The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Related story: Opening Ceremony plan released
Date/Time: 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, August 6
Venue: Main Press Center(MPC)
Sun Weide
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to today's press conference. Our topic for today is Preparation work for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Our guests are: Mr. Zhang Heping, director of BOCOG Opening & Closing Ceremonies Department, who will brief us on the Opening Ceremony; Wang Ning, director of Opening & Closing Ceremonies Operation Centre; and Zhu Hong, deputy director of Opening & Closing Ceremonies Operation Centre. First of all, I will give floor to Mr. Zhang Heping.
Zhang Heping
Good to see you, friends from the press, good morning to you. In two days time, the Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games will be held in the National Stadium, which is not too far away from where we are. Following the three rehearsals, we can now declare to you quite solidly, that the Opening Ceremony for the Games is ready. I will introduce you some aspects that relate to the Opening Ceremony.
The time slot of the Opening Ceremony. Before the formal launch of the Opening Ceremony, we will have performances before the Opening Ceremony which will last 1 hour and 15 minutes, that is from 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m., there are 28 performances with strong national and local characteristics.
At around 7 p.m., we will conduct an audience orientation. Afterwards, at 7:56 p.m., the countdown will start. At 8 p.m., the Opening Ceremony will be formally started. The Opening Ceremony will not end until 11:30 p.m.
Secondly, something about the main flow of the opening ceremony. The first part is before the performance including welcoming ceremony, the display of Olympic Rings, the entry of the national flag, raising of the national flag and the playing of the national anthem. This part is about 14 minutes.
The second part is the performing arts part. We name it the beautiful Olympics. And it is composed of 2 parts. First, splendid civilization; second, magnificent times.
In terms of the content for the performance, it will last for an hour. In terms of the content covered, we will showcase the ancient long history of the Chinese nation, the splendid culture as well as the achievements of the reform and what the modern Chinese people can offer to the world. In terms of the style, the summary will consist of the Chinese story or rather a story of China. It will showcase the national characteristics and the characteristics of the time. They will use something unique to China, painting scrolls. We will showcase the essence of the civilization using an antique display. We will use beautiful colors to showcase the vitality of China and make use of the creative arts to make sure that the opening ceremony is of international and contemporary nature.
At the conclusion part of the performing arts. The theme song will be performed for first time during the Opening Ceremony. That is why the song not revealed during the rehearsals. The theme songs were selected by BOCOG for five years and they conducted 4 sessions of songs solicitation and from a variety of songs. The songs were approved by following the expert approval procedures. In terms of the secrecy of the song, we will not disclose anything related to the song.
Today we are privileged to tell you the singers that we have selected for the theme song. They are Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman. That is the second part of my introduction.
The 3rd part is with regards to what follows the performances. It includes things like the marching of the athletes, the address by the BOCOG Chairman and the address by the IOC Chairman and the President of China, and the entry of the Olympic flag and the playing of the Olympic Games anthem, raising of the Olympic flags, the release of the doves, the torch relay in the stadium and the final lighting of the torch as well as the fireworks.
The firework is the last one. It will last two and a half hours including the marching of the athletes which will take 2 hours. As for the order of marching of the athletes, we will do it in accordance to the order of strokes according to the simplified characteristics for the 205 countries and territories.
Thirdly, what I want to tell you is that we are ready. Following three public rehearsals on July 30, August 2 and 5, all the performers have familiarized themselves with the lighting and the musical part and area, and the area has been secured for the allocation of space, personnel as well as travel route.
And following the rehearsal on the 28 of June, all the conductors of the ceremony have a great understanding of everything related, such as the travel route starting from the Olympic Village, following a short break in the stadium, then outside the stadium and eventually to the entrance in the stadium. Last night, we had the last final rehearsal, and all the equipments have been sealed. All the performers will have a very good rest and prepare for the final moment.
They have passion which will be lighted or busted out on the night of August 8, offering the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the National Stadium, as well as hundreds of millions of people outside a spectacular performance. Thank you.
Sun Weide
I would like to thank Mr. Zhang for the introduction, and now the floor is open before you do identify who you represent.
Yomiuri Shimbun
In the program of the Opening Ceremony, is there any thing that features something related to the Wenchuan earthquake?
