Beijing Olympics 2008

Posted by angie on Aug 15, 2008 in events | 8 comments

Yay, the Olympics are here! I’m a sports nut, so a nice viewing of world sports between the 8th to 24th August 2008 of armchair sports is just what the Doctor ordered!

As one of our aims of the Wandering Gourmet is to promote a diversity of cultures, I thought I’d explain my thoughts on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games. That, and at least I can talk about sports.

As some of you may be aware, the Chinese in general are very superstitious people. One of the ancient Chinese traditions includes using Astrologers to find auspicious dates and to find out what are the unlucky dates of events such as wedding ceremonies. That is probably why the Chinese Olympics Opening Ceremony started on the 8th of August, 2008 at 8pm. 8 is seen as a lucky number by the Chinese because it sounds like ‘prosperous’. It also is a whole number… it’s symmetrical, infinite, and just about perfect – although funnily enough, it technically isn’t considered the strongest number by the Chinese. So, as you can imagine, starting at 8pm on the dot on the 8/8/2008 is a totally magical time frame to start the beginning of the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing.

Without being biased, I felt that the Opening Ceremony was absolutely terrific. If I had to describe it in a few words, I would say that it was very creative and innovative. Perhaps even a stroke of genius. For those who missed watching the ceremony, you totally missed out! Hopefully YouTube or something will have clips of it for those who missed it – I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

What I really loved the intertwining of ancient and modern Chinese history. Some of China’s greatest art forms, inventions, and philosophies were ‘on show’, such as gunpowder (fireworks), drumming, paper, the printing press, tai chi, and Confucianism. However, not all of the Chinese inventions were on show, like noodles/pasta or ice cream though. :p

I thought it was just so clever how they used the paper to combine art and modern gymnastics or dancing, and right at the end when all the competing athletes who were representing their country in the parade got to participate in a little bit of art work where they walked across some sort of paint and left their mark or their footprints as they walked across the enormous page to where they were supposed to stand.

I also really liked that they showed contributions from the minority Chinese groups in China. In the whole realm of the world, people only think of Chinese people being from one ethnic background (i.e. the Han Chinese), when in reality it is diverse. I thought the little kids who came out in traditional costumes from their ethnic groups and sang a much loved traditional Chinese song were adorable! But then again I think the kids were just cute because they were well behaved. :p

As a former Chinese specialist student, I thoroughly enjoyed the well-deserved tribute to Zheng He, who was one of the greatest Admirals in the world, as he was someone I thoroughly enjoyed researching for one of my assignments. Zheng He was a Chinese Muslim eunuch who rose up in the ranks of the Chinese Government of the day and led many exploratory voyages around the world. One of my favourite voyages includes his trip around the coast of Asia (including India) and down to Africa where he brought back animals such as giraffes to show the Emperor of that time, fostered trading, etc. He is also known, controversially, to be the first person to discover the Americas.

What I thought was absolutely a stroke of genius was the way they lit the Olympic Torch. As usual, a bunch of former Olympians did a lap around the stadium with the Olympic flame. The last person to receive the flame was a former gymnastics ‘master’ who flew up in the air and did a slow motion jog in the air around the top of the stadium. As he flew past, there was a red carpet trail, with images of the tour of the Olympic flame around the world. He then lit some kind of pipe which in turn lit the enormous torch standing above the stadium to be the light of the world’s Olympic games. Peter Pan would have been proud.

The olympic opening ceremony team really got it right down to at T, and they should be congratulated, regardless of the negative images that always happens when the Western Media and Historians have something (usually misinformed) to say about Asia.

The artistic and technical team led by China’s leading rocket scientist and the legendary film director, Zhang Yi Mou, did a fantastic job of combining technology with art and sport. The lucky number 8 certainly did work, as the ceremony went off without a hitch and was complete perfection. That, and China is totally kicking butt in the Olympics so far. Australia isn’t going so well though, so maybe 8 isn’t a lucky number for us!

As a person of Chinese descent, although I was a bit embarrassed by my mother’s reaction to her incredible excitement for the opening of the Olympic games, I too was very proud to be both Chinese and Asian during the Opening Ceremony. Just don’t tell my parents. :p