Countdown to the Winter Olympics| "Come Together, Go to the Future Together"

People's Daily Beijing, December 17 (Zhu Jiang, Tang Jia) "We all need love, everyone holds hands together, together for a shared future, together to the future..." This year, the slogan of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games promoted the song "Together to the Future" was the first to go out of the circle.

Yu Yunquan, president of the Institute of Contemporary China and the World Research Institute and editor-in-chief of "External Communication", said in an interview with the "Strong Observation" column of the People's Network that a popular theme song is an indispensable element for hosting a successful Olympic Games and an important part of the Olympic cultural heritage.

"Songs are an effective carrier for crossing cultural and linguistic barriers and transmitting ideas. A beautiful melody that is easy to imitate and hum not only makes it easy for people to associate with the events associated with it, but also easily evokes memories of a beautiful experience and era. Yu Yunquan said that "Beijing Welcomes You" and "Me and You" will remind people of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the hospitable, kind and simple people of the host country.

"We are pleased to see that more than 30 days after its release, the theme slogan promotion song 'Together for the Future' for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games has opened a loop mode in the streets and alleys of Beijing, and I believe it will soon be widely disseminated in other parts of the country and even the world." Yu Yunquan added.

Yu Yunquan analyzed that in the years and decades after the end of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and The Winter Paralympic Games, people will hum this melody, and even dance with this melody, and then think of "going to the future together". This represents another solid step towards hosting an extraordinary Olympic event.

The reason why the main song "Together to the Future" can be widely disseminated is that Yunquan seems to have three reasons: First, the song itself closely follows the slogan of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games - together for a shared future. This slogan, whether Chinese or In English, is concise, catchy, easy to recite, and easy to spread. "In particular, in the context of the still global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the slogan not only embodies the Olympic spirit, but also embodies the common pursuit of the people around the world to unite to overcome the difficulties in front of them and build a better future together."

Second, the song has a strong sense of rhythm, and the presentation form not only reflects the struggle process of Olympic athletes striving to be the first on the field, but also is very suitable for combining with popular dance forms such as street dance and square dance to attract more people to participate in it. At the same time, the song was released with a dynamic, fashionable and cool, simple and easy to learn "gesture dance", and the combination of song and action brought people a comprehensive, three-dimensional and immersive participation experience, so that this melody has a "magic" across regions.

Third, in terms of promotion methods, people from all regions, fields, and units were invited to perform this song, and then they were edited and gathered together, and in terms of form and action, the concepts of "together" and "together" were once again strengthened, which can be called the unity of form and god, knowledge and action.

Zhong Jiali, a senior majoring in mineral processing engineering at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering of China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) and a volunteer in the Beijing Olympic Park Public Area for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Source: Courtesy of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee

Zhong Jiali told the "Strong Observation" column that he was originally influenced by his parents and grandparents, and he had a special affection for notes since he was a child. When the 2008 Beijing Olympics were successfully held, Zhong Jiali was only 8 years old, and although she could not understand what the "Olympics" was at that time, the song "Welcome to Beijing" fascinated her and has been echoing in her mind for many years. During the volunteer training at China University of Mining and Technology, Zhong Jiali undertook some important tasks, and this Sichuan Yibin girl who could sing and dance served as an auxiliary teaching work for the "Winter Olympic Imprint" documentary program, and also helped the students complete the filming of the "Together to the Future" gesture dance documentary in 3 days.

Beijing Winter Olympics, how to let more people leave a double Olympic element in their memories? Yu Yunquan believes that the theme slogan of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, "One World, One Dream", is still remembered to this day. In 2022, Beijing will become the first city in the world to host both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. The slogan of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics "Together to the Future" is not only in line with the slogan of the 2008 Olympic Games, but also upgraded according to the characteristics of our current era, with rich connotations of the times, and is another Chinese imprint left by Beijing as a "city of double Olympics" to the Olympic Movement.

How many meanings does the Slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics convey to the world? Yu Yunquan pointed out that from the perspective of words, the five-word slogan is more concise and condensed than the ten-word slogan. In terms of English translation, slogans are also more exquisite, the slogan in 2008 is ten Chinese words corresponding to four English words, and the slogan in 2022 is five Chinese words corresponding to five English words.

From the perspective of discourse, "one world, one dream" is mainly to use our words to describe the state of globalization to the world and express the desire for the unity of the world. In "Together to the Future", "together" is the Olympic motto officially added by the IOC in July this year, and "Toward the Future" jumps out of the present and looks to the future.

"So, this slogan is a global discourse that expresses the common desire of the world to overcome the immediate difficulties in the context of the pandemic and calls for practical action to do so." Yu Yunquan said.