23 June is International Olympic Day. Since 1987, the Chinese Olympic Committee has carried out the celebration of International Olympic Day every year, as an important platform for carrying forward the Olympic spirit, disseminating the Olympic concept and promoting the Olympic culture. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the award bouquet of velvet thread from Shanghai Hengyuanxiang made the "Haipai velvet knitting technique" appear on the world stage and become a messenger of friendship. On the occasion of the International Olympic Day, an experience about intangible cultural heritage allowed young people to understand the deep fate of a thread and the Olympic Games.
The 2023 "Fashion Plan of the Sea of Stars" series of activities jointly planned by Hengyuanxiang and the Movie Channel Media Center - Perception Hengyuanxiang was recently broadcast live on the entire network platform of the Movie Channel Fusion Media Center. Young actor representatives and movie channel hosts walked into the national classic brand Hengyuanxiang to feel the Olympic culture and experience the "Haipai velvet knitting technique".
Hengyuanxiang's intangible cultural heritage embroidery is inextricably linked with the Olympic Games. After officially becoming a sponsor of the Olympic Games, Heng Yuanxiang embroidered a total of 9 velvet embroidered statues for the past and current presidents of the IOC. These included Zemetrius Viquelas, the first IOC president after its creation in 1894, Pierre de Coubertin, the second "Olympic father", as well as Samaranch, Jacques Rogge and Thomas Bach, among others.
In the summer of 2010, Liu Ruiqi, founder of Hengyuanxiang Group, and Chen Zhongwei, chairman of Hengyuanxiang Group, presented Chairman Rogge with one of the carefully embroidered velvet statues for him, and Chairman Rogge greatly appreciated the superb skills of Hengyuanxiang velvet embroidery craftsmen and presented IOC souvenirs to Hengyuanxiang.
In the summer of 2014, IOC President Bach's velvet embroidery ceremony was held in Nanjing, President Bach said that there are many cultures in the world that are in danger of being lost, and Heng Yuanxiang's promotion of the Olympic spirit through the precious skills of the Chinese nation is worthy of recognition. After the needle opening ceremony, Hengyuanxiang's velvet embroiderer took three years to complete the velvet embroidery statue, and Chairman Bach accepted this heavy gift when he visited Hengyuanxiang's Beijing office in 2017.
The velvet award bouquet, which shined on the podium of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was unanimously praised by many athletes and netizens. The award bouquet is crocheted by the intangible cultural heritage of Haipai velvet knotting technique, which has become a vivid portrayal of the Beijing Winter Olympics adhering to the concept of "green, sharing, openness and integrity" because of its characteristics such as never withering and low-carbon environmental protection.
Hengyuanxiang, as a double Olympic enterprise, the Beijing Winter Olympics is the fifth time they have joined hands with the Olympic Games. The flowers that never wither are the unique gift of Hengyuanxiang to the Beijing Winter Olympics. Chinese often said that "love is a thread", Hengyuanxiang hopes that this velvet thread carrying truth, goodness and beauty can make people on the five continents more united and weave the world's Hengxing future with infinite threads.
Hengyuan Xiang velvet knitting master Li Meili is the inheritor of "Haipai velvet knitting technique" in Shanghai municipal level, and has been studying pile crochet for more than 20 years. A crochet needle, a ball of pile thread, under the beautiful pair of skillful hands, you can weave beautiful and realistic velvet flowers.
Red roses, pink moon season, white lily of the valley and hydrangeas, yellow laurel and osmanthus flowers, green olives, 7 kinds of velvet flowers make up the award bouquet of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the bow ribbon of the bouquet handle is printed with the words "BEIJING 2022". Compared with flowers, velvet flowers never wither, low-carbon and environmentally friendly, reflecting the concept of "green Olympics" and adding warmth to the ice and snow arena.
Intangible cultural heritage techniques crochet lifelike appearance, weaving artists day and night creation, and finally blooming on the podium of the eternal beauty, every bit is full of traditional aesthetics from the East, many foreign athletes and netizens sighed, "This is the romance engraved in the bones of Chinese!" ”
The story of Hengyuanxiang and the Olympics continues. In the future, this velvet thread will continue to lead the company to "go to the future together" with the Olympic spirit, and convey brand value and cultural connotation.
Editor-in-chief: Chen Hua
Source: Author: Qin Dongying