The 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games opened last week with a stunning visual extravaganza presented by Beijing Olympics organizers. The ceremony marked the games values of "solidarity and progress" in the five-hour show dubbed "Sailing".
A touch of Guangzhou
Dropping the common practice of holding an opening ceremony at a stadium, the Guangdong Games' organizers moved the centre stage onto a boat-shaped island Haixinsha on the Pearl River. In the nimble hands of Chen Weiya, Assistant Director of the Beijing pageantry in 2008, his new production was centered on water, the soul of the host city's coastal origins.
"Four years ago in Doha, the Asiad's flames rose from the desert and four years later, we will start our Asian Games' journey from here on the Pearl River, said Chen. "We try to present the beauty of life, the glory of civilizations and the hopes of future through water," Chen added.
If the Beijing version showcased a grand tribute to Chinese civilization in general, Chen's team used a tightly-choreographed 70 minute program to portray the colorful history of Guangzhou from a fishing port to modern metropolis, the epitome of China's revival.
Guangdong culture was experienced throughout the ceremony, especially in the performance of a little boy singing a local children's song called "Heavy Rainfall" on a green crystal palm leaf-shaped boat to a gigantic Red Kapok, the city flower of Guangzhou.
Local lifestyles like fishing, boating, dragon dancing and Guangdong opera performances, were depicted on silk paintings unfolded on the huge screen, while 520 performers played the Liede drum, a local instrument widely used in festival celebrations.
At the apex of the ceremony, former Chinese Olympic diving gold medalist He Chong, a Guangdong native, ignited the basin-shaped cauldron.
Progress
During "The Ship in the Ocean" performance, 200 fishing women, with red fishing lanterns in their hands, saw their loved ones off to sea from the seashore.
"This part [was] a salute to those who made Guangzhou's success possible and to all the Asian people who never surrender in the face of dooms or disasters," said Chen. "The ship is like Guangzhou, like China, and the whole Asia is sailing for a brighter future."
Situated at the entry of the Pearl River into the South China Sea, Guangzhou represented the starting-point of the "Maritime Silk Road", on which, trade of china, spices, tea and silk was conducted between China and other countries for more than 2,000 years.
Since the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, development has been most intense in China's coastal regions. Riding on an economic boom, Guangzhou has been quickly transformed into a powerhouse of the country's export-oriented economy, as a pioneer of the economic revolution.
Guangzhou success was demonstrated along with the whole country's development, when landmark buildings such as the 600-metre-tall New Guangzhou TV Tower, the Bird's Nest of Beijing and the red China Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo, appeared on the LED screen.
Unity
Forty-five holy water girls, representing 45 Asian countries and regions, held glass containers with water collected from all major waterways of Asia, and poured the water into the holy fire basin which arose from center stage.
Performers pushed four bridge arms toward the fire basin, and put the arms into a harmony-symbolized homocentric bridge, while dancers wearing costumes of different Asian countries formed a pattern of the emblem of the Olympic Council of Asia under the bridge.
The images of smiling people from Asian countries and regions, old and young, men and women, slid though the screen as renowned buildings of each Asian country and region, from China's Heavenly Temple to India's Taj Mahal.
Liu Peng, President of the Games organization committee and Minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, hailed the values of Asiad in his opening speech. "We find, the values promoted at those earlier Games, Solidarity, Friendship and Progress through sport, are as relevant today as they ever were," he said.
