On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the 2026 Fujian Spring Festival Gala was broadcast worldwide, linking audiences across continents in a shared celebration of heritage and reunion in the Year of the Horse.
With the theme "Shared Spring Across Ten Thousand Miles on the Same Wind", the gala achieved a first-of-its-kind real-time connection among Fujian and Taiwan in China, and Malaysia's Malacca.
The concept of "wind" — long intertwined with Fujian province's maritime identity — served as a poetic thread, symbolizing both the province's seafaring past and its enduring cultural ties across oceans.
Music served as the bridge. Malaysian singer Ah Niu's rendition of Peach Blossoms Are Blooming evoked the emotional inheritance of generations of Baba-Nyonya families, while also highlighting stories of overseas Chinese communities safeguarding historical streets and preserving traditional culture.
Singer Chiang Yu-heng of Taiwan joined Fuzhou-born singer Vinida in performing The One Who Carves Time, a piece that reflects the intertwined cultural memories of Taipei and Fuzhou.
On Jonker Street in Malacca — often referred to as "Little Quanzhou" — cameras captured scenes steeped in Minnan (southern Fujian) tradition. The historical district, dating back more than six centuries, came alive as Chinese residents hung red lanterns and posted Spring Festival couplets.
Chief director Lu Jie said the gala's stage design fused Fujian's maritime culture with the legacy of the Maritime Silk Road. The production integrated traditional aesthetics with advanced stage technology to create an immersive environment that shifts between stillness and motion.
"We did not simply replicate tradition," Lu said. "Instead, we sought to reinterpret it through contemporary expression."
One example was Rooftop Hundred Plays, which combined street dance with Minnan porcelain-cut mosaic art, a vibrant, decorative art form popular in southern Fujian, the Chaoshan area of Guangdong, and Taiwan. By animating traditional figures such as fu, lu and shou — symbols of fortune, prosperity and longevity — through dynamic choreography, the production transformed festive imagery into a modern visual language.
Explaining the theme, Lu noted that the wind represents both Fujian's history of venturing across mountains and seas with resilience and ambition, and its ongoing role as a cultural bridge connecting both sides of the Taiwan Strait and overseas Chinese communities worldwide.
The gala premiered on Feb 17 on Southeast TV and Fujian Straits TV, with overseas broadcasts running from Feb 17 to Feb 19 on Malaysia MYTV, the Philippines' Chinatown TV, Mandarin TV in Europe, the International Chinese Network in the United States, and the Kwai platform in Brazil.
