During Spring Festival holiday, TV stations are to offer viewers a rich choice of television entertainment.

Variety Show

The program that is most worthy of watching is undoubtedly CCTV's variety show on the Chinese New Year's Eve, which has been broadcast for 20 consecutive years since 1985.

Every year the star-studded show gathers the country's most famous singer, actors and actresses.

It also gathers people that made extraordinary achievements over the past year, for example, Olympic champions.

Although its influence is declining, it is still a must-see for most Chinese on the eve of Chinese lunar New Year, which falls on February 8 this year.

This year it will be aired through CCTV's Channel 1, Channel 4, Channel 9 and Channel 16 and with subtitles in English, Spanish and French.

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the lunar year of 2005 is the year of Rooster, hence the show's theme is set as Golden Rooster, Harbinger of the Dawn (Jinji Bao Xiao).

It is said that Liu Xiang, China's national-treasure-level athlete, men's 110 meters hurdles gold medal winner at the Athens Olympics, will perform at the show.

Na Ying, a famous singer, will sing new song tailor-made for her. It will be her first public appearance after she gave birth to a baby last year.

Other celebrities expected to show up include Jackie Chan and his son Jaycee, Yang Kun, Daolang, singer Jolin Cai and S.H.E from Taiwan Province and Hong Kong pop idol and superstar Andy Lau.

For those who are bored with short comedies (xiao pin) from northern China, this year will be different.

For the first time in the history of the show, two short comedies from East China's Shanghai and Zhejiang Province will be introduced.

Soap Operas

Unlike happy-new-year movies which usually come out in January, happy-new-year soap operas usually come out around Spring Festival Holiday when most people stay at home and spend more time watching TV.

This year several happy-new-year soap operas will be worth watching.

The star-studded Meet by Chance on New Year's Eve (Pingshui Xiangfeng Guodanian) stars He Bing, Xie Yuan, Shen Chang and Zhu Yuanyuan, and is directed by Liang Tian, who used to be a famous comedian but quit acting several years ago.

It tells the story of several middle-aged people who, because of different reasons, are forced to leave the city at the New Year's eve, the night of family union.

They meet at the airport, but unfortunately because of bad weather, their flights are delayed. They have to stay at the airport and gradually get familiar with each other. When the new year comes, they are already good friends.

The three-part Beijing Taxi Drivers (Beijing Dige), starring Guo Donglin, Fang Zige and Wen Xingyu, tells the story of a father and his son, both of whom are taxi drivers.

Beijing Television (BTV) will continue to broadcast its Happy Family series (Jiahe Wanshixing).

The serial, directed by famous sitcom director Ying Da, has been broadcast for eight years.

And finally, don't forget to watch 24 -- not the American drama, but a Chinese production directed by You Xiaogang.

Its storyline has not been made public, but there is one thing for sure -- it is not about anti-terrorism. 24 will be broadcast between 1 am, February 9 and 1 am, February 10, for 24 consecutive hours.

(China Daily February 2, 2005)