CMG rings in 2026 with a multimedia feast of culture and innovation

As the world welcomes the first day of 2026, China Media Group (CMG) has unveiled a diverse lineup of New Year programming. By blending rich storytelling with creative artistry and high-tech production, this year's productions offer audiences a warm and forward-looking start to the new year.

The festivities began on Wednesday with the 2026 CMG New Year's Eve Gala. Broadcast on the evening of December 31, the gala highlighted the integration of culture and tourism to showcase the dynamic development of major regional hubs, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Through a combination of song, dance, intangible cultural heritage displays, and martial arts, the program painted a vivid portrait of China's innovative spirit and the striving character of its people in the new era.

Tonight, the celebration continues with the 2026 Greater Bay Area New Year Concert, which airs at 9:00 p.m. across channels including CCTV-1, CCTV-3, and CCTV-15, and is accessible via digital platforms like the Yangshipin app. This musical journey uses the sea as its visual backdrop, family ties as its emotional core, and the path toward the future as its narrative thread. The stage design artfully incorporates wave motifs that blend into the night skyline of the Bay Area, creating a living landscape that reflects the region's openness and vitality.

Highlighting the importance of heritage, the documentary series "Nostalgia in Mind" premieres a new season tonight. This season focuses on the symbolic power of the Chinese "lintel," which is the beam and space above a doorway. In Chinese culture, a lintel is not just a piece of architecture. Rather, it serves as a tangible totem of a family's spirit and their devotion to the nation.

By filming in traditional family halls and ancestral residences, the program shows how the inscribed plaques and mottos above these doors carry a family's values and hopes for future generations. The series will air Monday through Friday at 8:00 p.m. on CCTV-4, starting January 1.

Looking ahead to January 2, CMG will air the 2025 China Sci-Tech Innovation Gala at 8:00 p.m. on CCTV-1, with a replay scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on CCTV-10 on January 3. This science and technology festival features a synchronized display of China's latest achievements across space, sea and land, illustrating a fully integrated network of Chinese technology. The gala will spotlight the nation's leading scientists and researchers, showcasing the breakthroughs and "new quality productive forces" that are driving global technological advancement.