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| New Year entertainment offered on CCTV |
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China Central Television has laid out a TV feast for a population of 1.2 billion who wait another prosperous year with aspiration and expectation. In addition to a range of special reports and features, entertainment programs such as concerts and galas, dominated the New Year celebrations, an attempt to make the year’s beginning as “happy” as possible.
Three concerts on CCTV-1 and 2
 Concerts are a universal way to celebrate the New Year. Apart from the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, CCTV also sponsored two concerts of its own.
On December 31, 2002, CCTV presented a concert on western classic music at Poly Theater by the China Philharmonic Orchestra with Yu Long as conductor. Yu has played an active role on China’s musical stage in recent years. At his invitation, several renowned overseas Chinese musicians performed at the concert including pianist Xu Zhong and soloists Fan Jingma and Tian Haojiang.
The January 1 concert featured Beijing Opera, giving salute to the traditional national art, in Huairen Hall, Zhongnanhai, where the central government is located. The Party and state leaders as well as leaders of other parties were present. The program included not only classic selections but also new creations.
As a gesture of opening-up, CCTV has been contracted to air the Vienna New Year’s Concert for years. This year’s concert began at 6:00 pm on CCTV-2 in the evening on the New Year’s Day. Viewers also saw an interview with the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt by CCTV reporter.
Cross-talk contest on CCTV-3
 Between December 31 and January 4, at 7:30 every evening, a cross-talk contest presented wonderful enjoyment and brought a lot of laughter.
This is the second CCTV National Cross-talk Contest. The first one was a huge hit, creating a record viewing rate of up to 11.87% on CCTV-3. But meanwhile, sounds of criticism were also high, voicing a great deal of disappointment about the quality of the candidates. That is why CCTV began soliciting works for the second contest shortly after the first one was concluded.
The organizing committee was very serious about the quality of the competing scripts. As a result of a strict process of scrutinizing, nearly 50 candidate works from more than 1,000 applications entered the second round of competition. To guarantee the overall quality and a proper taste, the committee invited authors, critics and some cross-talk masters to study and polish these entrants’ scripts one by one. So eventually, viewers enjoyed this contest very much.
Bilingual Gala on CCTV-4 and 9
 The bilingual TV gala around 10 o’clock on the evening of December 31 was a good choice for overseas Chinese or foreigners who have a penchant for Chinese culture. The annual gala has become a tradition on CCTV-4 and CCTV-9, and an eye-catcher that boasts a list of the best singers from the mainland as well as from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Aimed at promoting Chinese culture, the medley was composed of various art forms with distinctive national characteristics, such as songs and dances from many ethnic groups, a luxurious fashion show and magnificent martial art performances.
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| Editor: Yang Feiyang CCTV.com |
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