Gala Gigs: The Acts You Missed on Chinese New Year

If you were out with friends on Chinese New Year’s Eve, you probably missed out on watching the five-hour Spring Festival Gala. The CCTV variety show regularly gets mixed reviews from Chinese viewers, and this year was no different. Nearly half of the viewers polled were underwhelmed by the acts. For your sake, then, we've whittled the show down to some of its more memorable highlights, from Warren Buffet on the ukulele to audience reactions to straight-up drag.

You might think that the excitement of watching the show live would improve the experience, but that's where you'd be wrong. A napping grandma has earned the nickname “Sleeping Sister” from netizens after she was caught snoozing through the performances. Still, while some consider the five hours of dancing and singing more effective than a sleeping pill washed down with a warm glass of milk, others were more than happy to earn a coveted ticket for the show. “Laughing Brother,” the most niubi of audience members (according to netizens), is still as excited and appreciative the 15th time as his first time.

But the CCTV Spring Festival Gala is such a massive cultural phenomenon – so intimately linked with the tradition of holiday family reunions – that that it inspires drama in living rooms around the nation. the Beijinger's back-page columnist George Ding recently wrote about his troubled memories of the gala. Check it out here.

Photos: shanghaiist.com