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On January 6, the central broadcast network shanghai news (reporter Lin Fuyu) a few days ago, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Olympics award elements were officially released. Among them, the bouquet of awards at the Beijing Winter Olympics will no longer use fresh cut flowers, but will use a bunch of velvet flowers crocheted from the intangible cultural heritage - Haipai velvet knotting technique. As one of the leaders of this bouquet knitting project, Li Meili, the shanghai municipal inheritor of the "Haipai Velvet Knotting Technique" and the Hengyuan Xiang Velvet Knotted Engineer, said that she was very proud after learning the news of the official announcement of the award bouquet, and also fulfilled her "Olympic dream".
2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Awards Bouquet (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
The Bouquet of flowers awarded at the Winter Olympics includes roses, moon seasons, bell orchids, hydrangeas, laurel and olives, which symbolize friendship, tenacity, happiness, unity, victory and peace. In the Bouquet of the Winter Paralympic Awards, a blue cosmos was added to symbolize strength. The flowers are shaped and bundled into bouquets with a height of 34 cm and a chest diameter of 24 cm.
On the ribbon ribbon of the bouquet handle, the words "BEIJING2022" are printed. The bouquet is provided by Hengyuanxiang Group, the official sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and also the inheritor of the "Haipai Velvet Thread Weaving Technique".
Knotting is one of the oldest handicrafts of mankind. More than 100 years ago, the art of velvet weaving mainly entered China's coastal cities from Europe. In 2009, the "Haipai Velvet Thread Weaving Technique" was included in the list of representative items of Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage by the municipal government.
It is understood that it takes 20 minutes to knot a rose petal, a rose is composed of 10 petals, plus 3 leaves and flower stems, and only one rose requires a knottist to spend at least 5 hours. Also, because the flowers are different and the techniques are different, it takes up to 35 hours to complete a beautiful bouquet.
The Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games awards shared 1251 bouquets, with a total of 16731 flowers, and the production time of all bouquets will be close to 50,000 hours.
After receiving the task in June last year, Li Meimei and the project team began the design of the flower type, the selection of flower materials and other preparatory work, after countless times of revision and review, until the beginning of October last year, the final draft was finalized, and it was recognized by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. "The bouquet shape and overall color scheme we see now are designed to fit the emblem of the Winter Olympics." Li Mei said.
Li Meimei and the project team members are rushing to assemble the bouquet day and night (Photo by Lin Fuyu, a reporter of the Central Broadcasting Network)
In order to complete this task and create conditions for more people to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Hengyuanxiang Group, with the support of the All-China Women's Federation and other organizations, mobilized the joint participation of seven provinces and cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces and cities, of which the bouquet of the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games was mainly completed by the China Welfare Foundation for the Disabled. Li Meimei is mainly responsible for the design, training, quality control and final assembly of the award bouquet. Li Meimei said: "We can show the most perfect bouquet at the Olympic Games, which is inseparable from the support of the team and the efforts of everyone. ”
Because of the impact of the epidemic, Li Meimei cannot go to local knitting institutions for on-site training, and can only be carried out through recording videos and online classes. Finally, after the flower materials responsible for each place were summarized in Shanghai, she had to check the quality one by one, and then tie them into a bouquet according to the sample.
Li Meimei is guiding the project team members to bundle the bouquet (photo provided by the interviewee)
The 70-year-old Li Meimei has been involved in the velvet knitting industry for 20 years. Before that, Li Meimei did the work of magazine editing. Because of her interest, after retirement, she began to devote herself to fleece knitting.
"Doing magazines involves interviewing everywhere and dealing with people. But the knotting of the velvet thread is the complete opposite, and you need to calm down, to be able to sit still, to sink your heart. When I first started making velvet flowers, I started almost from scratch. At that time, I thought, either don't do it, or do it to the best. Li Mei said.
At present, Li Meimei and the project team members are rushing to work day and night to ensure that all the bouquets are assembled by January 14, and the "flowers that never fade" are smoothly delivered to the award venues of the Winter Olympic Games, adding color to the award-winning athletes from all over the world.