The opening ceremony for the Olympics was spectacular to say the least. I'm going to take you on a pictorial tour, and show you some of the highlights. I'll be skipping the parade of nations (the flag march) and the speeches. The parade was nice, but nothing stellar, and unfortunately the speeches weren't that great. With no further ado...
1:27: The ceremony started off with drumming. The drummers were playing on special drums that lit up when there were drummed on.
1:46: As you can see, they used the drum lighting to countdown to the beginning of the ceremony, at 8:08 Beijing time. Fireworks erupted once the timer reached zero, and dancing proceeded. The BBC announcers tell me that that it is a dance about a Confucian saying, 'Friends have come from afar, how happy we are'.
7:28: Fireworks shot up in the shape of footprints which went from the stadium to Beijing's capital. It was later (fairly quickly) discovered that
the footage shown on TV was fake, since it was too dangerous to film so close to the fireworks. Amateur videos of the real event are on YouTube, etc., but it looks pretty much the same, just not from as good of a view.
9:21: 'Dust' settled on the ground in the shape of the Olympic rings. Faeries began to fly around and lifted the dust off of the ground as you see.
11:29: The Chinese flag was marched by a group of culturally dressed Chinese, while a little girl sings on stage. The flag was then handed off to Chinese military, whereupon it was raised onto a flagpole, and the Chinese anthem was sung. Following the anthem, more fireworks were shot off; I'm beginning to see a trend. A film reel shows the history of calligraphy and the scroll is shown on screen, which smoothly transitions to a scroll on the ground.
17:07: The scroll opens across the stadium floor; commentators tell me it is more than 25m long.
18:42: Dancers with paint on their limbs dance on top of the scroll while gracefully sweeping their paint-covered hands across the scroll, painting large images. This continues for some time, and then the scroll is lifted into the air; yet another recurring theme... Next, 3000 Confucian disciples do a dance while holding bamboo slips; an ancient form of a book. We now transition to the movable type, yet another Chinese invention on display, as it fluidly ripples across.
27:31: Aside from just making beautiful motions, the type also forms characters. This amazing show continues for a little bit.
28:38: When it stops, people rise out of the 'shells', very happy and excitedly, and they wave to the crowd.
30:04: Puppeteers put on a show, while being carried on the giant scroll, like a float. When I first saw the puppets, I thought they were well-trained monkeys. I'm not sure what I was thinking.
33:33: A beautiful Chinese dancer performs a ribbon dance, again while being carried on a scroll.
35:16: Next, there is a demonstration of the silk road. What you see below and above (harder to see) the scroll, are hundreds of people carrying huge oars with paintings on them. They come together to form pictures of boats, best seen below. On top of rowing with the oars, they do amazing synchronized motions; quite incredible given the large size and weight of these.
36:59: In the center of the oarsmen is a dancer, who is showing off the compass, yet another Chinese invention. Soon after the oarsmen all raise their oars at about a 45 degree angle and surround the scroll making it appear as one huge boat.
41:14: More pretty dancing girls. There are Chinese warriors rising on columns, which are intricately decorated with dragons. Once this comes to an end, more fireworks erupt.
45:05: Lang Lang (the older pianist on the right) is China's most famous pianist, and
is playing alongside Li Muzi, who is only five years old. You can see she is very happy, but also very shy.
47:39: The piano is surrounded by dancers donning white suits, which dazzling neon colors are shone upon. While this is happening, a little girl flies on screen from somewhere, and we see that she is flying a kite (another Chinese invention...) while flying herself. Muzi isn't playing as much as she was in the beginning, you can see that she's a little scared, maybe even of Lang.
52:33: It wouldn't be a Chinese cultural show without some sort of martial art, so here is their Tai Chi demonstration. You can see there are lots of explosive graphics happening in the background. To elaborate that Tai Chi is about more than just fighting, we see a Chinese classroom being held in the middle of all of the Tai Chi warriors.
56:05: Now we see even more people doing Tai Chi, all synchronized very well. We transition back to the classroom, and what do we have here? More painting on the ground, this time it's the children doing it. Another difference is that the painting is now in color, very symbolic of the passage through time we're taking. The painting can't stay on the ground for long, as we know by now, the next step is for it to fly into the air. Astronauts descend from the sky, and begin to fly around the stadium.
1:02:48: While the astronauts fly around, a globe ascends from the stage, which is 18m in diameter. Dancers emerge and proceed to run laps around the planet, and continents begin to form. The globe is very colorful, which many changing colors. Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman (the first/only non-Chinese performer, I believe) sing 'You and Me' from atop the globe.
1:06:33: This part's a little weird, people are holding up pictures of children's faces while the singing continues. Fireworks ensue, but the signing continues; for once fireworks are used during a performance, not just in between.
1:09:06: Fireworks continue, and as the singing ends, a huge finale of fireworks ensues, which is the most impressive yet (as finales should be). During the finale, there is a lot of dancing, very happy and joyous, you can see the pride in their faces.
Now is where the parade of nations and speeches would be, but let's skip those. The timing of the pictures which I've been indicated will continue as if the parade/speeches never happened.
1:11:29: Li Ning, a Chinese gymnast from the 1984 Olympics flies into the air, with torch in hand.
1:12:02: He 'lands' next to the scroll, where he proceeds to run along with it, towards the torch which has been unveiled.
1:12:28: The torch is raised to the large fuse, which quickly explodes with flames.
1:12:38: Flames jet upward along the fuse towards the torch.
1:12:59: The torch is lit, and more fireworks happen. The 2008 Olympic Games have officially begun!!! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and commentary, that was quite a show China; congratulations. The commentary comes primarily from me, but I picked up a thing here and there from the BBC commentators, along with some facts from the
Wikipedia entry. Keep reading Will and Beyond for more of my
Olympic posts.
Godspeed.
[
Comments: 4]
[Tags:
art,
olympics]
