For many Chinese, winter holiday season doesn't seem complete without the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. But it's impossible to satisfy all 1.3 billion Chinese.

    Even if you, especially young audience（观众）complain about the Spring Festival Gala, watching it while having Lunar New Year's Eve dinner has become a common way for families to get together. It's much more than just a TV program, it's also a way to bring family members together and get them talking during the holiday. Think about how you'll watch the gala and discover its fun.

1. Share your opinions（观点）about the programs and artists with your family members. Introduce artists who young people enjoy to the elderly memebers of your family, such as “fellow brother” William Chan, or former（以前的）singing group EXO members Kris Wu and Lu Han.

2. Post your compliments and complaints on micro blogs and WeChat moments to share with friends. Then they will know what you're satisfied with and what you complain about. In recent years, the gala is trying to attract young people by using Internet slang（俚语）. Guessing when and what Internet chat lingo（术语）will be mentioned in the show is surely going to be hot on social media. Will there be “drunk and tired”（也是醉了）? Have a bet with friends.

3. Online video websites such as IQiyi and Youku have introduced a real-time online discussion system. All comments（评论）are displayed on the screen. You can try watching the show in this interactive（互动的）way instead of the traditional TV sets so that you may know others' opinions about the programs in the Spring Festival Gala.

    When my family moved to America from a small village in Guangdong, China, we brought not only our luggage, but also our village rules, customs and culture. One of the rules is that young people should always respect elders. Unluckily, this rule led to my very first embarrassment in the United States.

    I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One time, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure. My manager, who happened to hear what I said, took me aside and gave me a long lecture about how sensitive Americans are and how they dislike the description “old”. I then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.

    In my village in China, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.

    However, in the United States, people think “growing old” is a problem since “old” shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well. Here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young. I had told them something they didn't want to hear.

    After that, I changed the way I had been with older people. It is not that I don't respect them any more; I still respect them, but now I don't show my feelings through words.

By Jack