On the 8th, Han Qiaosheng, a well-known CCTV host, posted a message saying that Yuan Dewang, who had directed CCTV Spring Festival Gala many times, had passed away. Later, Yuan Dewang's friend, Liu Shuangping, artistic director of Benshan Media, also confirmed the news to Red Star News reporters. Public information shows that Yuan Dewang was born in 1947. He founded the "Cultural Viewpoint" and "Friends" columns at CCTV, directed the three Spring Festival Galas in 1984, 1986 and 1987, and served as the chief director of the Spring Festival Galas in 1997 and 2004.

Han Qiaosheng posted a message of condolences

As a senior director of CCTV's Art Department, Yuan Dewang has discovered many stars, such as Zhang Mingmin and Zhao Benshan.

In 1984, during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, singer Zhang Mingmin from Hong Kong sang "My Chinese Heart" in Mandarin, which was not so fluent in pronunciation. Overnight, the song was like wings, and it resounded throughout the country. According to Huang Yihe, the director of the Spring Festival Gala that year, Zhang Mingmin's arrival also went through many twists and turns.

In 1983, CCTV held its first large-scale Spring Festival Gala, which was welcomed and recognized by the audience. In order to take the Spring Festival Gala to a higher level the following year, Huang Yihe sent assistant director Yuan Dewang to Shenzhen to collect folk songs. A song played by the local driver in the car caught Yuan Dewang's attention - it was "My Chinese Heart" sung by Zhang Mingmin. After that, the director team contacted and communicated with many parties and finally successfully invited Zhang Mingmin.

Yuan Dewang

Zhao Benshan's performance on the Spring Festival Gala was also related to Yuan Dewang's insight. As early as the 1988 National Day Gala, Yuan Dewang, on the recommendation of Jiang Kun, used Zhao Benshan and Li Jing, who were not very famous at the time. The skit "1+1=?" performed by the two became the first program of that gala. It was from here that Zhao Benshan was noticed by the CCTV director team and later appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

Jay Chou's first appearance on CCTV Spring Festival Gala was also Yuan Dewang's last time as the chief director of the Spring Festival Gala. In an interview, Yuan Dewang recalled that when he was the chief director of CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2004, he thought of inviting Jay Chou to participate. But after the idea was reported, some experts thought that Jay Chou's pronunciation was unclear. Yuan Dewang and his team came up with a solution and launched a signature campaign on CCTV's website. As a result, more than 2 million signatures were quickly received, and finally the young Jay Chou was successfully allowed to appear on CCTV Spring Festival Gala for the first time and sing "Dragon Fist".

Yuan Dewang guest-stars in "Big Shot"

In addition to directing the gala, Yuan Dewang also guest-starred in film and television works from time to time. In the Lunar New Year film "Counterattack", he played Lu Baosheng; in Feng Xiaogang's Lunar New Year film "Big Shot", he guest-starred as the "film and television tycoon" Zhang Zong, and his lines were "My request is: during the entire funeral, this mysterious woman in black veil will always accompany Taylor's body... Didn't you say 4 million? Why did it increase again? Then she has to lie on Taylor's body and cry for 30 seconds!"