Watch, if you have four spare hours: The 2020 CCTV Spring Festival Gala

In case you missed the biggest show on earth on Friday, a four-and-a-half-hour extravaganza watched by more than 1 billion people, here’s the full CCTV Spring Festival Gala (春节联欢晚会 chūnjié liánhuān wǎnhuì, or 春晚 chūnwǎn for short), uploaded on CCTV’s official YouTube channel.

Curiously, one of the opening segments — a nearly six-minute dance tribute to the Belt and Road Initiative, featuring the only foreign performers on the show — was cut out of the above video. CCTV uploaded the dance as a standalone video.

Of particular note was a segment on the Wuhan coronavirus called “Love Is the Bridge” (爱是桥梁 ài shì qiáoliáng), where six CCTV hosts stood in a line and took turns wishing Wuhan love and support. “Before taking the stage today, we didn’t have even one formal rehearsal,” CCTV anchor Bái Yánsōng 白岩松 led off by saying. By the end, the anchors had taken time to address the emergency workers and thank “foreign friends” for their faith. “Please believe China, all will be better!” said Shuǐ Jūnyì 水均益.

The line that most made me go hmm came from Hǎi Xiá 海霞, who said, “Today at the Australian Open, there was a bit of good news. Wáng Qiáng 王蔷 defeated the great Serena Williams. You see, as long as we’re fearless, dare to strive, we will win.” (For more on Wang’s win over Serena, see The China Project’s latest sports column.)

—Anthony Tao