Wenhui Times commented | create a legend of "unity" in the contemporary world on the Olympic arena and stage

On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the "Salute to the People" session at the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Xu

There is no ignition ceremony, no raging fire, the huge snowflakes composed of the guidance boards of the various delegations are the torch platform, the Olympic torch is passed from Mount Olympia to Beijing, and the last torch is the main torch of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a 20-year-old girl and a 21-year-old boy work together to place this light fire into a huge snowflake surrounded by olive branches - the fire is not extinguished, it is endless. This extremely concise and completely subversive ignition ceremony will surely be recorded in the annals of the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics ended at this moment, with an endless aftertaste, and the general director Zhang Yimou and the entire opening ceremony team have since created a new Olympic narrative.

In previous interviews, Zhang Yimou stressed more than once that nearly 14 years have passed since the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics to this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, and he is eager to express "a different us" through the opening ceremony. In the summer of 2008, the "footprint fireworks" along the central axis of Beijing's ancient city are still vividly remembered, and the brilliant opening statement establishes the identity of "me" with the achievements of the splendid ancient civilization. At the turn of winter and spring in 2022, the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics coincides with Lichun, which is the first of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar. The countdown to the opening ceremony introduces the cycle of twenty-four solar terms, starting with "rain" and ending with "standing spring", the cycle of the four seasons, and spring is both the moment of the end and the moment of the beginning. Spring rain sneaks into the night, the wind blows a city of flowers, wheat rice beauty, Ling song long, lotus wind sends incense, bamboo dew sounds... The countdown to these long-term pictures and ancient poems is a creative idea that amazes everyone, just like people lament on social networks, which is authentic Chinese romance.

Chinese romance means that the sense of identity of Chinese culture shifts from a figurative "achievement of civilization" to a lyrical spiritual level. Spring, summer, autumn, winter and spring, the writing and association related to the twenty-four solar terms are not only romantic rhetoric, but also carry the view of nature, life and values in Chinese culture. Spring returns to the earth, green miscanthus is covered with bird's nests, swallows fly butterfly dance, dandelions scattered in the night sky - these simple and innocent images created with advanced visual technology, with the green atmosphere that comes to the face, convey the concept of "integration with nature", the contemporary concept of low-carbon environmental protection, in fact, and the spiritual belief of traditional culture. Seeing the huge light and shadow screen in Beijing's cold spring night presenting the landscape of "the water of the Yellow River rising from the sky", watching the big river rushing, and hearing the little boy blowing out the melody of "My Motherland and Me" with a trumpet, it was a heartwarming moment - the reason why we are "we" is shaped by the wind and moon of this mountain and river and the endless culture.

The creative team of the opening ceremony has repeatedly emphasized "the first of visual technology", but the real moving power of scientific and technological aesthetics is not necessarily the spectacle of the field, but the most simple and simplest scenes that look the most simple and simple, and express the most precious beliefs with silent high technology. The crystalline five rings were born from the ice cube, representing the snow flakes of each participating delegation, gathered one by one, surrounded by olive branches, and gathered into a huge snowflake, which and the five rings of ice crystals reflected each other, forming the situation of "ice fairy tale". This opening ceremony tells the story of "a snowflake", an Olympic fairy tale in which many different snowflakes are spliced together into "one", and a legend of "unity" in the contemporary world on the Olympic arena and stage. As IOC President Bach said in his speech, the Chinese Lunar Year of the Tiger symbolizes courage and strength, in a world that has become fragile because of division, suspicion and conflict, true courage and strength come from mutual respect, the olympic mission is to unite people in competition, and the ideal of the Beijing Winter Olympics is to preserve diversity and give peace a chance in mutual understanding.

With the song of "Let the World Be Full of Love", the long river of images shows the lives and struggles of ordinary people, and shows everyone's Olympia. The light figures of speed skaters skimmed over the nest, and the traces of the ice surface became the Olympic motto, faster, higher, stronger, more united. This scene, restrained and simple, seems to speak of sports, culture and technology, the ultimate power of which is to protect innocent and healthy human nature – the simpler the simpler, the more precious.

Author: Liu Qing

Editor: Su Zhan