Local artists perform lion dance during a Spring Festival market on January 22, 2017 in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo : Getty Images)
According to a general consensus, the 2017 Spring Festival Gala is considered by many as "better" than last year's, the Global Times reported.
The China Central Television-helmed entertainment extravaganza, held in celebration of the Chinese New Year, saw a decline of viewership for the past years.
To hype up this year's edition, Yang Dongsheng, director of the 2017 gala, said in an interview with CCTV that they "made innovations to the [event]'s structure and its acts, including comedy skits and all the songs and dances."
The article noted that the 2017 Spring Festival Gala hit an online audience of 140 million at around 10:30 pm on Chinese New Year's eve. Since earlier that Friday, the event has also ranked first in the list of most-talked-about items on various Chinese social media sites.
The gala that started in 1983 also received fewer criticisms and negative reviews this year.
The Global Times enumerated some of the factors that made the 2017 gala more appealing, first of which are the stage sets that highlighted Chinese diversity. Apart from having a stage set in Beijing, four other stages showcased the beauty of Shanghai, Heilongjiang Province's Harbin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's Guilin, and Sichuan Province's Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.
The cultural spectacle, dubbed by netizens as the "best-looking Spring Festival Gala ever," also featured the country's hottest and freshest stars including Lu Han, Hu Ge, Liu Tao and boyband TFboys. These artists' performances and appearances were some of the items of discussions on the gala's Sina Weibo account.
More importantly, the 2017 Spring Festival Gala paid homage to the country's national heroes. Taking part in the event are the veterans of the Long March, soldiers from the People's Liberation Army, and astronauts from the Shenzhou space program.
