The Spring Festival scenes on Kuaishou: Those heartwarming moments that are rediscovered

In the north in February, the view outside the train window is a vast expanse of grayish-white. The train G3695 slowly pulls out of the platform, but the atmosphere of the Spring Festival has already filled the carriage early on. Sun Wentao, a senior engineer at the China Railway Design Institute, was originally just on his way back from an ordinary business trip. However, on this high-speed train named "Special Train for Railway Workers to Go Home", he felt a long-lost warmth. The train covers, scarves, table stickers, and scrolling screens are all full of festivity, and even the voice announcements have been replaced with festival greetings.

He participated in the design of the Beijing-Shenyang line. During this Spring Festival, for the first time, he stood in the position of a passenger and saw the project he had participated in carrying the emotions of the journey home. The entire carriage was filled with a warm and vibrant color. A person who had dedicated his youth to the railway tracks for more than a decade was now being brought home by the tracks. He suddenly realized that the significance of the railway has never been just about speed.

The train is heading north, while another longer journey home starts from across the Taiwan Strait.

Yuan Juzheng, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at National Taiwan University, is spending the Spring Festival in his hometown in Shandong for the first time this year. His ancestral home is in Ningyang, Shandong. His father, Yuan Juefei, left the Chinese mainland in the 1940s and didn't return to his hometown until more than forty years later. In the late 1980s, Yuan Juzheng remembered the moment when his father whispered "It's been 45 years" when applying for a return permit in Belgium. That was an echo of the family history deep in time and a gap cut by the era for a generation.

In the following years, Yuan Juzheng traveled back and forth between Taipei and Ningyang, witnessing the transformation of his hometown from muddy paths to wide asphalt roads. However, he never spent a complete Spring Festival in his hometown. This year, he specifically chose this time to go back. Wearing a red scarf and a wool hat, he stood at the village entrance speaking Mandarin with a local accent, just like any other migrant who had returned home after years of hard work away from home.

At the Spring Festival Eve dinner table, he spread out the newly revised genealogy and listened to his relatives in his hometown read out the kinship titles, waiting for the familiar "Happy New Year". At that moment, the Spring Festival was no longer just a time point but a confirmation, a confirmation of blood ties, a confirmation of belonging, and a confirmation that he was still connected to this land.

One is an engineer, and the other is a philosophy professor. Their two lives intersect at the Spring Festival, leading back to the same question: Where is home, and how can the atmosphere of the Spring Festival be felt?

In the context where many people lament that "the atmosphere of the Spring Festival is fading", this question seems particularly realistic. The core of the Spring Festival atmosphere has never been an abstract nostalgic emotion but specific people and specific scenarios. During the Spring Festival in 2026, Kuaishou created an online-offline integrated content matrix in many places across the country, putting temple fair customs, reunion dinners, star galas, and ordinary people's life stories on the same time axis.

When "going home" becomes the theme, on Kuaishou, there are always so many real people and real journeys to redefine the position of the "Spring Festival atmosphere".

The Lively Spring Festival Atmosphere Consists of Countless Heartwarming Moments

The Minor New Year in Qiujia Village is like an early arrival of New Year's Eve.

The red lanterns in front of the Happy Canteen are gently swaying in the cold wind. The pork stew in the iron pot is boiling with steam, which slowly rises along the window glass. The elderly over seventy are sitting down one by one. Some take off their scarves and put them on the backs of the chairs, while others set the chopsticks in advance, waiting for the young people to return to the village. Wang Ning stands at the door, greeting people in a calm tone, with a long-lost relaxed look on his face.

Three years ago, he was still calculating the meal expenses down to the last cent. At that time, the annual collective income of Qiujia Village was only more than 30,000 yuan, and it was difficult to even maintain a decent village road. Now, by live-streaming the sale of apples and wild vegetables on Kuaishou and attracting photovoltaic projects, the collective income of the village has multiplied several times, and the Happy Canteen can operate stably. During the festival, this space, which originally only served the elderly in the village, has become the public living room for the whole village.

On this year's Minor New Year, Wang Ning made a decision. He broadcast the village banquet on Kuaishou live. The camera panned from the stove to the dining table, passing through rows of steaming dishes, and finally landed on the smiling faces of the elderly. People on the other side of the screen may be working overtime or preparing for the Spring Festival, but at this moment, they can see a rural Spring Festival that still retains a sense of collective ritual.

