Mid-Autumn Festival gala set to shine spotlight on tradition

The forthcoming 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival gala, staged by China Media Group, will apply a number of cutting-edge technologies in a bid to provide an audiovisual feast that highlights traditional folk customs and arouses people's feeling of homesickness and patriotism.

Singing, dancing, symphonic music, Kunqu Opera, stage plays and other forms of performance will be presented by entertainers, including singers Sun Nan, Zhou Shen and Sa Dingding, pop star Li Yuchun, rock singer-songwriter Zheng Jun and Hong Kong singer-actor Hacken Lee, to showcase the vigor and charm of traditional Chinese culture.

Members of the Zide Guqin Studio, dressed in hanfu, traditional Chinese attire, will play guqin (a seven-stringed Chinese zither), the lute and ruan (a Chinese plucked, stringed instrument), as background music for a group of male dancers who will perform with oilpaper umbrellas, displaying a harmonious combination of softness and strength.

Singer-songwriter Shang Wenjie will sing an original track, the lyrics of which feature ancient Chinese poems and descriptions of the splendid natural wonders in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

"I want to praise the landmark attractions in these areas in my performance," says Shang.

Additionally, Beijing-born singer Cai Guoqing, 54, and pop star Zhang Hanyun, 33, will collaboratively stage a performance that pays tribute to a folk custom that once prevailed in Beijing during the Mid-Autumn Festival－worshiping the Lord Rabbit figurine, a Chinese artwork that depicts a cute rabbit in a powerful pose. The program demonstrates the inheritance of traditions from generation to generation.

Taiwan singer-actor Will Liu, who is enjoying a surge in popularity after branching out into online fitness this year, will also be invited to reproduce sessions from his fitness videos that have gone viral on the internet. He will lead several followers in an onstage workout and sing the hit song of his pop star friend Jay Chou, Compendium of Materia Medica, which he often uses as the background music for his exercises.

More than 200 screens in over 50 public squares in 22 provincial-level administrative regions across the country will simultaneously air the extravaganza on Saturday, when the Mid-Autumn Festival falls. Additionally, viewers can enjoy three-dimensional audio effects of the show by using the online audio content app Ethereal Sound launched by CMG.

The gala's main stage, a 360-degree circular stage, is set near the Jiyang Lake in Jiangsu province's Zhangjiagang city.

"The natural surroundings, including the water and the urban buildings nearby, will be used as part of our stage design," says Xu Linjiang, the show's chief stage designer, adding that extended reality technology will be used to add another sparkle to the stage, creating a romantic atmosphere.