National Village Spring Festival Gala kicks off Jan 8

The opening ceremony of the 2020 National Village Spring Festival Gala will kick off on Jan 8, according to a local senior official. 

The event will be held in Lishui in East China's Zhejiang province, which is the birthplace of the Village Spring Festival Gala, said Ren Shunv, publicity chief of Lishui, at a recent press conference in Beijing.

The Village Spring Festival Gala in Lishui started in 1981, even earlier than the Spring Festival Gala held by China Central Television.  

The Local villagers direct and perform in the Village Spring Festival Gala. It  includes a variety of performances, like local opera, dance, and skits about local history. As a cultural activity, the Village Spring Festival Gala model is effective in preserving traditional culture and also boosts economic development, according to Ren.

In 2018, the Village Spring Festival Gala in Lishui, including nine different districts and counties,  attracted 1.07 million visitors and the growth in the tourism section achieved an 18.3 percent increase  year-on-year, Ren said. 

Rural revitalization is inseparable to achieve the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. 2020 is the last year of the 13th Five-Year-Plan, and a decisive year in achieving the goal. 

"The Lishui model of the Village Spring Festival Gala is successful in implementing the strategy of rural revitalization, nurturing rural civilization, and achieving high-quality development in rural areas," said Chen Binbin, an inspector of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

The Village Spring Festival Gala has been popular nation-wide since 2013. There will be 227 counties and 49,607 administrative villages in the country  joining the 2020 National Village Spring Festival Gala, Chen said. 

"This year, all Village Spring Festival Galas will be live streaming online, and the significance of it is that many people cannot go back home during the Spring Festival. Through watching the show online, they can feel the bond and connection," Chen added. 

The 2020 National Village Spring Festival Gala will last till the end of February, and besides Lishui,  villages in eight other provinces, including Anhui in East China, Sichuan in Southwest China and Henan in Central China will hold a village spring festival gala to show the latest developments in rural culture.