From LED to AI, how the Spring Festival Gala technology show empowers culture

The iteration of technology on the Spring Festival Gala stage has always been a dual projection of the wave of the technology industry and the persistence of the humanistic spirit. The prototypes of AI, AR, and XR technology applications revealed in the first rehearsal of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala in 2026 not only continue the Spring Festival Gala’s tradition of being a testing ground for cutting-edge technologies, but also once again raised the core proposition of "how technology can empower culture." What is exciting is how technology and content will eventually be integrated in this cultural feast with the theme of "Qiji Galloping Unstoppable".


The iterative upgrade of the Spring Festival Gala technology show is essentially a concentrated projection of the strength of my country’s digital industry. From the staggering start of screen technology to the rapid integration of multiple technologies, the Spring Festival Gala stage has always been an important testing ground for cutting-edge technology. As early as the 1990s, LED screens were introduced for the first time in the 1993 Spring Festival Gala, which opened the starting point for the integration of technology and stage beauty. In 2012, the Year of the Dragon Spring Festival Gala used holographic LED screens and AR technology on a large scale to achieve a "seamless" connection between virtual and real scenes and build a three-dimensional visual space. The 2022 Spring Festival Gala created a 720-degree LED dome space, integrating XR, 8K naked-eye 3D and other technologies. The dance "Only Green" materialized the artistic conception of "Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains", deeply integrating traditional culture and technological aesthetics; the 2024 Spring Festival Gala innovatively adopted the "XR+VP" virtual production system, and the dance "Koi" was linked in real time with the actors' movements through LED ground screens, creating an underwater scene that was both real and illusory, stunning the audience. By the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Snake in 2025, Yushu Technology’s humanoid machine"Yang BOT" performed by Ren(18.390, -0.05, -0.27%)H1 "Fuxi" became popular. The AI, AR, and XR technology applications currently disclosed in the 2026 Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala have also aroused expectations. Decades of technological leaps are behind the continuous development of the domestic technology industry chain. These stage technologies not only serve one party, but are also accelerating their implementation in cultural tourism performances, digital cultural creation and other fields. Their application effects in the Spring Festival Gala will also provide reference samples for the digital transformation of the entire cultural industry.

Technology is never a cold tool, but a medium that carries emotions and delivers value. The 2023 Spring Festival Gala "Full of Colors in the Courtyard" introduced AI drawing technology to assist AR scene design, and the LED petal screen canopy created a classical and elegant artistic conception, allowing the audience to appreciate the beauty of China's national colors in the interweaving of virtuality and reality; the 2025 Year of the Snake Spring Festival Gala incorporated AIGC animation generation technology into the program, allowing characters in ancient books and paintings to "animate" and using technology to awaken traditional cultural memories. In the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse, intelligent robots will once again take the stage, continuing the creative idea of "man and machine dancing together" in previous years, integrating "technological intelligence" into stage presentation, content creation, etc., to enrich people's colorful imagination of the New Year. It is in the same vein as the expression of "Yang BOT" of the Year of the Snake Spring Festival Gala that integrates robotic technology with northern Yangko. What impressed the audience at that time was not only the more than 130 dance movements accurately reproduced by the robots, but also the flavor and warmth conveyed by the fusion of technology and traditional folk customs. In the interweaving of reality and realityIn the visual feast, we must ultimately maintain the cultural roots of Spring Festival reunion and forge ahead, and avoid emotional alienation caused by technological alienation.

The application of technology in the Spring Festival Gala is promoting "technology-empowered culture" from concept to actual effect, activating the contemporary vitality of traditional culture. The Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala attempts to integrate the cultural meaning of the zodiac horse with technological means, using AR technology to reproduce the scene of "thousands of horses galloping" and using stage technology to amplify the artistic tension of the opera's "horse riding" program. The original intention is to build a communication bridge between tradition and modernity, so that traditional culture can reach the public in a more vivid form.

When technology continues to empower cultural creation, only by always anchoring the humanistic spirit and finding a balance between technological iteration and deep connotation can cultural works have both technological quality and industrial vitality, while retaining emotional thickness and spiritual height.

There are less than 30 days until the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse is broadcast, and the director team is still polishing the program and improving the details. As an important window for the integration of culture and technology, the exploration process of the Spring Festival Gala is itself valuable. It not only shows the development vitality of my country's science and technology industry, but also the challenges that may be faced in cultural innovation.