"To this day, that quiet touch still haunts my heart, and the glimmer of hope is like the snowflake flame..." Talking about the feeling of watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the "Bird's Nest" on the evening of February 4, Gongyan Maba, a foreign expert at the School of Foreign Chinese of Peking University and the former editor-in-chief of Japan's Iwanami Bookstore, still can't let go of it for a long time.
"In a person's life, there are very few opportunities to experience a historic moment. At the 'Bird's Nest', I had the privilege of witnessing miracles on the spot. ”
The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were the first Games in Asia to be held. At that time, Baba Kohiko was only 6 years old. On the eve of the opening of that Olympic Games, Japan opened the world's first high-speed rail Shinkansen. At the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, the outstanding performance of the Japanese ski jumping team gave Kohiko Baba his first taste of winter sports. The 1998 Winter Olympics were held in his hometown of Nagano Prefecture. In the summer of 2021, Tokyo hosted the Olympic Games again.
"After the Tokyo Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics are also facing a huge test of the epidemic. Organizers need to ensure safety while bringing people the same experience as previous events. "2022 is also the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Diplomatic Relations between China and Japan, and Gongyan Machang watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics with a different kind of feeling.
The world-renowned opening ceremony fascinated Racecourse from the very beginning. "The plan for the countdown to the twenty-four solar terms coincides with the 24th Winter Olympics, which coincided with spring. The matrix performance with the luminous pole in hand and the sight of rice seedlings blowing with the wind made the Japanese people who also belong to the farming culture feel the breath of revival of all things and the lush vegetation. Next, the white dandelion seeds in the hands of the children are reminiscent of the vitality of early spring. ”
Like many foreign audiences, Racecourse Did not understand at first how the order of entry of delegations from various countries was determined during the athletes' admission process. Through WeChat to ask the reporter friends at the scene, he knew that it was based on the order of strokes of the Chinese Simplified.
In the midst of the fusion of lighting, color and music, the fireworks display led by Cai Guoqiang brought a visual feast to the audience. The enthusiasm and enthusiastic cheers in the venue made people feel doubly excited and moved. Maba Said that the audience in front of the TV may not feel as deeply as watching it live, but the audience really can't enjoy the extraordinary visual effects of computer animation technology on the TV screen.
Of all the programs at the opening ceremony, the one that moved Kohiko The Racecourse the most was "Tribute to the People". In the song of "Let the World Be Full of Love", young people dressed in different costumes walk side by side. The floor screen stitches together colorful scenes of life around the world, slowly sliding down their feet like a river. Among them are students from Peking University. With the singing of Imagine, skaters draw beautiful geometric patterns in the field. Kohiko Baba believes that diversity is also one of the keynotes of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games in the summer of 2021, and deliberately emphasizes "individual personalities with different characteristics". The Beijing Winter Olympics conveyed "unity of diversity" and "orderly diversity."
Maba said the slogan of the Beijing Winter Olympics ,"Together for a Shared Future" was full of meaning. Especially in English slogans, "future" is preceded by "a" instead of "the", which means that the form of "future" is not unique or fixed. At the same time, such a "future" is not individualized, but can be "shared", which contains a vision that can be accepted by everyone and can be walked for.
The surprise of the opening ceremony for the Japanese scholar lasted from the beginning to the end. He confessed that at first he did not even understand why the main torch of the venue was "not lit" in the end. After the opening ceremony, I watched the interpretation of the general director Zhang Yimou in the interview, and only then did I understand the meaning of "one leaf knowing autumn". "By igniting the invisible fire, we convey to the world the common issue of humanity – the realization of a low-carbon society."
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a spectacular performance that condensed 5,000 years of China's history deeply shocked Gongyan. He remembers the fireworks that took off at that time almost illuminated the entire city of Beijing, and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics changed a style. He said that in addition to the gorgeous performance supported by computer animation technology, the overall look and feel of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is simple, humble and kind. He and the foreign teachers at Peking University around him can easily blend in and experience a sense of closeness that transcends nationality and ethnicity.