Zhang Heping
That is indeed a very good question. The Wenchuan earthquake for all the Chinese people is indeed a tragic. The Chinese people have been united doing something against mother nature, hardships and difficulties. They have all demonstrated passion and enthusiasm for the earthquake release work. That national spirit will indeed inject a new source of spirit into the Opening Ceremony. However, the Opening Ceremony is after all not supposed to contain anything that it can not bear. We believe the successful holding of the Olympics will certainly boost the spirit, which will in turn help out the disaster relief effort.
Beijing Radio
I am from Beijing Radio. How many performances we have in the ceremony? For people outside the stadium, how close can they be in terms of the distance to the stadium? How close can they be to watch the fireworks?
Zhang Heping
For the performers, we have 15,000 staff in the stadium. And if you want to watch the fireworks, the nearest you can is to be around the 4th Ring Road.
Foreign reporter
How many people are involved in the performance? We were told that there are 20,000 people. I've heard there will be military staff. Someone told me they will be in green uniforms. Could you elaborate on that?
Wang Ning
I would like to answer your question. As mentioned earlier by Mr. Zhang, we have about 15,000 performers. We do not include the ceremony people and other people involved. If we take that into account, we have less than 20,000 people as you mentioned earlier. Whether there are some military people or other people involved, let me put it this way. The first is the professional performers from all over China. They are artistic professional performers. The second group is students. The third group is from the military. That is the main composition of people involved in the performances in the Opening Ceremony.
MBC
My question is related to the torch relay. Who will be the last one to light the torch? I would like to give some indication for the lighting of the torch at the last moment. If you have any additional preparation, would that be other than the rest that you mentioned?
Zhang Heping
For the lightening of the flame and also the last torch bearer, this is always the most secret part. This secret will be revealed at the very last moment to the whole world. What I can say right now is the torch bearer is selected straightly. Of course we are doing the selection. We will take into account of the social impact and the sports achievement of that person. We also take into account of the special requirements of the flame lightening of that torch bearer. How the flame will be lighted, I suppose we should respect people's expectations to the mystery of Chinese and people from all over the world.
South China Morning Post
My question is about the order of marching-in. I am wondering if the order will be stroke of the Chinese characters of the first name or the last name.
Wang Ning
Of course we will use the stroke of the Chinese translated name of that country concerned.
Titan Sports
Mr. Zhang, you mentioned that the Opening Ceremony is ready. What are the contingency plans in case of rain?
Zhang Heping
I can safely say that for rains of the day, in the whole process of preparation, we paid close attention to them. We have made detailed contingency plan to deal with that possibility. As far as we know, on the 8 of August, there will be no strong rains, there will be some cloudy whether conditions or some showers. But we are fully prepared with some contingency plan for some drizzles or showers. That would not produce any major impacts. For the middle rain, we may reduce some of the performances, for example, the amount of the aerial performance for the sake of security. As far as we know, we are quite positive about the weather conditions on that day.
Beijing Youth Daily
I have a question for Mr. Zhang. For the theme song, is it convenient to tell me the length of the song? You have received more than 90,000 lyrics and more than 1,000 songs. Whether the song is from those lyrics and the songs?
Zhang Heping
It is about three minutes, the theme song come after wide spread solicitation. We have approached some famous song writers and lyric writers. Of course, all the effort will be part of the overall work for the song solicitation.
USA Today
There have been discussions that some athletes will display something or create some protests during the ceremonies. Would there be concerns of the displays or protests? If so, would there be things done at the BOCOG to address the issue when it happens. Thank you.
Zhang Heping
I would like to answer. If during the Opening Ceremony, something like what you said happen, like shouting some slogans, that action would ran against the Charter of the Olympics and against the spirit of the Olympic movement. The reason why the Olympics is becoming more and more welcomed by people all over the world as a grand festival is, the Olympic moment has transcended the boundaries of different races, cultures and religions. The contribution of Olympics is achieved in the process of the sports competition. We oppose those things. Also we hope and we believe that all the athletes involved in the Olympic Games know they should not go against the spirit of the Olympic Games.
| [1][2][Next] |
