The 24th day of the twelfth month of the Chinese lunar calendar (January 23rd) is celebrated in southern China as "Xiaonian" (Little New Year) or the Festival of the Kitchen God, and is when the Spring Festival period truly begins. To mark the start of the festivities, Hainan Integrated Media Center and Hainan International Media Center are releasing "Do Yi La!", a special series that takes a look at Spring Festival customs around Hainan Island.

On December 5, 2024, "Spring Festival" was officially inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The first Spring Festival following this momentous occasion is now imbued with the mission of spreading the cultural pride of the Chinese nation and offering the world a worthy specimen of the harmonious merging of individual ritual and collective customs.   

In Hainan, a melting pot of different cultures, exist a rich variety of Spring Festival customs unique to each area and group. How they came about and developed are reflections of the history and changes of various peoples that migrated to Hainan Island. Over thousands of years, they have each contributed various shining cultural elements that together have formed Hainanese culture as we know it today. Watch "Do Yi La!" to learn more about the Spring Festival customs that make Hainan special.