The number of performers at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games is getting smaller and smaller, and China's confidence in hosting the Games is getting stronger and stronger

From Beijing to Guangzhou to Hangzhou, the opening ceremony of the Asian Games we have held, the number of people participating in the performance has ranged from 10,000 to thousands, but the technical, cultural and creative elements in the performance are increasing day by day. Behind this trade-off phenomenon is actually the increasing confidence and energy of us when hosting sports competitions.

Written by | Yu Ruiyin

Editor丨 Feng Xiao

The Hangzhou Asian Games, in this way, on the cool September night of the autumn equinox, was beautifully and lightly presented in front of the world.

Beijing in 1990, Guangzhou in 2010, and Hangzhou in 2023. The 13 years between Hangzhou and Guangzhou seem to be less long than the 20 years between Guangzhou and Beijing; However, if your life journey covers the aforementioned 33 years, you will clearly understand that although the latter interval is not long, the changes and innovations that have taken place in China, the world and the times are far more than several times the previous interval.

The "Great Lotus" has become the focus of attention in Asia and the world tonight.

Beijing, Guangzhou, and then Hangzhou – China's three Asian Games cities are three distinct time nodes of China's bright business cards facing Asia and the world, and they also have their unique city labels. From the opening ceremony, we can get a glimpse of the completely different style and tone of these three Asian Games. So, on this autumn night on September 23, 2023, when the "Big Lotus" of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center blooms to welcome Asian guests, can we expect the Hangzhou Asian Games to leave a mark different from Beijing and Guangzhou?

Let's start with that September 33 years ago.

Regarding the preparatory process for the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, whether it was those who experienced it in the Beijing Olympic Sports Center on that day, or the Beijing citizens who gave all their modest efforts for the Asian Games, recalling that long September, there are always a few words engraved with the imprint of the times in my mind - pan, skydiving, donation, team exercise... In the movie "My September" starring Zhang Guoli, a Beijing teenager nicknamed "An Da Fool" can make up for his weakness and finally catch up with the group exercise performance of the opening ceremony. Before that, he went through a whole summer of rehearsals, competitions, eliminations, and replacements before finally becoming a member of the 10,000-person performance phalanx at the opening ceremony called "Gathering in Beijing".

How many people are involved? According to the recollection of Lu Health, the person in charge of the opening ceremony at that time, the opening ceremony was divided into two planes, with 10,080 people participating in the background reproduction performance and 10,000 people participating in the venue performance. The traditional group gymnastics performances such as "Majestic Gongs and Drums", "Chinese Martial Arts" and "Sports Heroes" have 800 to 1,200 actors in each performance, with uniform movements and formations.

Caption: At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Asian Games, elements such as pan and 10,000 people team exercises have become classic memories.

Although due to objective constraints such as tight funds and limited funds, the opening ceremony held in the moving to the end of the day seems to be less of a familiar scene of bright lights and flowers, but the unique skydiving performance and the group exercise completed by tens of thousands of people make up for these regrets. Since then, until the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the magnificent scene of the 2008 striking has become a true portrayal of the saying "many people have great power". On such a big occasion, it is orderly, many and not chaotic, and it seems to be a Chinese endowment.

With the changes of the times, when the words "simple", "few" and "light" gradually become the new way of life, and we learn to do subtraction instead of addition in this complex world, the opening ceremony of the Asian Games is also experiencing such a metamorphosis. Twenty years after the Beijing Asian Games, when Guangzhou became the second Chinese city to host the Asian Games, the opening ceremony, called "Set Sail", was attended by only more than 6,000 cast and crew, the fewest cast and crew among the major events held in China at that time. Compared with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, such a small amount of manpower investment can also run the competition.

The element used to replace the tactics of the sea of people at the opening ceremony is "innovation", which is also the new spirit of the times. The opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Asian Games transitioned the performance form of sports group exercise to the artistic and dancing form of square art performance. Therefore, on the evening of November 12, 2010, on Haixinsha Island in Guangzhou, located at the mouth of the Pearl River, the feminine and romantic opening ceremony re-displayed the vibrant Chinese charm to the world. With the Pearl River as the stage and the city as the background, it creates a grand space for the performance of the opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Asian Games; It has also become a rare opening ceremony in the history of the Asian Games and even world sports that is not held in the stadium.

