CMG Mid-Autumn Festival gala presents dose of oriental charm to the world

China Media Group (CMG)'s 2024 Mid-Autumn Festival TV gala was successfully aired on Tuesday night as China celebrated one of the most important traditional holidays in its culture.

The show garnered 1.135 billion views as of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, including 135 million views live on TV and 1 billion on new media. Hashtags from the gala were viewed over 460 million times online and videos over 1 billion times.

The unique Chinese stories and romantic styles were received with many likes from audiences both at home and abroad.

Traditional romantic style revived by new technologies

The traditional Chinese romantic style shines a bright light on the show, with modern technologies including AI and virtual reality presenting elements of traditional Chinese culture such as classic paintings and cultural relics.

The stage design with its distinctive aesthetic took audiences on a time travel through Chinese history.

Chinese values at its core

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion in China. 

Li Weibo, a 93-year-old veteran who fought in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in the 1950s, laid some traditional mooncakes and paid tribute to the martyrs who lost their lives in the war. The story, presented at the gala through a short video, reminds the Chinese people to cherish the hard-fought peace of today.

As a famous poem goes, "On festive occasions more than ever, one thinks of dear ones far away."

The show gathered applications in advance from those who wanted to take a picture with the help of AI. A touching moment was created when AI-generated pictures of people and their loved ones were shown on screen. 

When the Chinese style of romance speaks to foreign audiences

Over 1,000 foreign media organizations reported on the gala which was aired in 80 different languages, including NBC, FOX of the United States, BBC and Sky News of the United Kingdom.

At the show, foreign artists joined Chinese performers, showing China's cultural inclusiveness. French pianist Richard Clayderman and Chinese singer Zhou Shen teamed up to present a song adapted from the Chinese classic folklore "Liang Zhu", also known as "Butterfly Love".

The festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and this year, it fell on September 17.

(Cover: A screenshot of CMG's 2024 Mid-Autumn Festival TV gala. /CMG)