Do foreigners view our new year like we view their Christmas?

Not necessarily! We've used traditional Chinese-style fusion to turn the formerly religious observance of Christmas into a purely commercial carnival, while the lunar new year, to the majority of European and American foreigners, is more like a party for other people's friends and family: people get all decked out in red, looking like giant red envelopes of flesh, but this means little to them. Asians might identify more; in Korea on the morning of the New Year, they venerate their ancestors and have rice cake soup, similar to how things are in China. The Japanese New Year has taken up the first day of the solar year, and they go to temples or local shrines to pay their first respects.

It used to be that on TV they'd invite international figures to act out crosstalk or skits or Peking Opera or vaudeville in bad accents, and the surprised audience had quite a jolly time, marvelling at their grasp of folk customs and gasping in amazement at the immense appeal of eastern culture! But after further careful observation, you'd discover that this just might be a runaway imagination, for once you subtract out those China hands at the international schools who gladly participate, foreigners in other areas have a somewhat more indifferent attitude. They may politely extend their good wishes or express their admiration, but in their hearts they cannot truly enter in to the spirit with which the Chinese celebrate the new year.

Does celebrating the new year count as private life? In broad terms, the new year is a time to be together with family; it originally was part of private life, no need for debate. However, for students returning home, or people working away from home, returning home means that they must make an account to their family and friends of all that happened during their days away. Did they make money? Did they get licensed? Have they found a spouse?....actually, sometimes when you are together with family - not just parents, but when you've got aunts and in-laws from both sides of the family packed together - you may, consciously or unconsciously, bring up your child's accomplishments for comparison. Some may be from far in the past, but that does not stop the family's elders from trying to stack them up against each other. I don't know who it was that said, "In a large family, privacy is a laughable word." The most microscopic accomplishments and faults will be topics for discussion on the lips of family and friends, and for some questions that it would typically be entirely reasonable to refuse to answer, this time you cannot imitate the famous people on television and say, "This is a private affair. I will not answer." Small talk around the dinner table is actually a veiled test of wills among siblings....that is to say, there is disdain and cruelty among family that is different from outsiders. Naturally, with the bonds of blood, reunion and harmony are still the main notes of the theme.

Hong Kong's popular entertainment programs always record specials New Year's programs around the Spring Festival; when the time comes for eating New Year's Eve dinner, the entertainers celebrate together with their families or visit other places. I've now come to realize that this way of doing things shows humanity, unlike the programs in the mainland which, in their pursuit of a live broadcast, sacrifice the reunions of thousands of people for the happiness of hundreds of millions. At first glance it may seem worthwhile, and it does appear grand, but basically, all uncertain elements will be cut off, or the cameras switched....

Frankly speaking, the gala isn't a ballgame, so there's not as pressing a need for the live feel. Competitions vary widely, and the unexpected happens all the time - no one knows what will happen the next second. But the gala needs to guarantee a pleasing spectacle for the eyes and ears. To ensure performance quality, for several years many major gala program items were lip-synched - does that kind of perfection have any meaning? Is it all just for the New Year's countdown, to increase the studio atmosphere and the sense of audience participation? SMS and the Internet have been developing for several years, yet New Year's greetings are still sent in by telegram from all parts - look at Zhu Jun's excited face! Why not do a recorded broadcast - it can be edited, special effects and titles can be added, and voice-overs can be added in post. The aesthetic sensibilities of some among the audience has already begun to develop backwards - they believe that unless people fall down, sing off-pitch, forget their lines, make mistakes, or get hooted by the audience, it's not a real live broadcast. Otherwise, if even a New Year celebration must look that orderly, then how is it any different from holding a meeting?