Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who staged a spectacular opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, will once again take charge of the same ceremony at the Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital in February, organizers announced on Friday (January 7th).
Zhang Yimou, 71, pledged an inauguration “totally innovative”, while conceding that the context of pandemic and low temperatures would prevent reaching the exceptional dimension of the 2008 show and its 15,000 participants. “Being simple, like in martial arts movies, is like a master’s sword”, explained the director to the official news agency China New: “It looks like a simple stab, but with lethal power.”
The author of Chinese classics like Red Sorghum Where Wives and concubines and martial arts films like Hero Where The Secret of the Flying Daggers pledged nearly 3,000 participants in the ceremony.
Another clue distilled by Zhang Yimou: the lighting of the Olympic flame will follow a “daring idea” integrating the concepts of “environmental protection and low carbon emissions”, he promised. “I’m very nervous. I think it’s completely innovative and people are going to be surprised.”, added the director.
Elements of the Chinese New Year, which falls on February 1, three days before the ceremony, will also be present in the show, he told the public broadcaster CGTN.
At the 2008 ceremony, 2,008 musicians beat ancient Chinese drums and thousands of other participants – martial arts enthusiasts, dancers, opera singers, acrobats and trapeze artists – paraded in lavish costumes. The show highlighted the history of China and its civilization and was to symbolize its comeback on the international stage.
“It’s different now”Zhang Yimou told New China. “The image of the Chinese, and the rise of our national status, everything is totally different now. With the pandemic, the world needs a new and strengthened vision, that is, the people of the the whole world are coming together to face difficulties and envision a bright future “, he estimated.