新年Special-要不要给外国人介绍春晚

Lincoln: Wu You, one of the highlights of the Spring Festival, as it were, is the Spring Festival Gala. A lot of people tune in, obviously, and I’ve tuned in before – I’ve found it quite entertaining, but maybe you can tell us a little bit more about it. WY: Yes, the Chinese New Year Gala, also known as the Spring Festival Gala, the Chunwan, is a Chinese New Year special shown on the eve of Chinese New Year. You were talking about lots of people tuning in; actually, a report says about 690 million [people] watched the Spring Festival Gala in February 2015. Lincoln: Wow, that’s incredible! A little bit of the history of it as well – the first Gala, the CCTV News Gala was held in 1983, and it was held irregularly before that as well, but the idea of having this gala kicked off in 1983, and we mentioned the amount of people who actually watch it, close to a billion, and actually, there was research commissioned by China Television Research Centre, and it said that an estimated 93.6% of families watch the gala on television. That’s incredible! That’s incredible, in terms of everyone watching it, that’s astonishing. But yeah, tell us a little bit more about it. WY: So the gala has been described as among the most watched television programmes in the world, because everyone looks at it as more of a ritual in the family. There are family reunions in China, and then everyone sits around the table and watches the Spring Festival Gala, and it is a variety show, featuring musical, dance, comedy, and drama performances. Michael: And it can really make or break people, can’t it? I mean, if you appear on the CCTV Spring Festival… WY: Yes, it is, and because it is one of the most watched television programmes (Michael: Yeah, it must be) so even if you just appeared on it for three seconds, everyone will notice you, and many chunwan performers have emerged as household names in China solely as a result of their appearances on the programme. Lincoln: So, yeah, that’s quite interesting. In South Africa, we’ve got nothing like this. I think we’ve tried before to get a New Year’s Eve broadcast off the ground; it’s not worked. Michael: Is nobody very bothered about New Year’s Eve? Lincoln: No, no one’s really bothered about it, because no one’s at home, because you’re off at the beach, aren’t you? It’s summer, you’re outside. Michael: So it’s the middle of your big summer holiday? Lincoln: Yeah, it’s the middle of the big summer holiday. You don’t want to be around the television, you want to be outside. WY: You’re outside, partying. Lincoln: You’re outside, cooking food, you’re doing all sorts of stuff, so you don’t really have much of an incentive to stay indoors and watch a television broadcast, but be that as it may, the Chinese New Year’s Gala – whoa, what a show! What a show! Michael, are you tuning in this year? Michael: Erm, well, this is actually going to be the first year that I’m in China for the New Year, so, yeah, I might have to give it a watch. I’ve never seen it…Well, I’ve seen snippets of it, and I wrote about it a little bit last year and the year before, but I’ve never actually seen the whole thing in its entirety. I wonder, actually, if anybody’s seen the whole thing in it’s entirety, because I think it’s probably fairly long. But yeah, I’ll certainly tune in, give it a watch. Lincoln: Wu You, are you tuning in? WY: Yes, I am. It’s a must!