Caption: The opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Asian Games was held outside the stadium for the first time, and the effect was extraordinary.

Innovation, with the pace of the times; Technology is changing lives at an unimaginable rate. From the long and heavy of Beijing, to the fashion and modernity of Guangzhou, to the scientific and technological innovation of Hangzhou. The city of Hangzhou, the carrier of the cultural inheritance of the Southern Song Dynasty and Wuyue, and because of the vigorous development of the Internet, science and technology, and finance, it has become the "fifth city" of the Chinese mainland in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

This lightness is first reflected in how technology helps the opening ceremony to "do subtraction".

At the opening ceremony, the "tide" of Qiantang was not filled with a "sea of people". Whether in person or in the broadcast screen, what we see is the cooperation of the ground screen and the three-dimensional perspective network screen, and the powerful empowerment of advanced technologies such as naked-eye 3D and AR+AI to truly restore a series of elements reflecting the humanities, history and development of Hangzhou and Zhejiang on the stage.

Guided by the "tide", the Qiantang River, the Grand Canal, West Lake, Xixi Wetland and so on made "water" as the overall element of the literary series of the entire opening ceremony, and the "piano, chess, book, painting, poetry, wine, tea" were ingeniously integrated into the narrative with a strong sense of science and technology. Qiantang ancient rhyme, West Lake prosperous, oil-paper umbrella lights, umbrella lights lit up, VR, AR and virtual video lanterns roam the sky, so that every performance shows the beauty of Chinese elegance.

At the end of the opening ceremony, the scene of ancient Lin'an and modern Hangzhou looking at each other jumped in front of you; Using virtual technology, a scene of ancient and modern lights of thousands of homes is presented to the public. The scene of "knowing each other far and near, and still being neighbors" surged out, symbolizing the close unity of the people of all Asia. The dialogue between "ancient" and "present" has also become possible in the passage paved by technology.

Caption: Technology allows the ancient and the modern to meet, and it is not necessary to rely on the "sea of people", but it can make the scene span thousands of years.

The flame-lighting ceremony, which is completely different from the previous Asian Games, is an example of "technology does subtraction". At the opening ceremony, the "small flames" of hundreds of millions of online digital torchbearers will converge on the Qiantang River, gradually forming an image of a digital human in the process of movement. The digital man held the Asian Games torch, stepped on the waves, came to the sky above the "big lotus", and the sixth torchbearer on the scene walked to the torch platform to light the main cauldron together - a large project in which hundreds of millions of Chinese participated, although it is not necessary for all participants to be present at the scene, but let everyone be immersed and never absent, in this sense, the meaning of multiple elements and symbols has not been diminished by "subtraction".

This lightness is also reflected in the narrative of the opening ceremony, which has both the grandeur we are familiar with, and the more specific and subtle care.

Hangzhou is a unique presence among China's new first-tier (or quasi-first-tier cities), and its natural connection to water is one of its characteristics. In the performance of the opening ceremony, the "water" in the first part is a beautiful picture of ink into poetry and painting, smoke and rain dyeing Jiangnan; The "water" of the novella gathers into a tide, flooding with dynamic waves; The "water" in the next part is green water and green mountains, ecological civilization, harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and also means that China and Asian countries and regions depend on each other and walk hand in hand. Step by step, it confirms the sentence summarized by Sha Xiaolan, the chief director and chief producer of the opening ceremony, "moisturizing things are silent".

It's also a strength. On such an important occasion, it is not necessary to move and convince people necessarily the breadth of the territory, the number of people, the majesty of the momentum, and the great volume, such as the unique temperament and cultural heritage of Hangzhou, which is gentle and inclusive, but also a unique narrative that makes people feel the power.

