Huang Yihe (; April 1934 – 8 April 2019) was a Chinese television director who created the ''

CCTV New Year's Gala The ''CCTV New Year's Gala'', also known as the ''Spring Festival Gala'', and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as ''Chunwan'', is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). It is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese ...

'' in 1983. The program has become the world's most-watched TV show, with one billion viewers in 2018.

Biography

Huang was born in April 1934 in Shenyang, Liaoning, China. In 1949, he enlisted in the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

as a military entertainer. A year later, his unit was dispatched to North Korea to perform for Chinese troops fighting in the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

. After his entertainment unit was disbanded, he was discharged from the military and assigned to work for China Central Television. In the early 1980s, Huang proposed the idea of hosting a televised party to celebrate the

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () a ...

, and the first ''

'' aired in 1983. Operating on a very low budget, Huang was given a studio of , which could accommodate only 60 staff members and 200 guests. With no money for recording and editing, the show was improvised and broadcast live, and the studio had four telephones accepting live requests from callers nationwide. The popular singer

Li Guyi Li Guyi (; born 4 November 1944) is a Chinese singer and dancer. Li rose to fame after singing ''Homeland Love'' (), a mellow love ballad written by Ma Jinghua and Zhang Peiji, in 1980, the year of China's reform and opening-up. Biography Li wa ...

ended the night with nine performances, and the comedian Jiang Kun, who co-hosted the show, performed three pieces of ''

xiangsheng Xiangsheng (), also known as crosstalk or comic dialogue, is a traditional performing art in Chinese comedy, and one of the most popular elements in Chinese culture. It is typically performed as a dialogue between two performers, or rarely as ...

''. Huang and his colleagues at CCTV took considerable political risk broadcasting the live show, as pop singers such as Li Guyi were at the time under attack by hardliners as "

spiritual pollution The Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign () was a political campaign spearheaded by conservative factions within the Chinese Communist Party that lasted from October 1983 to December 1983. In general, its advocates wanted to curb Western-inspired ...

" and one of her most popular songs, ''Hometown Love'' (), was still officially banned. When the song received numerous phone requests, Huang sought permission from

Wu Lengxi Wu may refer to: States and regions on modern China's territory *Wu (state) (; och, *, italic=yes, links=no), a kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period 771–476 BCE ** Suzhou or Wu (), its eponymous capital ** Wu County (), a former county ...

, the Minister of Radio and Television who was in the audience. Wu gave the go-ahead after much deliberation, and Li Guyi performed the song for the first time on national TV. After the first New Year Gala proved a huge hit with viewers nationwide, Huang was tasked with directing the second edition in 1984. At the time, China and Britain were under intense negotiation over the

Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration is a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after ...

on the status of Hong Kong. Huang came up with the idea of inviting the amateur Hong Kong singer

Cheung Ming-man Cheung Ming-man (; born 2 September 1956) is a Hong Kong singer and occasional actor, best known for many patriotic songs he sang in the 1980s, all in Mandarin. He became the first Hong Kong singer to sing at the CCTV New Year's Gala, China's mos ...

to perform at his show. It was then unprecedented for a Hong Kong entertainer to perform on Chinese TV and his request met significant resistance. Huang persistently lobbied government officials and eventually gained their approval. Cheung's performance of the patriotic song "

My Chinese Heart "My Chinese Heart" () is a Chinese patriotic song. The lyrics were written by James Wong in 1982 in protest of the falsifying of information on the Second Sino-Japanese War in Japanese History books by the Japanese Ministry of Education, as well a ...

" at the 1984 gala made him a household name in China. Huang went on to direct three more editions of the New Year's Gala, in 1985, 1986, and 1990. The annual show has since become a new tradition for Chinese New Year. The program is now the most-watched TV show in the world, with a billion viewers in 2018. Huang died on 8 April 2019 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Yihe 1934 births 2019 deaths Chinese television directors Directors of the CCTV New Year's Gala Artists from Shenyang 20th-century Chinese people 21st-century Chinese people