Between the past and the future: the rise of nationalist discourse at the 1983 CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Transitioning into the post-revolutionary era, China in the 1980s saw a variety of uncertainties. State policies, popular sentiments, and individual psychologies were all in constant fluctuation. Despite these uncertainties, efforts to understand the past and a strong desire for a prosperous future characterized the general spirit, widely reflected in the increasingly active and diversified cultural life of the Chinese people. In 1983, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) held a Spring Festival Gala that was broadcast live nationwide for the first time. As one of the first cultural milestones of the New Era, the gala painted a joyful and harmonious picture of the country amidst various complexities and ambiguities. Studying the organization and content of the 1983 gala, this paper argues that the gala responded to the ongoing historical transition by replacing the previously dominant revolutionary discourse, which stressed class struggle, extreme collectivism, and politicization of daily life, with a nationalist discourse, which aspired for China's integration into a highly modernized world as a prosperous world power. Such replacement was demonstrated in the gala's depiction of the relationship between individuals and the state, memories of revolution, and new connections between traditions and the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]