For example, in terms of timing selection, the opening of the Hangzhou Asian Games coincided with the autumnal equinox of China's traditional solar term. The sporting event is linked to traditional farming culture, and a long and profound cultural force will also be displayed on stage. During the autumnal equinox, the joy of the golden harvest is met unexpectedly, and in this story, audiences around the world can see the way the ancestors of Liangzhu celebrate the harvest, which means that Asia and even all mankind can enjoy the most primitive and tangible blessing of "abundance".

Caption: The opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games presents the gentleness and beauty of the city, which can also shock people's hearts.

Therefore, the three chapters of "National Style and Elegant Rhyme", "Qiantang Tide" and "Hand in Hand" do not first throw the grand concepts of cultural inheritance continuity, innovation and inclusiveness in front of us through magnificent performances, but start from the most basic human needs, and when the water is ready, then raise, deepen and value. First the joy of harvest, then the progress of civilization with honesty and etiquette, then the reproduction and inheritance that respects nature and follows the rules, and finally the community in which the destiny of all mankind is closely linked.

Our opening ceremony, like the city of Hangzhou, learned to "light makeup is always appropriate".

This lightness is even more reflected in the "frankness" of the opening ceremony. Almost all details were "spoiled" early, but they did not lose their excitement. It also shows how we are more open and peaceful about these opportunities to show us to the world.

Compared with the previous two Asian Games hosted by China, and even the "Beijing Double Olympics" in 2008 and 2022, among all the major competitions that can be followed in the memory of our generation, the opening ceremony of this year's Hangzhou Asian Games can be regarded as the least secret.

How to say? As early as before tonight, the opening meeting from the theme to the details, from the intention to the execution, from the personnel to the technology, almost all of them have been sorted out by various media through the mouth of the preparatory team. Not only the description of the text, but also the pictures, images, sound and light that circulated on the Internet during the rehearsal are no different from the final presentation tonight. Even the ignition ceremony, which was kept secret until the last minute before the previous competitions, the new attempt of digital ignition with "mass participation and digital interconnection" has been reported in the newspapers early and without the slightest concealment. This can't help but ask, "spoilers" like this, is there still a surprise?

It's really different. In the past, we gave the ignition, the opening and even the whole competition a very high and heavy meaning, and the secrecy work was seamless, and the participants entrusted with the heavy responsibility were also sincerely afraid and walking on thin ice. At the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, Gao Min, a diving star who was selected as one of the three igniters, calmly looked at everything on the springboard, but recalled the psychological activities before the ignition with only one sentence: "Don't fall, the fire must be lit". At the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, He Chong, who finally implemented the "firecracker ignition", was much lighter, and the joyful and peaceful sound of cannon bamboo also made the grand narrative more joyful close to life, but it was still retained as a "suspense" until the end. Perhaps the most famous one in modern Olympic history — the ignition of Li Ning's volley over the bird's nest on the night of August 8, 2008 — was kept secret to the extreme, and Li Ning, who had been rehearsing hard all night, had to hide it from his family.

But this time, since the ignition ceremony could not be completely kept secret, it was simply explained. So tonight, as previously known version, there are no "surprises", but there is no shortage of "surprises". Such transparency and honesty can also make multiple interpretations of the spirit of the Asian Games. Hundreds of millions of people across the network participate in the digital torch relay, which is the power of interconnection and the climate of the times. The moment when the flame is gathered together and lit is no longer an elite perspective, but a maximum reach. Sports is not the business of a few, strengthen the body, participate in the whole people, return to the origin of sports - these, you can't hide, you may as well unveil the mystery.

Caption: The plan of "digital ignition" of the Hangzhou Asian Games is early spoiler, but it does not hinder its excitement.

How is this not a kind of self-confidence? Classics will always stand the scrutiny of time and history, and will not be mitigated by half a point because they are glimpsed in advance. On the contrary, it is a rare confidence that China can stage another high-level performance in Asia and the world in advance, but still believe that China can stage another high-level performance in front of Asia and the world.

I hope that in the long history of the long river, whenever we recall the 2023 Asian Games Hangzhou time, we can still maintain this precious lightness.