The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Date/Time: 1:20 a.m., Saturday, August 9
Venue: Main Press Conference (MPC)
Wang Hui
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our press conference of the Beijing Olympic Games. As we know, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have been opened. About hundred thousand of spectators in Beijing and billions of spectators around the world watched the great event. We are going to hold the press conference in this sleepless night. Now let's welcome Mr. Wang Wei, executive vice president and secretary general of BOCOG to share with us the overall situation of the Opening Ceremony and the program.
Wang Wei
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I know everyone is anxious to hear from the director of the ceremonies. I would like to thank on behalf of BOCOG, the IOC, the International Federations, NOCs and our numerous sponsors, the media, all the Chinese departments, our friends from home and abroad for the support for preparation of the Games for so many years. The Opening Ceremony went very smoothly. Not only the organization went well, but also all the operations went smoothly. I would like to thank everybody for the support. Apart from thanks, I'm not going to say anymore. I'm going to invite the directors to say a few words.
Wang Hui
Thank you very much Mr. Wang Wei. I'm now going to ask Zhang Heping, director of the BOCOG Opening and Closing Ceremonies Department, to say a few words.
Zhang Heping
Dear friends from the media, thank you very much for your enthusiasm on this press conference. At this particular point, my whole team is at a state of excitement. I remember on my press conference on August 6, I did mention that we wanted to show our hundreds and thousands spectators a good and beautiful spectacle. I think that we succeeded and I would like to thank everybody for supporting us during the many years from March 2005, the time when we first started to ask for plans for the Opening Ceremony. We received over 400 proposals and received over 210,000 different kinds of suggestions, countless telephones and enumerable emails, which are all extremely important for the success of the Ceremony today.
I wanted to thank the Zhang Yimou, Zhang Jigang, Chen Weiya and the whole production and creative team, the organizers and the managers for the extremely efficient cooperation. With such a unified, capable and responsible team, I feel extremely proud of them all. I would also like to thank the IOC for the past years of direction and guidance for the ceremony. Our success today has made us very excited of course. But I have to say it's still too early for us to celebrate the victory and success. I would like to point out certain number of differences between our team and previous team because we are in charge of the Opening and Closing Ceremony for the Paralympics. We are going to deal with these four different ceremonies. For one single team to work on these 4 different ceremonies is unprecedented in the past Olympics.
And Mr. Zhang Yimou is the general director of all these ceremonies. Mr. Zhang Jigang and Mr. Chen Weiya are the deputy director of the ceremonies. Mr. Zhang Jigang was in charge of the first half of the Opening Ceremony, and Mr. Chen Weiya was in charge of the second half of the Opening Ceremony. Mr. Zhang Jigang will be in charge of the Opening & Closing Ceremonies for the Paralympics.
We can say the show has just begun. We will continue to work very hard to make sure the following will be as good and as spectacular as this one. Thank you for all your support for our work. Thank you.
Wang Hui
I am sure you want to hear from the directors too. They haven't got time to change. Let me invite Mr. Zhang to say a few words.
Zhang Yimou
This is a very memorable day for us. After so many years, we know so many people who work behind the curtain. Finally today, the ceremony is a full success. This is done by my team, I feel very proud for them. I don't have any more to say. I'm not sure if Zhang Jigang has something to add.
Zhang Jigang
Ladies and gentlemen, of the past many years under the leadership of Mr. Zhang Heping and guidance of the general director Zhang Yimou, who is the chief, our boss, with the cooperation with Zhang Weiya, I learned a lot. In the past few years, we always had different opinions. But we have never quarreled. I have so many things to say, but just this much so far.
Chen Weiya
This team have worked together for almost 3 years. In the period, there are so many hardships, difficulties and pains. We believe we have more joys. We have one target, one goal, that is to show the world an excellent ceremony. We have done that.
Wang Hui
Thank you directors. Now the floor is open for questions.
Beijing Radio
Why you choose 'You and Me' as the theme song?
Zhang Yimou
Actually, BOCOG selected theme songs. There are tens of thousands of candidate songs. Everyone believes 'Hand in Hand' for Seoul Olympics is the model. We always try to find a way towards this goal. But it is so jammed if we follow the path. At a special occasion, we came across this song. We felt it is beautiful and it touched our hearts. Both the lyrics and rhythm are beautiful. At that time, the most important part, is that we need to produce something in terms of artistic performance. We need to have a unique, unprecedented, greatest behavior based work of art. It is like a painting. Through the painting, we want to express this, 'You and me, hand in hand', very simple. But it touches our heart. At that time all the directors immediately fell in love with the song. I think it represents the theme of the Opening Ceremony. Everybody loves it.
