Beautiful Kashgar steals festive television spotlight

Singers and dancers perform at the branch venue of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, on Friday. (YUETIKE NIJIATI/FOR CHINA DAILY)

This year's China Central Television Spring Festival Gala established a branch venue in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, specifically in Kashgar in the southwestern part of the region.

The stage of the Kashgar branch venue has been open to visitors since Saturday, the first day of the lunar calendar. Every night until the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, a large-scale night light show is being performed, attracting visitors from all over the country.

On Friday evening, an impressive eight-minute performance from the Xinjiang branch venue captured the spotlight as the gala was broadcast.

The innovative stage was set up on the rooftops of 12 houses in the Ancient City of Kashgar, a rammed-earth building complex with a 2,000-year history. The interplay of light and shadow on the stage, accompanied by dynamic music from ethnic instruments, featured local performers from diverse ethnic groups showcasing their singing and dancing.

Qin Zheng, director of the branch venue, explained that this arrangement showcased the genuine way of life of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds in Xinjiang.

"These individuals lead fulfilling lives, find contentment and come together on the rooftops to share meals while participating in song and dance," she said.

The main program at the Kashgar branch brought together the most distinctive cultural symbols of this vibrant region, involving actors from different generations and ethnicities, with the youngest performer being only five years old.

Xinjiang, a pivotal point along the ancient Silk Road, has been a multi-ethnic settlement since ancient times. The diverse ethnic groups have established deep roots within Chinese civilization, fostering a vibrant and diverse history and culture through interactions, exchanges and integration.

"Trying to encapsulate all of this in a single performance is not an easy task. From the content of the program to the stage design, in the intertwining of the virtual and real, the fusion of technology and culture, we retained the most representative elements," added Qin.

The performance also showcased a group of prominent figures from Xinjiang, such as singer Wang Hongwei, actress Dilraba Dilmurat, rapper Air and actor Yu Menglong.

Air's performance skillfully integrated rap culture with ethnic music. He noted that numerous musicians in Xinjiang have been actively exploring the path of cross-cultural integration in ethnic music, advocating its preservation, development and innovation.

Wei Zijie from Beijing and her family had planned to visit Kashgar for the past two years. Immediately after watching the performances in the city on the Spring Festival Gala, she booked a trip and arrived in Kashgar on Tuesday for a four-day holiday.

She said that in the Spring Festival Gala, the exquisite Xinjiang costumes, dances and musical instruments vividly showcased the unique charm of the millennium-old city.

As of 1 pm on Saturday, the gala had been simultaneously broadcast and reported by over 2,300 media outlets from more than 200 countries and regions worldwide. Many Chinese people living overseas had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the beauty of Xinjiang through the eight-minute performance.