The male companion is the mountain, the female companion is the water, the two people are dressed in green landscapes, accompanied by a tune full of Chinese style, dancing, showing the world a flexible "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". On February 7, this moving performance of Chinese figure skaters Wang Shiyue / Liu Xinyu caused many audiences to admire the beauty of Chinese culture, and some netizens sighed: The ubiquitous Chinese romance makes the world dazzling!
Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu's competition costume with "green waist" (Source: Beijing News)
Indeed, "everywhere" is exactly what Chinese elements are characteristic of in this Winter Olympics. Taking the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics as an example, in addition to reproducing the grand scenes of poems such as "The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a seat" and "the water of the Yellow River comes up in the sky", netizens also found many unique cultural "Easter eggs". For example, in the "Five Rings of Ice and Snow", when the ink is transformed into the water of the Yellow River pouring down, the "Chinese Gate" and "Chinese Window" that the athletes walk through are all based on the classic traditional door and window patterns from all over China, so that the audience has the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the traditional Chinese window. The inspiration for the torch relay tinder lamp is taken from the "first lamp in China" of the Western Han Dynasty Changxin Palace lamp, which is not only in line with the environmental protection concept of the Changxin Palace lamp, but also echoes the ingenuity of the torch becoming "small" at the opening ceremony.
The design and excavation of these cultural "Easter eggs" have made countless domestic and foreign audiences gain a kind of "original" knowledge fun. They also allude to the all-encompassing and profound characteristics of Chinese culture. Each "Easter egg" is like opening a window into the wonderful world for the audience, leading people to explore the philosophical, world, aesthetic and life views behind the symbols of different cultures.
The "Ruixue Xiangyun" hat design with "almost immovable scissors" reflects the "cherishing things" concept of traditional Chinese costumes; the color of conveying the traditional Chinese aesthetic interest is used to design the award dress; the ancient Chinese astronomical map "Seven Balances and Six Rooms" is integrated into the medal, showing China's pursuit of "Tianwen" since ancient times... It is not difficult to see that behind these designs, it is by no means a shallow and blunt pile of cultural elements, but a sense of thinking extension and cultural depth, inviting people around the world to feel the charm of Chinese culture in a way that is exhausted.
Winter Olympics-themed paper-cutting (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
To achieve this, we must first of all be inseparable from our own cultural self-awareness and cultural self-confidence. The reason is very simple: if Chinese performers and designers themselves only have a shallow taste and a half-understanding of traditional culture, how can they tell the essence of it and show the charm of Chinese culture in a simple and simple way? As many people lament: the love of traditional culture can be "contagious". Behind every ingenious cultural "Easter egg", it is actually the designer's inheritance and innovation of traditional culture, pinning our firm confidence and sincere love for Chinese culture.
In this Winter Olympics, the profound Chinese cultural elements can arouse heated discussions, be picked up by more foreign audiences, and also reflect the reality that China actively embraces the world, integrates into the world, and is more and more familiar to the world. Chen Lu, the first world champion of Chinese figure skating, once recalled that in the 1990s, the introduction of Chinese-style music and performances on the world figure skating stage was still a rather "risky" decision. Because the referees at that time were mostly Westerners and had a limited understanding of Eastern culture, the hasty introduction of Chinese-style performances may be ignored and cannot resonate with the audience.
Nowadays, whether it is the reality that Chinese style performances on the figure skating stage are becoming more and more common, or the interesting stories of foreign athletes writing Spring Festival leagues with brushes during the Winter Olympic Games, it reflects that China is no longer a distant and unfamiliar country, China's image has become more vivid and three-dimensional, and Chinese culture is being understood, known and loved by more and more people in the world.
Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics, once said that every minute of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is actually full of Chinese culture. Now it seems that as far as the entire Beijing Winter Olympics is concerned, it may also be "full of Chinese culture". It is believed that this Winter Olympics, which is full of cultural "Easter eggs", will surely become an opportunity for more people to "enter the pit" of Chinese culture.
Written by Ren Guanqing
Editor/Shuai Huang
Source: China Youth Daily client