Yomiuri Shimbun
I would like to ask any of the gentlemen about the reason behind the choosing of the last torch bearer. For the last two Olympics, it is a tendency that they choose the active athletes. Was the choice today any other circumstantial reason? Is there anything to do with the fact for this guy to fly around the stadium? Thank you.
Zhang Yimou
I will answer representing everyone. There is a special reason in choosing the torch bearer. First of all, he has to do some difficult movement in the air we haven't seen before. These are very difficult. We can't ask the active athletes. They can't do it because they have to be training everyday to practice and rehearse. So we want to find someone who retired. At the same time, we need to find someone who achieved glory. We also have to have enough spaces for the gym movement. We need somebody having a gymnastic background.
Under the restrict requirement, we accept the recommendation of Li Ning. Li Ning is also working very hard. Every night, he comes to work at 1 to 2 a.m. in the morning to train and rehearse, even though he is a healthy person. I am sure he knew the responsibilities rested on the shoulders, he did all the movement correctly, without a single error. It was pretty hard to get every movement right. He has to move 500 meters in three minutes. Every time he has to sit down and rest for a over an hour before he can actually do it again. And several times early in the morning, when I was ready to go home, he was still swinging in the air. We are moved by that.
Reporter from Republic of Korea
I want to know what the theme is. When I watched the performance, I saw a lot of things that are Chinese, which is not so much western. Do you want to show the confidence and the power of the Chinese culture? Since I was given one chance, I will ask another one. Instead of relying on the high-tech, it seems that you rely on human power. Was that part of your intention?
Zhang Yimou
We did want to show China's ancient civilization. We all know that China has a glory civilization that lasts for 5,000 years. We also want to talk about the present day and the spirit of the Chinese people today. Athletes from all over the world come to China, and of course they want to see something Chinese but not their own. So we decided the Chinese culture should be the main content. Of course, apart from Chinese culture, we also want to display the fact that China is looking at the outside world now, which is part of the ancient culture too. It is included in the elements of the torch lighting. Even for the scroll unwinding, it is Chinese. But the pictures are from all over the world. Of course we have to use high-tech because is necessary and because this is a new age of high -tech. We also think that this is attractive to younger generation. We also hope there are many people to participate, because this is a huge event, and we need a lot of people there.
I wanted a lot of people to participate and you will ask why, because the stadium is a huge square and you need to have a lot of people there. On a huge space, if you don't put a lot of people there, if you just have 3 or 5 people then it's going to be lonely and empty up there. You need to put a lot of performers and actors to create a sense of excitement, a sense of passion and a sense of movement which would be necessary in such a huge space.
London reporter
Congratulations on your performance tonight, it was magnificent. I have never seen anything like this. I would like to ask a few questions. First, if you could talk about the contribution of Sarah Brightman to the ceremony and how it came about and what you feel about it. Second, about the Olympic anthem, you sung it in Greek, could you tell me about the children, where they come from, that sort of thing. Thanks.
Zhang Yimou
For Sarah Brightman, to decide that she is going to sing, I think that we have 20 days to make that decision and before the 20 days that was not the decision. Because we believe she was the right person because the theme song is called 'You and Me'. Therefore we hope that somebody will stand on top of the earth, one Chinese and one foreigner. So one man and one woman. Liu Huan is the man and then we decided Sarah Brightman is the other. Her voice is very beautiful and very suitable for the song. She came to China for the show. A lot of Chinese people know her. Her appearance and everything was just right. We got her feedback very quickly and she left all her work and came to Beijing. We warned her that you have to climb to a very big earth, 8 stories high. We are worried about her, but she says ok. The next day, she came to China and climbed on top of the earth and recorded the song. Everything was done perfectly. I'm so grateful to her for coming here to sing the song.
The other question is for the Olympic theme song. This is the decision of the directors. All of a sudden, we decided we should let children wear the costume of 56 nationalities to sing a song in Greek. That is significant and in line with the Olympic spirit. For the children, they were very hard working and they learn a lot. I don't understand Greek but I told them that since we have already made the decision, they all have to do that. All the kids were doing well. They spend a lot of time for training and practicing.
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