CHINA> Beijing Olympics Highlights
Beijing Olympic Games opens at 08/08/08/08
By Raymond Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-08-08 20:08

Eventually, the whole painting (i.e. the LED part) transforms into Landscape of a Thousand Miles, a rare painting from Wang Ximeng of the Song Dynasty (960-1276AD).

All the while, a guqin (a Chinese zither) is being played in a fan-shaped stage up from the central performing area.

This number is quite artsy. It leads right to the area of high culture, and it features modern dance as the icing on the scroll cake. It also provides a welcome respite for a quiet moment in an evening of razzle-dazzle.

Writing

My grandma used to say that Chinese words were created by Confucius. Of course it was not true, but this number seems to be based on this urban myth.

Beijing Olympic Games opens at 08/08/08/08
Artists perform during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest", on August 8, 2008. [Agencies]
Beijing Olympic Games opens at 08/08/08/08
The Chinese character he, meaning harmony or peace, is shown to evolve from various stages of calligraphy. [Agencies]

There are 3,000 dancers clad in Confucius period costumes, supposedly playing the Sage's disciples. Carrying bamboo scrolls, one of the earliest forms of books, they intone familiar mantras from his Analects, mandatory for a Chinese education.

In the center are 897 dancers, each hidden inside a cube. They simulate the movable type, which was first invented by Bi Sheng of the Song Dynasty (969-1276AD). This invention was instrumental in the growth of human civilization.

Later, the cube matrix graduates to a computer keyboard.

The Chinese character "he", meaning harmony or peace, is shown to evolve from various stages of calligraphy. The Great Wall and peach flowers are also replicated, with the help of the LED painting.

This is probably the most ingenious in the whole program. The wonder of Chinese writing and things associated with it, like calligraphy, the progress of printing, and the great thinking facilitated by it, is visualized in a splendid feat of cohesion. Even my grandma would have enjoyed it.

Opera

With the accompaniment of Peking Opera music, 900 actors and several puppets put on a show on a makeshift stage and all around it. Group actors are dressed as the famous terra-cotta soldiers.

Beijing Olympic Games opens at 08/08/08/08
Artists perform the traditional Pekin Opera of China during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing on August 8, 2008. [Agencies] 

This is said to be a last-minute replacement, and it shows. It's noisy, it's fun, but it just doesn't congeal into the framework. It simply lacks fine details.