People say that this year's romance began with the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. And the romance of the opening ceremony began with the countdown to the 24 solar terms. It harmoniously unifies the phenological civilization of Chinese, the poetry that has been passed down for a long time, and the picture of modern life. Of the 24 countdowns seen by the audience, only "countdown to 24 rains" to "countdown to 11 white dew" is an ancient poem to illustrate the mood of the solar terms. However, Yu Lei, the chief writer of literature at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, revealed in an interview with reporters on February 8 that in fact, the 24 solar terms are accompanied by ancient poems or sayings.
The last 10 solar terms have poetry
Yu Lei said: "It was not until less than a month before the opening ceremony, considering that the countdown of the last 10 numbers was to be accelerated, and the audience shouted that the atmosphere of the countdown was better, that the remaining 10 ancient poems and sayings were painfully removed." ”
Yu Lei is the general director of "National Treasure" of China Central Radio and Television Corporation, and in her computer, there are more than 600 documents, recording the polishing process of the team's creative ideas in the past three years. "A lot of ideas have been locked in more than two years ago, and a little bit of polishing and practicing to make it more and more beautiful is a particularly precious process." She said that the text session of the 24-solar countdown began with three versions of the plan. "They are the direction of ancient poetry, the direction of phenology and folklore, and the direction of contemporary language."
The earliest picture determined by director Zhang Yimou to match the countdown to the 24 solar terms is a photo of the "Central Plains Land Aircraft Carrier" circulating on the Internet - Zhengzhou East EMU in the Zhengzhou EMU Section. The picture was filmed in the early hours of the morning, the lights on the storage line of the EMU were bright, and the high-speed train on the "aircraft carrier deck" was ready to go. This picture made the creative team suddenly think of the saying that describes the sting: "Spring thunder, all things grow". This gave Yu Lei inspiration, no matter which plan, we must try to have a sense of picture. "Ancient poetry must also try to choose familiar famous sentences. And a poem may not be used in its entirety, but only take the sentence that best expresses the solar terms and the most picturesque sense. Yu Lei said, for example, the valley rain festival, could have used Zheng Banqiao's "just Qingming lian gu rain, a cup of fragrant tea sitting in the middle", but when shooting the production of the picture, it always felt less than ideal, and later replaced it with Huang Tingjian's "wind and rain washing a city of flowers", and this exaggerated expression of poetry was used to create a sense of magic and futurism of the picture.
Famous sentences such as "sneaking into the night with the wind, moisturizing things are silent" and "raining during the Qingming Festival" were quickly finalized. The director group is also increasingly inclined to choose the ancient poetry scheme. In order to more accurately explain the 24 solar terms, in August 2021, the literary creation team also invited experts in poetry, cultural history, meteorology, folklore and other aspects to hold a seminar to check the ancient poems selected by the creation team. The phenology of the big summer, the small summer, and the summer solstice are very close, and the poems are not easy to choose. Finally, experts proposed that the ancient poem "The night of the opening of the laurel wheel, when the fireworks shine in the air" for the summer, the sense of picture came out at once.
The most valuable idea of the opening ceremony
"The 24 solar terms are a natural time cycle and a year of preparation for athletes." Yu Lei said that so the audience can see the athlete's figure in many pictures of the 24 solar terms, or the realistic style, or the magic style. For example, when the poem "As for this, small is full" with the poem "As for this thing", the picture is matched with the sweat of the young athletes during training. "In the small full season, the grain is gradually full, and after a while it can be harvested, and the young athletes are like the grain that gradually becomes fuller." Yu Lei said that the "heavenly steps are as cool as water at night, sitting and watching the morning glory Weaver Star" of the Liqiu Festival, accompanied by a group of double figure skaters dancing in the background of space. The picture accompanying "Rain during the Qingming Dynasty" shows a combination of tents and skis on the top of the snow-capped mountains, which looks like a black canopy boat in Jiangnan during the Qingming Dynasty.
"We incorporate a wealth of expressions, including emotions, philosophies, histories of Chinese, and our gesture toward nature and our relationship with the world." Today, Yu Lei has been involved in the preparation of the countdown to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. She remembered that when the creative group met to discuss until the middle of the night, director Zhang Yimou said: "The most valuable ideas in the opening ceremony are the 24 solar terms countdown and ancient poems that cannot be abandoned." It may be difficult to encounter any country that uses its ancient poetry as a countdown to an international event. And these poems are still being learned when children are enlightened, and culture is being passed down from generation to generation. ”
Courtesy of Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group Co., Ltd
For more information, stay tuned to the Winter Olympics.
Source Client The Winter Olympics | Reporter Li Yang
Editor: Han Ye
Process Editor Tai Shaofeng