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 The evening of August 8th, 2008... 8pm of special significance for the Chinese. There's a reason why the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China was set to launch at that time. 8 (ba) in Chinese sounds very much like the word prosper (fa). So, 8/8/08 at 8pm, is prosper/prosper/prosper, prosper to the Chinese.
This evening, also a special one for us... has led us all to huddle up together in a colleagues hotel room. We're all on a Company Outing at the Lakes of a Thousand Islands (千岛湖 Qian Dao Hu) about 3 hours outside of Hangzhou proper. All of us Ali Colleagues, huddle up together on the hotel bed, armed with junk food, beer, vodka, wine and you name it, in front of the little hotel television, awaiting with anticipation the beginning of what we've all long endured.
The time counts down... and the show begins.....
The countdown was done with an impressive display of light drums, in synchrony with the countdown of the clock until the start of the Olympics. This I have actually seen before in Hangzhou, as the Opening Ceremony was choreographed/directed by Zhang Yi Mou. He has also directed a water performance on the West Lake itself, titled "Impression West Lake". I have seen this drum light show before in that Impression West Lake show, but nevertheless it was grand to see it done for the countdown. We watched on to the start of the Olympics and the entire city of Beijing burst into a frenzy of magnificent fireworks. I have lived in Beijing for nearly one year before this and I've never seen anything like it, including in the U.S. (where I was born and raised all my life, except Las Vegas on July 4th, which comes close, but not quite). See the Beijing, China video below. From within the Bird's Nest stadium, a screen lights up. You see people, water and ancient tools telling the story of how China invented paper, one of the 4 great inventions from China. Following behind the paper making show, the floor of the Bird's Nest stadium lights up and you see a huge scroll on the floor of the stadium, slowly unravel... From afar, a small person appears in the center. He is wearing all black and strides onto the center of the unravelling scroll. He begins to dance on the scroll and as he dances, he leaves behind a trail of black ink... dancing circular drawing onto the scroll. And more, join him. The draw a scenery of mountains, water and moon. As the dancers glide off the scroll. The center portion of the scroll, slowly rises into mid-air showing all the attendees the final work of art. Several more performances ensue after this, detailing China's invention of the compass. Then China's invention of the gunpowder, which was originally meant for fireworks and firecrackers, but was later adopted by Westerners for more devious uses. To the final invention of the printing press, each with a spectacular show, as well as many other culture shows in between. One of the later shows that I happen to have an image of is a man-made bird of peace... admittedly my least favorite part of the ceremony.  Following the dispersal of the bird of peace, came one of my most favorite shows. A few lone people dressed in white appear. Then clear panels light up behind them with dazzling colors and shapes. The people in front of the panels begin to move and what follows is a simply beautiful display of the art of Taichi. This is perhaps one of my most favorite, as the taichi moves are simply too beautiful, fluid, and strong, as if the movements of these people is art itself. The other reason is that I, myself, am learning taichi here in China and have really found this martial art to be very smooth and powerful without brute force. Following the few martial arts moves of these Taichi masters, many many more emerge onto the stage and in front of the audience are hundreds, possibly thousands of people doing taichi moves in synchrony. Following the beautiful taichi performance, the stage empties and from the center of the stadium emerges a blue globe... Many people dance about the globe and when it finally rises to its highest point.... it turns into our world. Atop the world are two singers, one of which was Sarah Brightman. To be honest, I couldn't understand much of her singing, if it was in Chinese or English, because it was simply too high. Also, to be honest, I didn't like the melody either. And at this point the show was beginning to feel a bit long and slow, despite the grandeur of the attempt. After the climax of a song I couldn't understand, the ending of the performances finally came. People spoke and spoke, and finally came one of the apexes of the ceremony which was the lighting of the torch... And what follows is a frenzy of breathtaking fireworks... And the grand finale... This Opening Ceremony must be the most breathtaking and wondrous one I have ever seen, despite it becoming very slow nearing the end. Hopefully, for all the suffering local Beijinger's have had to endure, it has been somewhat redeemed to them to know that their country had smoothly pulled off this spectacular ceremony that kept the world in awe. Even as I write this, I am attempting to get a real video of this event so that I can watch again. Good luck to China and good luck to all the world, especially my beloved United States of America. May the best athlete win...
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wow!
Written by mona  , on 12-08-2008 09:04
wow, that was a great post with pictures! it made me sorry that i missed it! thanks for the great recap Jean!
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