China Lishui News Net reported on January 12 (Reporter Zhou Yulong). The good play began after a sound of the drum. On the 12th, the 2019 "Hundred Counties and Ten Thousand Villages" regional linkage of the National Spring Festival Gala, which is also the Zhejiang opera entering the countryside, were launched in Dongbei Village, Qingtian County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province in the Chinese Year of Overseas Chinese Township. The 2019 the National Spring Festival Gala started simultaneously in the east, south, west and north part of China.

　　Lishui features the Chinese folk art. During the Spring Festival, and it has been a long tradition to prepare for the performances and hold the Spring Festival Gala by the masses themselves. The national famous ‘Spring Festival Gala on the Yue Mountain’ originated in 1946. In 1981, it began to be popular and was held for 38 consecutive years. It is known as the ‘Cultural Sample of Chinese Village New Year’.   

　　During the 2018 Spring Festival, 1,115 villages in more than 2,700 administrative villages in Lishui held their own Spring Festival galas, with a coverage rate of more than 40 percent in the administrative villages. More than 1,000 farmer directors, 300,000 villagers, 800,000 spectators and 200,000 non-local tourists realized their cultural and spring festival dreams on the grass-roots’ stage of the Spring Festival Gala.   

　　The event was held in Qingtian, the east gate of Lishui open to the outside world, located in the southern mountainous area of Zhejiang, the middle and lower reaches of the Oujiang River, adjacent to Wenzhou. It is known as the Hometown of Overseas Chinese, Home of Stone Carvings and Home of Celebrities. It has a history of more than 300 years of overseas Chinese. There are 33 million overseas Chinese from Qingtian living in more than 120 countries and regions in the world. It can be said that ‘Overseas Chinese are in every household of Qingtian and all Qingtian people are the family members of overseas Chinese’.   

　　Whenever the Spring Festival is around, though wearing fine clothes from a foreign country, Qingtian overseas Chinese always bear nostalgia in their heart. ‘Travelling all over the world with home in Qingtian’ . This is the voice of every overseas Chinese from Qingtian. During every Spring Festival, the homesickness grows stronger in the wandering hearts.   

　　Xiaozhoushan Village is 30 kilometers away in northeast of Qingtian County, among over 1,100 registered permanent residents, only about 100 people live in he village, because many villagers go abroad to earn a living, and some have not returned home for more than a decade. Every year, due to the holding of the Spring Festival Gala in the countryside, the small village becomes lively again. Many overseas Chinese are also anxious to fly back from abroad to enjoy the ‘Village Gala’.   

　　Apart from Xiaozhoushan Village, before and after the Spring Festival, each village in Qingtian is always busy with its own unique and festive Spring Festival Gala. Zhang’s eldest brother’s song, Li’s sister-in-law’s square dance performance, and the elderly erhu impromptu are all presented. The returning overseas Chinese also show their unique skills for the Chinese New Year. The rich and varied programs have turned into a big party mixed with local and foreign flavor, and are widely welcomed by the peasants and the families of the returning overseas Chinese.   

　　However, compared with previous years, the 2019 Spring Festival in Qingtian is particularly lively. It was not only because it was the main venue of the regional linkage ‘1,000 Counties and Villages’ , but more importantly, it had become the main part of the event ‘Chinese New Year of the Overseas Chinese’ in Zhejiang in 2019.   

　　‘Chinese New Year of the Overseas Chinese’ is a brilliant golden name card of Qingtian. Each year, Qingtian invites international friends to China to experience Chinese traditional culture. In 2018, Qingtian invited nearly 80 foreign friends from 25 countries, including the United States and Australia.   

　　The Chinese Year of Overseas Chinese opens a window for the cultural exchange with other countries, the official said, the distinctive characteristics of the  ‘Beautiful Qingtian, Happy Hometown of Overseas Chinese,’ display a very infectious cultural confidence, and is a vivid practice of inheriting and developing China’s outstanding traditional culture.   

　　It is worth mentioning that in recent years, along with the popularization of digital network, the rural Spring Festival Gala has also inserted the ‘Internet+’ elements. Through the technology of live broadcasting and peer-to-peer video link, Qingtian culture is closely linked with the overseas Chinese, and Chinese New Year culture elements are skillfully infiltrated into the overseas New Year culture.   

　　As the New Year approaches in 2019, people from around the world are telling Chinese stories and sharing the wonderful Spring Festival through the rural gala. (Qingtian County Government Office)