At the award ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the bouquet of flowers held by the athletes was eye-catching. Unlike previous Olympic flowers, this bouquet is hand-woven velvet flowers.
On the 8th, the champion China's Gu Ailing (center), the runner-up France's Tess Ludd (left) and the third runner-up Switzerland's Mathilde Greymould were presented at the medal presentation ceremony. Photo by Ju Huanzong (Xinhua News Agency)
"We have crocheted into a bouquet of flowers using the intangible cultural heritage 'Haipai Velvet Thread Weaving Technique', which neither withers nor withers, and can become a lasting memorial." Chen Zhongwei, chairman and general manager of Hengyuanxiang Group, introduced that the bouquet height of 34 cm, the chest diameter of 24 cm, the bow ribbon of the handle is printed with the word "BEIJING2022", the overall style is fresh and natural, and the main color of the Beijing Winter Olympics is in line, highlighting the distinctive characteristics of ice and snow sports.
Awards bouquet at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (Image source: Hengyuanxiang)
The awarding of symbolic plants on the podium is a long tradition of the Olympic Movement. According to records, the highest prize of the original Olympic Games was the olive branch laurel, symbolizing victory and bringing supreme glory to the athletes. Later, it evolved into a bouquet of flowers in hand, etc. Although the bouquets of flowers in the past awards have different materials, they have reflected the Olympic spirit and the cultural characteristics of the host country and the host city.
The blue ribbon model is the bouquet of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and the gold ribbon model is the bouquet of the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games. (Image source: Hengyuanxiang)
There are seven types of flowers in the bouquet of the Winter Olympic Games, including roses that symbolize friendship, moon seasons that symbolize tenacity, bell orchids that symbolize happiness, hydrangeas that symbolize unity, laurel that symbolizes victory, osmanthus that symbolizes harvest, and olives that symbolize peace. On this basis, the Beijing Winter Paralympic Awards Bouquet has an additional flower material, cosmos, symbolizing freedom and eternal happiness. The selection of these flowers is very exquisite, such as the moon season, it is the protagonist of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games award bouquet, the moon season originated in China, popular in the world, is one of the top ten famous flowers in China, is also the city flower of Beijing, the choice of the moon season and the Beijing Olympic Bouquet echo, showing the cultural heritage of the "City of the Two Olympics"; the choice of olives means to pay tribute to the Olympic tradition.
Some of the flowers in the bouquet of the Beijing Winter Olympics are: hydrangeas, roses, olives, laurel, moon season, and bell orchid. (Image source: Hengyuanxiang)
The Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games awards will use 1251 bouquets, with a total of 16731 flowers. Each flower has leaves and flowers, and is made by hand. In order to complete this glorious task and create conditions for more people to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics, Hengyuanxiang Group, with the support of the All-China Women's Federation and other organizations, mobilized seven places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other seven places to participate in it, of which the bouquet of the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games was mainly completed by the China Welfare Foundation for the Disabled. Each knitting society is responsible for the production of 1 to 2 kinds of flower materials, which are collected and assembled by Hengyuanxiang Group in Shanghai for final assembly.
Li Meimei, the inheritor of Shanghai MunicipalIty and Hengyuan Xiang Velvet Thread Knitting Engineer of "Haipai Velvet Knotting Technique", is one of the leaders of this bouquet knitting project. She introduced that this plan to break down to zero is very scientific. She first designed the knitting drawings of flower materials for the various knotting societies, and then taught and unified everyone's processes and techniques through recording videos and online lectures, and solved various problems encountered in various places in real time by telephone and video.
"After the responsible flower materials from various places are summarized in Shanghai, we check the quality one by one, and then tie them into bouquets according to the sample draft. Although it is handmade, we strive to ensure that each bouquet of flowers is exactly the same. Li Meimei said that the velvet bouquet not only retains the form of the bouquet in the Olympic award ceremony, but also facilitates athletes to carry back to China and preserve it for a long time, practicing the concept of frugality in running the Olympic Games.
(Reporter Li Zhiguo), the original title of "Award Bouquet That Will Not Wither"
Source: Economic Daily