February 4, 2022 at 8 p.m
Opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics
Held at the National Stadium
As the opening ceremony kicked off, a countdown session unique to the Chinese came into view. Unlike the previous ones, which were ordered in numbers alone, this countdown session uses the traditional Chinese 24 solar terms. Rain, stings, spring equinox... One by one, the traditional Chinese festivals come into view, and the footsteps of the opening ceremony are getting closer and closer.
With the solar cycle, global audiences walk through the four seasons in just three minutes. Below each solar term, there is a corresponding verse describing that solar term. "Wind and rain wash a city of flowers", "Things are here, small is full", "The night of the opening of the laurel wheel, when the fireworks shine in the sky", these popular ancient poems travel through a hundred years of time and space, meet with us, just to celebrate the spread of the Olympic spirit in the land of Shenzhou.
The images of the countdown are constantly changing, and the beauty of China and the pictures of The Olympic athletes shine together.
When counting down to "Li Chun"
The audience applauded thunderously
A splendid flower slowly opens
The words "Li Chun" fireworks light up the sky
The atmosphere of the scene reached a climax
Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics: More than two years to talk about creativity, the countdown is of course part, we see that the countdown to 2008 is 2008 people in the hammer, is a reflection of the ancient traditional culture, but also the tactics of the sea of people, then this must change. We didn't think about how to do the countdown, and then because when we were talking about ideas, we suddenly learned that the opening ceremony on February 4 was the spring festival, and then I asked the people on the team of our bidders, and I said that when you applied for the bid, did you lock this day, that is, you did this intentionally, they said that it was not intentional, they said that the bid was actually a very complicated process, and there were competitors. So which day of opening has very complicated elements to set this day opening, I really did not want to pick a lichun, so it is very coincidental. That actually gives us a very good opportunity, how to perform the countdown, the countdown is generally the technology of time, just like the rocket launch, the rocket launch we see is generally ten numbers, the countdown is often selected from 60, or from 30, or from 10 to the countdown is over, generally choose these, convention. Like our 2008 man strike, the number we choose is also starting from 60, which is generally the case.
Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics: I suddenly thought that since it is Lichun, a very good cultural meaning, so we choose twenty-four solar terms, we use 24 to calculate the countdown, we start counting from 24, this will be very special, people all over the world will not understand, it will be curious, why should this start from 24, this is actually a very good opportunity, we talk about Chinese traditional culture to the whole society. So we have made a concise description in English, using a short film to talk about the ancient lunar calendar of Chinese, its unit of calculation is 24, starting from 24 for a year, and there is another meaning about Lichun, our Lichun is the end of the cold, the first day of the recovery of life and all things. So it's very allegorical, so in such a way, we are all very excited, in fact, it is a very good cultural performance.
Produced by Haihe Media Center
Source: CCTV News, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily client, Jinyun