"This is the nearest and dearest place to Liu Changchun," said Wang Xingdong, the screenwriter of a new movie about the first Chinese athlete to represent the country at the Olympics.
Poster of "The One Man Olympics" |
The movie, The One Man Olympics, revolves around Liu's mission to feature in the 1932 Los Angeles Games, which included a 23-day voyage across the ocean that landed him in LA one day before the Games' opening ceremony.
"Liu was the start of China's Olympic dream. He represented the whole nation to the Olympics at the age of 23. When China won its bid to host the 29th Olympics in Beijing, I just wanted to revive him on the big screen," Wang said at a ceremony last week at Dalian University of Technology.
Liu entered the preliminary rounds of the men's 100m and 200m sprints but failed to qualify for the finals of either.
Born in 1909 in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, he worked at Dalian University of Technology from 1950 until shortly before his death in 1983.
With a statue of Liu in front of it, the university gymnasium is named after him to commemorate his achievement.
The cast of the movie nominated the school to host the premier screening in 2007. Over 1,000 students helped out with the production and several professors who had been acquainted with Liu were brought on board as advisors.
"Liu's achievements were not the result of the competition but the spirit of the Games he adhered to," said Hou Yong, director of the movie.
Li Zhaolin adopted the role of Liu in the movie.
"Only by training like him did I begin to understand some of the hardships he endured and how valuable his spirit is," said Li.
