Dragon TV aims to spread such touching stories of Chinese people so as to encourage the public to embrace the coming year with love and hope.

“We tend to give the gala a warmer human touch,” says the gala’s director, Chen Hong. “The new year’s gala used to be a kind of carnival imbued with ineffable joy. This time, we hope to deliver a certain strength to our viewers.”

“I hope they could bid a farewell to those difficulties we faced in the passing year.”

The whole gala will be separated into three chapters which are respectively themed on “l(fā)ighting up happiness”, “advancing on the future path” and “opening the door to a new year”. In the meantime, the overall ambience and the stage designs will change accordingly.