"Olympic Culture Long Volume III": a beautiful picture showing the community of human destiny

Author: Lou Xiaoqi (President and Editor-in-Chief of Civilization Magazine, Scholar of Olympic Culture Studies)

On the morning of February 4, 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay Ceremony was held in the South Park of Beijing Olympic Forest Park, and the end of the torch relay was the world's first "Olympic Declaration Square". IOC President Thomas Bach and President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Abdullah Shahid held a torch handover at the "Olympic Declaration Square" in Beijing, which culminated in the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay Ceremony. The meeting of the Olympic Games and the Spring Festival in Beijing, the world's first "city of the Two Olympics", is the fate of Eastern and Western civilizations, and the "Olympic + Spring Festival" is a celebration of humanity that the world looks forward to a better future.

IOC President Bach, former UN Secretary-General and IOC Ethics Committee Chairman Ban Ki-moon, President of the 76th UN General Assembly Abdullah Shahid, China's first speed skating Olympic champion and IOC Athletes Committee member Zhang Hong and other members from the "Olympic family" participated in the torch relay ceremony.

The "Olympic Declaration Square" is the central symbol of the spread of modern Olympic culture, and it has once again become the focus of the world in the final torch relay before the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. After passing the torch in the Olympic Declaration Square, President Bach said: "The message of the Olympic torch relay is unity and recovery. It shows that even in the current situation of the epidemic, we can unite and seek common ground while reserving differences. ”

IOC President Thomas Bach (left) and President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdullah Shahid, carry out a torch relay for the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4 at the Beijing Olympic Forest Park. Xinhua News Agency

The design of the "Olympic Declaration Square": the hand in hand between traditional Chinese culture and the Olympic Games

In 781 AD, in the second year of Tang Dezong's jianzhong, on the square of the Great Qin Temple in Chang'an, the "Monument to the Popular Chinese Of the Great Qin Jingjiao" was erected. The inscription is 1780 words. It records the activities and propagation of the teachings of the Great Qin Jing Sect from Persia to China during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the establishment of monasteries in Chang'an. There are inscriptions in Syriac under and on both sides of the stele. This is a major historical fact in the history of world civilization exchanges, marking the height and depth of civilization exchanges in Eurasia. Great Qin is the collective name for the countries of the Mediterranean civilization circle Chinese the Han and Tang dynasties.

More than 1,000 years later, in June 2012, the "Olympic Declaration Square" was built on the shores of the beautiful Ojai Lake in the Olympic Park, which extends north of the central axis of Beijing.

The "Olympic Declaration Square" is the central symbol of the spread of modern Olympic culture and the display center of the "Olympic Cultural Long Scroll". It was established to commemorate coubertin's historic Olympic Manifesto speech delivered at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, on November 25, 1892. In that speech, Coubertin proposed the "revival of the Olympic Movement" and for the first time laid out the vision of "making the world a better place through sport". Today, the Olympic Declaration has been identified by the International Olympic Committee as the starting point for the modern Olympic movement.

The design of "Olympic Declaration Square" is inspired by the concept of "heavenly circle place" in traditional Chinese culture, and the shape is five concentric circles, forming a pattern of centripetal cohesion in the five rings. The northern radius of the outer circle is composed of three curved bronze tablets with a total length of 29 meters, which constitute the carrier of the Olympic Declaration in French, Chinese and English. Chinese the arc-shaped monument of the Olympic Declaration is centered, and the main monument of the five-ring relief is erected. The five-ring relief is carved on both sides of the back, with the relief images of Coubertin, the father of the Olympic Games, and Logue, the president of the International Olympic Committee at the time. The curved stele under the main monument of the five-ring relief is facing the public in the form of open arms.

On the shore of Olympian Lake in the Olympic Forest Park, the green space of the Olympic Declaration Square is gradually introduced into the sunken structure square with the gradual progression of five concentric circles, which shows the solemnity and sublimity of the declaration carrier due to the gradual change of the place difference. The stele uses the bronze "inscription" and carving method of Chinese goldstone culture to highlight the thickness of the Olympic Games, and also uses relief to express the beautiful form of traditional Chinese cloud patterns, forming a unique Olympic cultural environment atmosphere with atmosphere and dynamic feeling, as the carrier of Olympic cultural heritage and Olympic cultural inheritance, forming a special landmark landscape of the global Olympic cultural communication and interaction center.

"Olympic Declaration Plaza" and "Olympic Culture Long Scroll": The Double Bi in the Modern Olympic Culture Communication System

The history of the completion of the "Olympic Declaration Square" in Beijing is also the history of the construction of the modern Olympic cultural inheritance and dissemination system. Eighteen years ago, in 2004, the Athens Torch Relay was the first global relay of the Olympic torch and the first time the Olympic flame reached Beijing. "Passing the torch and connecting the world", since that year, the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and the "Civilization" magazine have shouldered the sacred mission of the olympic cultural innovation and inheritance, planned and designed the "Olympic Declaration Square" and the "Olympic Culture Scroll" connecting the Olympic family ties with the purpose of sports to make the world better, and opened the exploration and practice of building the Olympic cultural system for the future.