The reason why such scenarios work is that they are not processed into "performances". The village banquet has always been there, and it is just being seen. Kuaishou doesn't reconstruct the festival scenarios but brings the existing life into the public view.

For many young people, the Spring Festival has long been simplified into a few days of vacation and a trip, and the Spring Festival atmosphere in the public space is diluting. The liveliness in Qiujia Village reminds people that the core of the Spring Festival atmosphere is still the specific connection between people, a meal, a long table, and a face-to-face greeting.

The same sense of publicness continues at the morning market in Xiaoheyan, Shenyang. The frozen food stalls are bustling with noise. Activities such as pasting window decorations, preparing pork stew, and performing yangko dances, which originally belonged to local festival customs, are incorporated into the framework of the "Immersive Northeast Spring Festival". Starting from February 10th, Kuaishou launched 12 - hour long - live broadcasts in many places such as Shenyang, Changchun, and Huludao, with a cumulative viewership of nearly 200 million.

The 12 - hour length changes the viewing rhythm of the festival and brings a real sense of immersion. In a day's life flow, people can visit the market in the morning, listen to the duo performances at noon, and watch the special show at the Liu Laogen Grand Stage in the evening. Viewers don't have to watch from start to finish but always know what's going on there. The festival atmosphere is a continuous and flowing presence throughout the day. This continuous and noisy atmosphere creates a sense of companionship. Even if someone is spending the Spring Festival far away, you can still hear the sound of gongs and drums on the other side of the screen.

On the other side of local customs, technology has never been an obstacle to the Spring Festival atmosphere. The technological attempts this year are both innovative and restrained.

KeLing AI of Kuaishou, in collaboration with Xingmang Short Dramas, launched "Drama on the Go". As the first AI New Year animation short - film collection, it unfolds a multi - chapter narrative with the Spring Festival as the theme. Taking the episode "Non - stop Journey" as an example, the creators linked the Spring Festival travel rush, the largest annual migration in reality, with the classic IP "Journey to the West" in the narrative. Under the shell of a fantastic comedy, the hustle and bustle of ordinary people on their way home are given a symbolic meaning like "going on a pilgrimage for scriptures". The dignity of ordinary occupations and the perseverance in pursuing reunion are taken seriously in the laughter.

The upgrades of KeLing AI in character consistency, green - screen keying, and multi - shot narrative allow the virtual scenes to blend naturally with the character performances. The colors of Dunhuang murals are brought to the small screen, and clay stop - motion and ink - wash styles coexist in the same series. Technology becomes the brush of creativity but doesn't overshadow the focus of the story. In the context of the Spring Festival, technology is more like a transparent medium, making the emotional expression clearer.

Meanwhile, content matrices such as the Spring Festival Gala of "Boonie Bears", the Second - dimension Spring Festival Party, high - quality short dramas, winter vacation interest classes, and sports events are carried out in parallel. Children are watching animations, young people are following dramas, parents are learning knowledge, and sports fans are following the events. Different age groups and interest circles have their own access points during the same time period.

The Spring Festival thus presents a state of multiple narrative superposition. It is both a pot of hot dishes in the rural canteen and a new animation on the urban screen; it is both the sound of gongs and drums of the yangko team and the Dunhuang colors generated by AI. No one is trying to redefine the Spring Festival; instead, they are gathering the existing Spring Festival atmosphere. The smell of fireworks, local accents, laughter, and technology coexist, forming the real landscape of the current festival.

The common feature of these contents is that they don't try to redefine the Spring Festival but instead gather the existing Spring Festival atmosphere.

In this structure, the liveliness of the Spring Festival atmosphere is no longer just a stack of noise but a collection of a series of heartwarming moments. Someone is waiting for their family at the canteen door, someone is buying Spring Festival goods at the market, and someone sees their own reflection in front of the screen... The smell of fireworks, local accents, laughter, and technology coexist, jointly forming the current festival landscape.

The Spring Festival atmosphere is re - placed in specific life rather than abstract nostalgia.

A New Year for Everyone

Beyond the liveliness of the Spring Festival, what is more worthy of observation is participation.

In today's highly mature traffic logic, any festival operation cannot do without an interaction mechanism. Kuaishou's red - envelope mechanism this year clearly emphasizes "interaction" more. On the basis of continuing last year's classic gameplay, new links such as "Clicking Gold Cards", "Exchanging Red Envelopes", and "Friends Scanning Each Other's Fortune - Inviting Codes" have been added. Some benefits can be shared, becoming a medium for relatives and friends to convey blessings.

