The annual Spring Festival gala to be hosted by state-run broadcaster China Media Group has become a harbinger of the latest Chinese technology trends.
It also signals China's lead in many sectors and could serve as a huge marketing boost when the related products are market-ready, Chinese analysts said on Friday.
This year's gala event, which will be broadcast on the Lunar New Year's Eve on Monday, will showcase 4k ultra-high-definition (UHD) TV programs transmitted via a fifth-generation (5G) telecommunication network, smart heating cloth made of graphene material, and a virtual TV host empowered by artificial intelligence (AI).
In the 2018 gala, a motorcade of autonomous driving vehicles, a drone boat fleet, a drone squadron, virtual reality and holographic displays impressed the audience.
Analysts said that the flashy technologies to be showcased during the all-important Spring Festival gala, which is expected to be viewed by a huge audience in China and abroad, demonstrate the rise of emerging sectors in the Chinese economy.
"5G, AI, graphene, block chain, quantum computing... China is leading the world in the growth of these sectors," Tan Wenhua, a veteran venture capitalist in Beijing's Zhongguancun, known as China's Silicon Valley, told the Global Times on Friday.
"The gala is a signal, a demonstration of national technological strength," Tan said, noting that China has been supporting innovation-led growth in recent years.
"The gala is the world's most-watched show, and it will be seen not only by people in the Chinese mainland but also compatriots and overseas Chinese. Nowadays, it is increasingly watched by people around the world. It is like a parade of technologies in front of the world," Tan noted.
A 5G TV broadcast reflects China's ambition to build a world-leading commercial network, while heating cloth speaks to the pursuit of the development of a winter sports industry in the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
In a press conference on January 29, Minister of Information and Industry Technology Miao Wei said that China will support the development of internet-connected cars, new-energy vehicles and UHD TV of 4K quality in 2019. The ministry will also use winter sports equipment and virtual reality products as potential growth points, Miao said.
The country is also eyeing terminal devices that use 5G technology to be launched as early as the second half of 2019, and it's working toward the commercialization of 5G technology by 2020.
Flash to functionality
Analysts said the choice of technologies reflects what's trendy, and the gala event could serve the function of educating the general public.
"Take UHD TV, for example. I would say 90 percent of Chinese households don't have the necessary cable networks or TV terminals to view such images in their full capacity. But this is like a preparatory course given with enough media attention to help common folks prepare for the future," Jiang Hongchang, a Beijing-based technology industry insider said on Friday.
Jiang said although many of the technologies shown on the gala are not ready for commercial use, the show could be a superb marketing opportunity that will greatly boost product sales.
Technology is becoming part of everyday life in China. For example, facial recognition has helped raise efficiency at railway stations as millions of Chinese set out on the journey home for family reunions, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.
Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based industry analyst, said that even the gala itself is facing "viewer distraction" from technology start-ups such as video site Douyin.
