The Evolution of the New Year's Gala Concert in Chinese Media

Abstract

In 2023, the world's largest broadcast by the number of viewers of China Central Television "New Year's Gala Concert", timed to coincide with the Spring Festival, will celebrate its 40th anniversary. Since its launch in 1983 The "New Year's Gala Concert" has undergone many changes reflecting the global transformations of Chinese media and Chinese society as a whole. The object of our research was chosen by the PRC television, and the subject was the "New Year's Gala Concert", on the example of the evolution of which we analyze the formation and development of modern Chinese media in the context of national and global media processes. The author's main contribution to the study of the chosen topic is a unique selection of key events defining the history of the "New Year's Gala Concert", on the basis of which the main stages of the modernization of Chinese television were determined: the Taiwanese pop wave, the "cultural thaw" and the crisis of censorship of the CPC in the mid-1980s; the advent of the era of advertisers and the rapid commercialization of Chinese media of the 90s-00s; strengthening the role of the state and the activation of ordinary viewers in the formation of a nationwide media campaign of the 2010s. The stages of the evolution of the "New Year's Gala Concert" highlighted in the article characterize the historical process of development not only of Chinese television, but of the whole country as a whole.