On June 23, 2012, under the guidance and promotion of President Rogge and the International Olympic Committee, the world's first "Olympic Declaration Plaza" was exclusively authorized by the International Olympic Committee and approved by the Beijing Municipal Government, and was built by the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and Civilization Magazine on the shore of Ojai Lake in Beijing Olympic Forest Park.

As the center of the dissemination of modern Olympic culture, the "Olympic Declaration Square" launched the "Olympic Culture Long Volume I", and the world's first "Olympic Culture Long Volume" has since become a link between the Olympic family and the world's youth.

In his inscription to the Olympic Declaration Square and the preface entitled "Let the Olympic Declaration Spread from Beijing to the World", which was written for the Olympic Culture Volume I.

On January 1, 2008, the famous "Civilization" magazine launched the Chinese and exclusively published the Olympic Declaration in English and French. As an important historical document, Pierre de Coubertin publicly proposed and explained for the first time in the Olympic Declaration the plan for the revival of the Olympic Games.

Today, Civilization magazine has let the Olympic Declaration remain in Beijing forever in the fixed way of "Olympic Declaration Square", and at the same time spread to the world in a way rich in Chinese cultural characteristics. The Olympic Declaration will be transmitted from Beijing to London on the eve of the London Olympic Games, connecting two different cities, two different countries and two different cultures to share the same Olympic ideas and cultures. From Beijing to London, to every city hosting the Olympic Games in the future, the Olympic Declaration is undoubtedly an important carrier and way to spread the Olympic concept.

In May 2013, the Olympic Cultural Volume II was launched, and the then President of the International Olympic Committee, Rogge, in his preface to the Olympic Cultural Volume II, stated:

The spread of the Olympic spirit does not end with the end of the Olympic games, it will spread from one Olympic city to another, as Pierre de Coubertin said, "The Olympic Games are not a competition, but a cultural exchange and integration that originates from the heart".

On November 25, 1892, Coubertin issued his famous Olympic Manifesto at the Sorbonne University, in which he declared to the world: "I will pursue unremittingly a great and beneficial cause based on the conditions of modern life: the revival of the Olympic movement." Since then, the Olympic Games have gradually developed into a world stage. Here, young people happily share friendship and display their talents, perfectly interpreting the Olympic Charter's statement that "everyone should enjoy the possibility of playing sports without discrimination of any kind and embody the Olympic spirit of mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair competition".

The Olympic Games, held every four years, are a grand gathering of the world's best athletes to compete peacefully, a grand event that integrates sports, education and culture, a grand event that shows the value of Olympic culture and sportsmanship, and a grand event in which young people from all over the world, regardless of color, regardless of country, regardless of gender, regardless of nobility, participate and share together. These are all manifestations of the core values of the Olympic spirit. Beyond the competition itself, the Olympic Games have awakened the dreams and inspirations of young people around the world. Through sports, they convey the good wishes of making the world more peaceful.

During the London Olympic Games, the "Olympic Declaration for the Dissemination of Global Civilization" jointly sponsored by the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and Civilization Magazine successfully launched the "Olympic Declaration - Beautiful Olympic Culture Long Volume I.". This activity is a pioneering event in the history of the Olympic Games, which takes Beijing as the center and starting point, takes the Olympic Declaration as the carrier, integrates Chinese culture with world culture, enriches and develops the Olympic culture, and opens up a new way to promote the development of the Olympic Games.

In 2013, we ushered in the second phase of the "Global Civilization Dissemination of the Olympic Declaration". The launch of the "Olympic Declaration - Beautiful Olympic Culture Volume II." has enabled more young people around the world to be inspired by the Olympic spirit, participate in the dissemination of Olympic culture, and share the beauty of Olympic culture in the process of dissemination.

"Olympic Culture Long Volume III" is the "gold medal" of Olympic cultural heritage

Ten years after the completion of the "Olympic Declaration Square" in January 2022, before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and civilization magazine launched the latest achievements in the inheritance of Olympic culture: the "Olympic Culture Long Volume III" as a beautiful picture of the community with a shared future for mankind. The world's youth represented by millions of college students in Beijing and overseas Chinese associations and people from nearly 100 countries, such as the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Poland, Canada, Italy, and Australia, have participated in the hand-in-hand transmission of the "Olympic Culture Long Scroll III" network, pushing the "Olympic Declaration" global civilization dissemination activities to a new climax.

