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January 17, 2014

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Ministries cancel Spring Festival galas

China has cut three ministry-sponsored Spring Festival galas as part of the Party’s campaign against extravagance.

Galas hosted by the public security, culture and civil affairs ministries have been canceled, leaving only China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala to be aired during the upcoming Lunar New Year, a Ministry of Culture source confirmed yesterday.

The Party launched a broad campaign to cut extravagance and reduce red tape after the election of the new leadership in November 2012.

The campaign aims to reduce waste and promote frugality as well as ban officials from pomp, ceremony and bureaucratic visits and meetings. Last August, the Party’s publicity department, along with another four government organs, issued a circular requiring fewer, less extravagant galas.

The State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television requires that galas on regional TV stations over the Spring Festival should not exceed three per evening.

China Central Television has canceled 17 gala programs since September 19 last year, half its usual number, yesterday’s China Youth Daily reported.

“Excessive use of stage lighting, sound effects and decorations will be banned, fewer celebrities will be hired and more grassroots people will come to the stage,” the newspaper quoted the state broadcaster as saying.

The CCTV gala, which lasts more than four hours and features music, dance, skits and crosstalk comedy, has become an annual fixture for millions of Chinese at home and across the world on Chinese New Year’s Eve since the early 1980s.

However, its popularity has declined in recent years amid complaints that it is rigid and outdated.

This year, film director Feng Xiaogang will be the gala’s general director while comedian Zhao Benshan is deputy general director in charge of comedy.

 




 

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