According to Kuaishou's data, during the Spring Festival, the number of users participating in the "Shake" activity increased by more than 60% year - on - year; the average number of exchanges in the "Exchange" gameplay exceeded 10 times; some users swiped more than 3 million comments in order to draw a Clicking Gold Card; the Fortune - Inviting Code even became a new "digital business card" during the Spring Festival greetings, and Chongqing, Harbin, and Changchun ranked among the top three cities with the most enthusiasm for scanning the code.

The liveliness at the digital level is visible, but what really leaves an impression is the sense of connection created by the participation method itself. Red envelopes and comments, code - scanning and friend lists, gold coins and PK competitions are woven together, and the festival emotions are spread through interaction. Kuaishou's DAU reached a new peak during the Spring Festival for two consecutive years, which is a quantifiable result.

The festival atmosphere takes on a specific form in the virtual space, which includes both benefits and relationships.

And this kind of relationship is not only online. While the Milan Winter Olympics are in full swing, another ice and snow event for ordinary people is quietly taking place in Changchun, Jilin. From February 9th to 11th, the Kuaishou Winter Games were held at the Changchun Ice and Snow World, bringing interesting ice and snow sports to the arena, intertwined with Northeast Spring Festival customs, intangible cultural heritage parades, and ice and snow markets.

The stage is not only for professional athletes. There is no serious timer, and there are no standard actions of professional athletes. In the warm - up area, participants show off their talents such as rapping and boxing; in the "Ice Ladder Slide", which simulates speed skating, there are all kinds of creative postures like sitting, lying, lying on the side, and squatting to pass the levels; in the "Snow Maze Battle", which borrows the setting of the biathlon, participants need to find the right direction in the interesting maze; in the "Curling for Good Luck", curling is combined with Spring Festival blessings; and the "Ice Cart Race" tests balance and endurance. Prizes such as big pork legs for the Spring Festival and "Kuaishou Gold Medals" are placed aside, and laughter can be heard from the ice surface from time to time.

Beyond the relaxed and cheerful atmosphere, this design has a clear purpose. The Winter Olympics are the highlight moment in the national narrative, and ice and snow sports have long been regarded as competitive events in the professional field. The Kuaishou Winter Games take advantage of the popularity of the Winter Olympics but actively lower the threshold, transforming the professional narrative into a life experience. Ice and snow are no longer distant; they become a way that anyone can try. Ice and snow can be a distant view on TV broadcasts or a real touch under your feet.

As of February 11th, the topic #KuaishouWinterGames has been viewed more than 2.09 billion times. Beyond the ice and snow venues, more people have joined this "mass sports" experiment through the screen.

This idea of "giving up the stage" is Kuaishou's consistent platform logic: everyone is a performer on the stage of life.

In the program list of the Kuaishou Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse, there are well - known star artists as well as some relatively unfamiliar faces. For example, Xiaercuo, the fourth - generation inheritor of the zamnyen. She is from Mentang Township, Jiuzhi County, Guoluo Prefecture, Qinghai. She has been playing the zamnyen for nine years. During her studies, she worked as a singer to support her life while studying. She never gave up this traditional art. With the support of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Learning School" project, she received systematic support and opened courses at the local vocational skills school, with more than a hundred students having taken her courses in total.

When she stands on the Spring Festival stage created by Kuaishou and plucks the strings, what the audience sees is not just a "selected amateur" but the path where art and fate are intertwined behind her. The traditional musical instrument has moved from the plateau villages to a broader screen space, and the festival has become a node for cultural circulation. Beyond the moment of reunion, the Spring Festival has also become a window for culture to be seen.

In this sense, the Kuaishou platform not only carries content but also a community structure. The lives of ordinary users are incorporated into the festival narrative, rather than just watching the stars.

The Spring Festival becomes a moment when personal stories are magnified.

The Generation of the Cyber Spring Festival Atmosphere

Yuan Juzheng, wearing a red scarf, says "Happy New Year" on the streets of Ningyang. Sun Wentao receives a gift package of Spring Festival goods on the special train home. Wang Ning plans to distribute the dividends to the villagers. On the other side of the phone, there are countless "Yuan Juzheng, Sun Wentao, and Wang Ning" who are gathering with their family and friends to have a Spring Festival meal and shaking the "Money Tree" to grab red envelopes. These non - grand narrative pictures can