There will always be foreign friends ask, you Cantonese people really do not watch the Spring Festival Gala? How can I put it? We grew up watching the Spring Festival Gala when we were young.
The first Spring Festival Gala was broadcast live on CCTV on February 12, 1983 at 20:00 pm. But my family didn't have a TV at that time. To be precise, my family started watching the Spring Festival Gala in 1987.
The Spring Festival Gala, the wonderful programs and the familiar faces are still vivid in my mind today.
Some people say that Cantonese people don't like to watch the Spring Festival Gala because of the language difference. But in those days, Cantonese people also sat in front of the TV in front of their families to watch the Spring Festival Gala. Like our parents, who couldn't speak Mandarin very well, they didn't miss a single program. Like the rest of the country, we watched, laughed and talked until the New Year's bell rang, when we left the TV to set firecrackers alight.
The program host I remember most is Jiang Kun, then Zhao Zhongxiang, Ni Ping and Yang Lan ......
If you ask which singer has had the most profound impact on us, there's no doubt it can only be Fei Xiang. 1987, Fei Xiang sang two songs in a row all by himself, one soothing and deep-rooted song called "Clouds in the Hometown," the other "A Fire in the Winter," a song about a fire in the winter, and the other about a fire in the winter, and the other about a fire in the winter. The two songs are of very different styles, bringing a different feeling to the mainland audience.
Black-and-white screens can't stop him from looking gorgeous. In my mother's eyes, Andy Lau is the only one who can be called a handsome man, but when she saw Fei Xiang, she couldn't help but marvel at how tall and handsome he really was.
Later, Deng Zaijun, the chief director of the 1987 gala, recalled that he had originally planned to have Fei Xiang sing "Hometown Clouds," but he also felt that "A Fire in the Winter" was so good that he "had to let Fei Xiang sing that song."
Fei Xiang will have some exaggerated physical performance when he sings, which may not be in line with the aesthetic habits of the audience at that time. So Deng Zaijun asked the camera to give more close-ups of Fei Xiang's face, and occasionally gave some full-body shots. It is those close-up shots that should have made the national audience firmly remember the handsome face of the mixed-race child.
After the Spring Festival Gala, Fei Xiang became a real idol in the hearts of young people in China overnight, and completely spread all over China. After that Fei Xiang's records, cassettes were sold in large quantities, and it is said that more than 20 million cassettes were sold.
In the 2012 Spring Festival Gala, Fei Xiang once again appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala and sang "Hometown Clouds". Time passes, Fei Xiang remains the same. The sincere singing, deep eyes and elegant temperament immediately brought the audience back to the 1987
Spring Festival Gala.
If asked, which dancer left us the deepest impression, non-Yang Liping, from the 1980s, Yang Liping in the Spring Festival Gala stage contributed to a particularly large number of classic dance works, "Banna Three Colors", "Peacock", "RuiXue", "Two Trees", "Plum", "Sparrow's Love" and so on. As an ordinary audience, we may not know much about the art of dance, but we are united in our desire and appreciation for beauty. She fell into the mortal world as a spirit, extraordinary and ethereal elegance. That graceful body, elegant dance, instantly conquered the hearts of thousands of viewers.
If we talk about group dance, we have to mention "Thousand Hands of Guanyin". 21 deaf and mute actors with an average age of 21 years old interpreted the dance "Thousand Hands of Guanyin" in a seamless and beautiful way. When dancing, it was as if the Goddess of Mercy descended into the world, making people instantly feel the unparalleled beauty and the powerful force given by the art of dance. Tai Lihua, the first dancer standing in the first place, had a holy and elegant demeanor and a beautiful dance posture, which was like the soul of the whole dance, y attracting people to watch.
We are not exclusive to language programs. Comic sketches are just as enjoyable to watch. Comedy has always been a must-have program in the Spring Festival Gala, and even in the 80s and 90s it was once the main event. Ma Ji, Jiang Kun, Niu Qun, Feng Gong ...... are all familiar comedians to Cantonese people. We were just as amused and understood some of the irony in the comedy.
When it comes to sketches, a string of names pops up. Zhao Benshan, Song Dandan, Zhao Lirong, Gong Hanlin, Xiao Shenyang ...... "Black Soil and White Clouds," "Spinach in Autumn," "Marijis (Spicy Chicken Shredding )", "Palace Jade Liquor", "Eyes closed and open a day passed, ha ow" ...... By the way, there is also Pan Changjiang's "Crossing the River", these programs I'm impressed with all of them.
And my initial impression of opera around the country came from the Spring Festival Gala. Every year, the Spring Festival Gala has a program of joint opera singing. "Brother Liu speaks with too much bias, who says women are inferior to men." It is a resonant and atmospheric
Yu Opera; "There is a Sister Lin falling from the sky, like a light cloud that has just come out of the mountain." It's the beautiful and dynamic Yueju Opera; "Sister Hu, you walk with me, brother Hai, you lead the way." The bright and lively Flower Drum Opera;
"You plow the field and I weave the cloth: I carry the water and you water the garden." It's the fresh and smooth Huangmei Opera ......
The most unforgettable is also the song "Unforgettable Tonight" as the finale of the Spring Festival Gala, a song that the 1984 Spring Festival Gala crew invited famous lyricist Qiao Yu and songwriter Wang Moet to join forces to create, and invited singing artist Li Guyi to sing. It has been sung for more than thirty years from 1984 to the 2020 Spring Festival Gala. It is also the indelible memory of the Spring Festival Gala for us Cantonese people.
Later, why are Cantonese people less keen to watch the Spring Festival Gala? Because Cantonese people can watch the Spring Festival Gala with local characteristics of Guangdong, and they can also watch the Spring Festival Gala on Hong Kong TV. And then later, it was because of the increase in the number of various entertainment venues and the popularity of smartphones.
When we watched the Spring Festival Gala in those years, entertainment information was not developed, and only on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala organized by CCTV could we witness the famous actors and singers. Nowadays, entertainment news is all over the place, and we see new and old faces every day, so we have more or less lost the sense of freshness and anticipation.
Particularly in those later years, watching some unfamiliar faces speak in comedy, there is often a feeling that they do not know what they are talking about, and what the audience is laughing at.
Although today there are not many Cantonese people who are still enthusiastic about the Spring Festival Gala, but those years, we are all heart to wait for the Spring Festival Gala. Those with the Spring Festival Gala related to the warm and beautiful memories, we Guangdong people are not absent.