Press conference: Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics

CCTV

I have a few detailed question for the three directors. One is the painting scroll which is very unique. Where does it come from? The second question is about how the 5 rings flew up? Thirdly, how the performers were trained?

Zhang Yimou

Let me answer the first question. The very long painting scroll unfolding is something that we have been thinking of for almost three years. We have been thinking a lot of that. We wanted to do everything but we wanted to find something unique which is the hallmark of the Chinese culture. Everybody likes Chinese painting. It focused on the very romantic idea about whether we can unfold a very long painting scroll which is very beautiful. When we were thinking of that, we also thought of inviting the athletes to make footprints on the scroll making the work together with us. There were a lot of changes, but the theme never changed. I would like to thank the technical production team. They helped us to realize that. How to realize that was actually very simple. For the screen on the ground, we do that bit by bit with a lot of very subtle coordination and collaboration.

Zhang Jigang

Under the leadership of Zhang Yimou, our team know that we must do three things well. The Olympic rings, the flame and the Olympic Flag to be hosted.

For the dream rings, we know that the performance is very good. I can remember the Sydney Olympic Games. Somebody is riding horses forming rings. In Athens, the rings are performed in the water. We are thinking what kind of rings will be formed in the ceremony which will make people think that is unimaginable and unbelievable. As a matter of fact, it is a set of ideas. You may remember that during the performance tonight in the sky, there are 29 big foot prints representing the 29th Olympic Games. When the last footprint showed in the sky, it all falls like stars in the Bird's Nest. Then with the big screen on the ground with different locations, we tried to create the effect of the gathering of many stars on the ground forming 5 rings on the ground. At this moment, the audience realized what it meant. This is an opportunity for us to create miracles. We allow the screen based and the rings to gradually lift up to the sky. So it's like a crystal dreamlike rings. Thank you.

Chen Weiya

I would respond to the question on Taiji. Chinese martial arts are very well known all over the world. When we thought about doing Taiji in the ceremony, the director told us to express the feeling of harmony to human nature and a combination of the strength and fluid movement. It should represent harmony and this is our basic thinking. We had to gradually understand how to use their breath and get that feeling. So we found martial arts schools which have many students. After a very careful selection process, we finally chose 2,380 of the students from this school. They have been practicing for 10 months. Every time we visited and saw them, we were impressed on the progress. Today, they were finally able to produce an extremely well-organized and well-coordinated pattern. We find it extremely admirable. This is the result of hours of hard work and sweat. This was an attempt to express the core values of Chinese culture. We felt from the response of the spectators that we actually succeeded. Thank you.

Reuters

How was it more difficult in making the films when you have one chance to get it right, did that weigh on you enormously? The second question is, I was interested in that you focused so much on the ancient Chinese history but no references on the 20th century and the astronaut from this century. Nothing from the 21th century. Why did you skip that part of Chinese history? Thank you very much.

Zhang Yimou

Of course this is very nerve racking, much more nerve racking than the movie. I was sitting at the edge of the chair all the way through the program. The thing that made me nervous was the lighting of the torch because nothing could go wrong there. Even though we worked very hard and made all the preparations, one will never know when things go wrong. I'm really grateful of my teams today. All the actors and performers performed extremely well, quite perfectly. As for representing the Chinese traditional culture, actually the second part of the performance was talking about China today. We built a new nest in the 'Bird's Nest'. We talked about Taiji just now. This is also something happening to China today. If you go in the morning to the parks, you will find a lot of people in the parks doing Taiji. In fact, it is a scene of the present day. It's an old tradition but also is very widely practiced today and very popular among Chinese people. We also showed the spaceman coming down to the earth. This is a symbolic demonstration of something that is happening in the modern world.

But you must also understand that the symbols of the present day are not easy to capture, unlike in the ancient world because today we are sort of one big family, we resemble together. We dress similarly and the fashion and fads are similar and very close. We are in the age of communication. That is why if you wanted to find something unique in today's Chinese culture, it will be very difficult because we now become globalized culture. So we chose this more romantic and flexible symbol not as concrete as in the past that was unique in China. We also want to step out of the narrow culture and express a universal culture. That is why we tried to use the less realistic pragmatic way of dealing with the issues. Thank you.

Reporter

At the Opening Ceremony, who is the little boy next to Yao Ming and what is the story? The little girl in red, who was singing at the beginning, what is the background for the little girl and what is here role?

Chen Weiya

I'm sorry I can't remember the child's name, because I am really tired tonight. However, this boy is from the earthquake area in Sichuan Province. He saved several little boys using his bare hands.

Zhang Heping

He is also one of the outstanding young people who were selected by the government to award and praise children during the earthquake, as part of the government awards.

Zhang Yimou

Let me add some supplementary comments. The girl in red is named Lin Miaoke, a 9-year-old kid. She is selected among many girls. She is a lovely girl and she sings well. We decided later on to invite the kids wearing costumes of 56 nationalities. We also wanted to add a special piece, asking the 9-year-old girl to sing a familiar song 'Ode to the Motherland'. We changed the rhythm of the song to make it in line with the atmosphere.

Chen Weiya

The boy is called Lin Hao.

New York Sun

What precaution you take regarding the heat in the stadium tonight? What is the impact on the performers and the spectators? Anything special you have to do?

Zhang Heping

Today is very humid and hot. But what worries us most is the rain. The weather said starting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., there will be rain. However, I can tell you we have a weather forecast on site, monitoring the change of weather condition. They told us the rain clouds disperse. On the second half, they told us again that the rain might come at around 11 p.m. Today what worried us most is the rain because it will have impact on the performance and on the spectators as well. At that time, we mobilize around 10,000 raincoats to deliver the rain coat to the athletes for their entry. But today the heaven is cooperating and did not rain. So temperature and humidity are something to be worried about. I think all the audience were moved and touched by the performance. The rain has no impact. Thank you very much I think heaven was also moved by us.

Wang Hui

Thank you very much for your interest. I would like to thank all the officials and directors. The press conference is over.