On 23 June 2021, President Bach emphasized in his preface to the Long Volume of Olympic Culture III: "The Olympic Manifesto is the starting point of the modern Olympic movement, and Coubertin's vision of making the world a better place through the revival of the Olympic Movement has always been the core philosophy followed by the IOC. ”

"Olympic Culture Long Volume III" shows the development process of the modern Olympic movement in 130 years and presents the civilization fate of the Olympic family composed of 23 Olympic host countries and 43 Olympic cities gathering in the "Olympic + Spring Festival", the left side of the long scroll begins with Paris, France, the starting point of the modern Olympic Movement, and the right side begins with the ancient Olympic origin and Athens, Greece, where the first modern Olympic Games were held, and the left and right sides eventually converge to the middle part of the long scroll and the "Olympic Declaration Square" in Beijing, China "As well as the Olympic family formed by 206 national and regional Olympic committees and the Chinese New Year." The long scroll as a whole presents the Olympic cultural inheritance system jointly constructed by Athens in Greece, Paris in France and Beijing in China, and the "Olympic + Spring Festival" is a beautiful landscape that the world looks forward to and celebrates together to the future.

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Olympic Culture Volume III is the result of the human celebration presented by the East and West civilizations facing each other, the "Olympic + Spring Festival" and the community of human destiny in which the Eastern and Western civilizations have exchanged and learned from each other and dialogued civilizations in the past two thousand years. As the carrier and link of the integration and dissemination of human civilization jointly created by the Olympic family and young people who love the Olympic Movement all over the world, it has become the "gold medal" of the Olympic cultural inheritance.

On June 23, 2021, before his death, IOC Honorary President Rogge finally wrote a preface entitled "Creating a Better Future for Young People" for the Olympic Culture Volume III, which is his last words for the inheritance of Olympic culture and the construction of the Olympic cultural system.

Logue emphasizes:

For all those who love sports and uphold the Olympic spirit, the Olympic Manifesto – The Beautiful Olympic Culture Volume III" is a fascinating journey through Olympic culture. While demonstrating the core Olympic values of excellence, friendship, respect and solidarity, it also reminds us of the importance of these values in the life of society. We live in times of uncertainty in which these values are especially important.

Today, more than ever, we have a responsibility to create a better future for young people, and sport and its values are the way to create that future. Sport has a powerful impact on enabling young people to learn about people-centred Olympic values through participation in sport, which in turn shapes their inner character and the communities in which they live. If young people can learn to respect each other in sports, then they will also bring that respect into their daily lives.

Working with the Olympic family for the future

Since its inception in 2001, Civilization has been authorized by the International Olympic Committee for many times in the past 20 years, and has successively launched the first set of "International Olympic Culture Readers" to the world, the world's first "Olympic Declaration" in three languages, the world's first "Olympic Declaration Square" and the "Olympic Culture Long Volume I., II., III" jointly launched with the International Olympic Committee.

These are not only important carriers for the construction of the modern Olympic cultural system, but also an important Olympic cultural heritage left to the world by Beijing, the "City of The Two Olympics". It incorporates the painstaking efforts of Samaranch, Logue and Bach, the three IOC presidents, and is supported by the Olympic family. Especially during Logue's presidency of the International Olympic Committee, under the guidance of President Logue, the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and civilization magazine completed the thinking, formation and launch of the world's first "Olympic Declaration Square" and the "Olympic Culture Long Volume" (series).

At present, Civilization has become an international high-end think tank-type communication platform, and has become a jointly recognized partner of UNESCO and the embassies in China in more than 60 countries.

Today, China has entered a new era of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the IOC and Civilization magazine have joined hands to jointly complete the great mission of "passing on the basic values and world outlook of mankind to young people with the help of the Olympic Movement, so that they can live a better life, build a better society, and make the Olympic Games a grand event for all mankind" by launching the "Olympic Culture Volume (Series)" that tells the great vision of Coubertin's revival of the Olympic Movement. "China will continue to write a glorious chapter in the history of the Olympic Movement, and Civilization magazine will continue to play a unique and important role in this regard." IOC President Thomas Bach wrote.

Beijing, the world's first "Double Olympic City", as the location of the world's first "Olympic Declaration Square" and the founding place of the "Olympic Culture Long Volume", will use these two most dynamic platforms and ties for the inheritance of Olympic culture to integrate Chinese culture with world culture, enrich and develop Olympic culture, and make it the commanding heights of China's international communication power.

As the central symbol of Olympic cultural dissemination and the "Olympic Culture Long Scroll", as a mobile and interactive platform for the dissemination of modern Olympic culture, the "Olympic Declaration Square" will simultaneously show the unique and fashionable humanistic charm of Chinese culture to the world, let the world feel and share the diversity and richness of human culture from Beijing, and realize the beautiful vision of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Guangming Daily ( 2022.02.24 12th edition)