by the Gala has generated increasing doubt and mistrust from the public, with many questioning who the Gala audience actually is. For example, in 2010, the sole naming rights fee for the ten second midnight announcement reached a historic high of RMB52.01 million. This logo did little to bring joy for the New Year, instead left people feeling coerced by big brands. The abolishment of advertisement left CCTV with a RMB650 million gap in its profits, however, spending RMB10 million on a four-hour program, being broadcast in almost 1.4 billion homes is not a large request. It is a responsibility that is long overdue. Because of this purity, the government has rebuilt a long lost intimacy with its audience. This brought at least a moment of quietness and genuineness for people heavily exposed in today’s highly materialistic and commercialized society.

‘Conversational style’: Natural, Not Artificial

China’s older generation undoubtedly remembers the genuine, even a bit naïve smiling hosts hosts of the first Gala. However with the increasing influential power and strong government intervention, this natural and fresh style gradually disappeared, replaced by a style which is described by the public as an entertainment version of CCTV News. Each word needs to be carefully reviewed many times before broadcasting, in fear of the audience misunderstanding and misinterpreting the (government) message. This year’s Gala abandoned the recitation style, introducing a new and fresh conversational style. Even though words were still pre-written, the hosts were offered more room for self-expression. The 调侃 (ridiculing) between hosts closely resembled natural conversation. Including 老毕 (lao bi), also helped to relax the resident Gala hosts, as well as offering a fresh perspective from a member of one of China’s grass-roots societal classes. This conversational style helped place both performers and the audience on an equal, friendly level as well as softening the heated discussion of 被春晚 (being forced to watch the Gala).

‘Together As Family’: Ordinary, Not The Privileged

The Gala never “sells” tickets. If someone wants to see the Gala, having money is not enough. Often, societal stature, relationships and privilege is currency for a Gala ticket. 2012 marked the first time that ordinary citizens were allowed to view the live Gala, including family members of the performers. This created an intimate crowd participation effect as they were allowed to interact with the performers on the stage. The live audience area was also turned into a stage – the winner of the most beautiful family photograph competition sat with her big happy extended family in front of billions, helping to build strong resonance with the people.

‘Go Back Home For A Big Happy New Year’ was the motif of this year’s Gala. Family has once again been given a crucial role in communication between the individual and the State. From the time of Confucius, calling small families to work and sacrifice for the “Big Family” (the State) is not as easy as it once was. Redefining this relationship between the government and the individual needs further exploration in Chinese society. The Gala represented a kick start for future policies.

No More Embassy Greeting: Show of Soft Power, Not Hard Power

Everyone who is familiar with the Gala felt something was missing from this year’s show. Not the emotional feeling of loss, but more of a loss of balance after a stable path of inertia. Removed was an iconic component usually shown right before midnight – greetings from Chinese embassies across the globe with firm claims of protection from China’s border soldiers.

This small and short component may seem to be a minor loss, but it holds significant weight. The state identity and political significance of the Gala speaks for itself. It’s not only about controlling the ideology of the state; it is also responsible to demonstrate the political and military power to Chinese diasporas and foreign media.

It’s difficult for us to understand the rational behind the removal of this component. It’s possible that China, with strengthened global power and confidence, no longer finds it necessary to exert its hard power, instead focusing on more intimate engagement with its own people and paying greater attention to their individual needs and satisfaction. Is this truly a shift from decades of hard power, to one of confident, internal and external soft power?

A Shift in State Policy?

We can continue to talk about the changes of this year’s Gala, the competition for getting grass-root people on stage, Glass Ball Man 胡启智 (hu qi zhi), Heavy Coat Brother 朱志文(zhu zhi wen), “开心麻花” (kai xin ma hua), 3D Interactive Programs 除夕的传说 Legend of New Year’s Eve etc., etc.

The changes put in place by this year’s Gala suggest significant changes in State ideology, government policy, and most importantly demonstrating to its citizens, a willingness to create change.

At this year’s Gala the key word was “intimacy”. Following famous ideological slogans such as “三个代表(Three Represents)” and “构建和谐社会(Construction of a Harmonious Society)”, will this year’s Gala policy – “亲民(Intimacy Policy)” – lead China into the next decade?

Despite the loud criticisms and renewed optimism, we still look forward to 2013, not just for the Chinese New Year Gala, but also with the expectation of China’s transcendence. In the future, if there is no CCTV Chinese New Year Gala, does it suggest an even more confident and intimate China?

Article by Zhang Ting

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 5:25 pm. It is filed under Culture and tagged with 2012 Chinese New Year Gala, featured, 开心麻花, 朱志文, 老毕, 胡启智, 除夕的传说 Legend of New Year’s Eve. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.