Rehearsals for the Spring Festival Gala finish

The fifth rehearsal of the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala was completed on Thursday, which means the five rehearsals of the event have all finished. It will be broadcasted live at 8 pm on Saturday to celebrate the Spring Festival, the biggest traditional Chinese festival.

With the guiding principle of combining ideas with art and technology, the gala this year has gained inspiration from traditional Chinese culture, people's daily life and diversified civilizations across the world, to give music, dancing and martial arts performances with modern artistic expressions and technology.

The program of the gala was issued on Friday.

A highlight of this year is the short film My Spring Festival Gala and I, adapted from the numerous letters the gala crew have received from the audience over the years since the gala was launched in 1983.

It is the first attempt for the gala to show a film. Famous performers like Huang Bo, Wu Jing, Ma Sichun, Fan Wei and Shen Teng will join the performance, showing the story of an ordinary audience interacting with the gala, reflecting the precious memory of how the gala has accompanied the audience to celebrate the Lunar New Year for so many years.

Other innovative performances include one that applies new technology to make ancient mythical beasts walk out of ancient books to meet children in modern life.

Performances related to languages, like comedy sketches and crosstalk, focus on social hot spots and people's daily life. While evoking laughter, they may strike a chord with the audience as well.