City TV Channel offers themed galas for Spring Festival

The local City TV Channel is to air a series of themed galas to celebrate the Spring Festival.

The galas will highlight Shanghai’s traditional arts and cultures and showcase people’s lives and new achievements.

Pop singer Lin Bao will present a Shanghai dialect program that provides an insight into the history and development of the metropolis. Audience will enjoy diverse forms of ballads and raps in Shanghai dialect.

TV host Sun Mingjie and singer Zhou Bingqian will collaborate with a local band of elderly people to give a new interpretation of the folk songs “Nightlife In Shanghai” and “Night Fragrance,” first released in the 1930s.

Another program will screen the original sketches to portray how garbage classification and bicycle-sharing has changed local people’s lives. Foreign expats in the city will perform Chinese New Year ballads and songs. Some of them have studied Peking Opera for years. Their singing will combine elements from traditional Chinese theaters.

In addition to celebrity-themed shows, some galas will showcase the stunts of ordinary people from all walks of life. For example, kids with autism and hearing impairment will offer piano and chorus performances. 

The channel promises to deliver programs based on ordinary people’s lives in the new year, covering food, travel, education and health care. They will offer first-hand information and counselling to people in need.