CCTV Spring Festival Gala

Chinese New Year

In the lead up to the big night of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, organizers have been busying day and night to get things ready. CCTV’s Wu Guoxiu reported this story from Beijing.

Wang Jing is leading the stage props team for the Spring Festival Gala for a third year. The team prepares items for cross-talks, sketches and dances. Almost everything needed on stage.

“This car is for Pan Changjiang and Cai Ming’s sketch. Most of their performance will be in it. It looks like a real hand-me-down, but it took us more than a month to make. It’s all wooden, but it has all the necessary functions. Including a special one that I’m going to leave as a surprise for when you watch the show,” Wang said.

Not all props are tailor made. Most of them are recycled from previous shows and galas. The frugal nature of it all goes for costumes too. This year, only 100 sets were newly made for performers representing the 56 ethnic groups of China.
The stage props team has taken two months to prepare nearly 900 sets of costumes. New and reused, it’s all expected to look fabulous when the actors appear wearing them on stage.

The props team is always on hand to do some tailoring, but finding that perfect outfit can take time and effort.

“This jacket is for Pan Changjiang. We had to go to film producers to look for it. It’s a real 1960s jacket. And, to be frank, it was hard to find one that suits Pan’s figure really well. It really took us a long time,” Costume Organizer Lin Fengguang said, but to the surprise of Lin, it’s effort that may have been in vain.

“The director said this jacket looks too old, so I’ll try this newer jacket for this rehearsal. And the old car It needs to be made newer too. We’ll have to see,” sketch comedian Pan Changjiang said.

The gala goes through a series of rehearsals before airing on the Lunar New Year’s Eve. At each one, performances are polished and programs rejected. The audience will only know how it looks at show time, building up the expectations to the big event.