On the afternoon of January 14^th, “I Love Beijing - Spring Festival Gala” 2020, co-produced by Beijing Spiritual Civilization Office and the NCPA, was staged at the NCPA's Opera House.

With the theme “faith in family and homeland, beauty in Beijing”, the gala was divided into ten parts. Every part told a series of stories closely related to social issues of the past year, narrating stories of common people and showcasing the happiness of Beijing residents.

The gala was joined by 15 civic organizations, consisting of more than 800 citizen performers who emerged from a stiff competition entered by nearly 10,000 people of 100 groups. The gala, in a brand new displaying form, was also a challenge to them. They had to perform and collaborate with performers from other civic troupes, while adapting flexibly to the multi-media background.

Children’s choirs, dance ensembles and elders’ choirs performed songs and dances including Spring in Beijing, Family Reunion Dinner on the Lunar New Year’s Eve and Returning Home for the Spring Festival in a festive atmosphere. The stage play Chinese Zodiac Animals Touring Beijing showed the audience twelve famous attractions in Beijing. Our life is Full of Sunshine featured eight local performing arts troupes, presenting instrumental performance, dance performance and situational recitation.

010, a situational song and dance with distinct urban construction characteristics of the capital and named after Beijing’s area code, showed the audience Beijing’s achievements in spiritual civilization construction. The Song of Beijing, sung by singers TANG Fei and WANG Li, made its debut at the Spring Festival Gala as the theme song of the “Being Civilized and Polite Residents of Beijing—Citizens’ Civilized Tour to an Elegant Art Palace” series.

 

2020 is the 9^th year since “I Love Beijing - Spring Festival Gala” was held for the first time, and the NCPA has also achieved its original intention to change people’s life with art and set the trend with civilization.

Following closely the current trend of the times led by multimedia, video programmes were performed at the gala to present Beijing in a more all-round way. Common people from all walks of life displayed their life in every detail and would work in a down-to-earth manner to make a better Beijing, as well as a metropolis full of warmth. The gala kicked off with a short film for the New Year countdown, followed by a short video titled Wishes, demonstrating the capital citizens’ civilized actions. The short video Beijing, the Most Beautiful City also showed the audience the beauty of Beijing. The variety programme I am Ready for the Spring Festival Gala was also held in the form of short videos and situational drama performances, presenting ordinary citizens’ everyday work and life on screen. A medley of songs and dances, Celebrating the New Year Joyfully, pushed the gala to an exciting climax.

Tickets were snapped up online by citizens. At 19:30 on the evening of January 14^th, the gala started being live-streamed on the NCPA’s official website and Classical Channel.

The “Civilized Tour” has entered its first decade in 2020. The Beijing Spiritual Civilization Office and the NCPA will continue to carry out activities under the theme of “Beijing Civilized and Polite Residents of Beijing—Citizens’ Civilized Tour to an Elegant Art Palace”.

2020 is the second year since the “Sunny Growth with Art” Programme was launched. The NCPA will keep on deepening its cooperation with the Guangqumen Middle School and Expert Committee on Youth Work to develop more musical products to meet children’s learning and living needs.

Photos by LIU Fang