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Zhang
Jigang is deputy director of the work team and best known
for his direction of Thousand-Hand Guanyin, an award-winning
dance performed at the 2005 Spring Festival Eve gala show.
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One
of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games“Five
Friendlies” mascots.
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The
Zhang Yimou-directed Turandot was rapturously received
by Paris audiences in 2005.
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Celebrated Chinese film director Zhang Yimou was recently selected
as leader of the team that will work on the Beijing 2008 Olympics
opening and closing ceremonies. As the old Chinese saying goes,
“A good beginning takes you halfway to success,” and
a great deal is expected of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.
Its main aim is to leave a positive and lasting impression of
China’s splendid civilization on participating athletes,
spectators from all over the world and the billions of TV viewers
that watch it. The Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee has invited
three overseas consultants to join the work team. They are world-renowned
American movie director Steven Spielberg, president of French
company ECA2 Yves Pepin, who staged the 2004 Olympics closing
ceremony in Athens, and Australian Richard Peter Birch, chief
director of four successive Olympic events since 1988.
“The Athens Olympics opening ceremony made a deep impression
on us, so we are carefully considering how best to create a theme
that celebrates China, its long history and splendid culture,”
an official from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic
Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said.
Essential Teamwork
Beijing is as determined as any Olympic Games host to ensure
that its opening ceremony will leave an indelible impression.
The recently announced Beijing 2008 Olympics creativity team is
spiced with celebrity. Film director Zhang Yimou is chief director.
His right-hand men are Chen Weiya, vice director of the China
National Song and Dance Ensemble and designer of the opening ceremonies
of several recent major sports events, who worked with Zhang Yimou
on the staging of Turandot in Beijing’s Forbidden City, and
outstanding song and dance performance director Zhang Jigang,
director of the Song and Dance Ensemble affiliated with the General
Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Yu Jianping, president of Beijing Special Engineering Design Institute,
is technical director. The team’s production executive is
Lu Jiankang, general manager of the Bei'ao Culture and Sports
Co., who participated in the planning and organization of the
21st Universiade opening ceremony in Beijing and in the NGO forums
at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The team’s
cultural and artistic consultants are Ji Xianlin and Tang Yijie,
eminent professors at the prestigious Peking University, Jin Shangyi,
chairman of the China Artists' Association and ex-president of
the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xu Xiaozhong, honorary president
of the Central Academy of Drama, and movie director Chen Kaige.
Since announcement of the creativity team members, they have
all, along with organizing committee officials, studiously avoided
the press. World famous American director Steven Spielberg, one
of the three foreign consultants on culture and art assigned to
choreograph and stage the opening and closing ceremonies, is full
of confidence. “I believe the opening ceremony of the 2008
Beijing Olympics will be one that is both grand and unforgettable,”
he said.
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Zhang
Yimou and his three overseas consultants.
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Members
of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games opening and closing ceremony
work team scrutinize a model of the main “bird’s
nest” stadium.
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Essential Chinese Elements
Finding the appropriate level of expression of the Chinese element
in the opening ceremony is the creativity team’s main task.
The BOCOG tendered internationally for creative input for the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies in March
2005. Film directors that responded included Zhang Yimou, Feng
Xiaogang, Chen Kaige, and Oscar winner Ang Lee. Eventually 13
creative plans were selected. “We will take the best ideas
from each plan and integrate them into a design that reflects
the cultural essence of five thousand years of Chinese history
and civilization,” said vice chief director Zhang Jigang,
adding, “But as the theme of the 2008 Olympic Games is One
World One Dream, the opening ceremony should also feature contemporary
Chinese characteristics in order to convey the Chinese people’s
desire for friendship, harmony and peace. Our task is to incorporate
Chinese elements, expressible onstage the opening ceremony stadium,
that are easily interpreted by the non-Chinese audience. As a
major world event, the ceremony should be grand and dignified
but at the same time exude an ethos of lighthearted optimism.”
Vice chief director Zhang Jigang recalls the deep impression
Hand in Hand, theme song of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, made on him.
“The song title and chorus express how people everywhere
in the world are equal as long as there is communication and friendship
among them. This is a universal and immutable concept,” Zhang
said.
Spielberg insists that an impressive visual effect will have
more direct impact on viewers than audio effects or subtitles,
and Zhang Yimou agrees. Having started his career as an art designer,
Zhang is experienced in using color to tell stories. Steven Spielberg
spoke of how he “ …. talked at length with Zhang about
the use of color in getting a message across, and he is obviously
an adept in this medium.”
Chinese and Western Music Mix
Music is another important aspect of the opening ceremony. Zhang
Yimou’s audiences are already familiar with the Chinese folk
song Jasmine Flower, as he used it in China’s bid for the
2008 Olympics. It is without doubt a beautiful melody but its
repeated use might suggest a paucity of ideas. In recent years
Zhang has been in frequent contact and also worked together with
Chinese-American composer Tan Dun. The two are currently working
on the staging of Chinese opera Emperor Qinshihuang, with Tan
as composer and conductor and Zhang Yimou as director, in New
York at the end of 2006. An internationally recognized musician
with a Western education, Tan and his musical talent are greatly
admired by chief director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening
and closing ceremonies Zhang Yimou. The question is, will the
two cooperate on this world event?
“We will invite appropriate composers to write some new
songs, as various styles of music will be needed to express each
nuance of the ceremony,” confirmed vice chief director Zhang
Jigang. Many people suggest that the opening ceremony theme song
should have both Chinese and English lyrics.
This poses the question of who the singer of the theme song will
be. Zhang Yimou recently asked young Taiwanese pop singer Jay
Chou to compose and sing the theme song of his latest movie The
City of Golden Armor. There is consequently hope in some quarters
that indy musician Jay, whose avant-garde hair and dress style
make him darling of the youth, will be the main vocalist at the
ceremony. There is, however, concern in others about whether or
not he presents a suitable image of China at such an important
event
“We will do our utmost to present an impressive, unforgettable
gala to our international audience,” stated Zhang Jigang
in an interview. Yet the idea of a grand opening ceremony leaves
certain Chinese people cold. “The Olympic Games is a combination
of sportsmanship and traditional culture,” said senior sports
journalist Ma Shen, reporter on several Olympic events. “Having
seen the short film Zhang Yimou directed as part of the Olympic
bid, I think he should cultivate a deeper understanding of sports
culture.”
Ma is not Zhang Yimou’s only critic. The eight-minute performance
he directed for the Athens closing ceremony was spangled with
cliché images gleaned from his earlier movies. It is feared
that he may once again dig out the old props of red lanterns,
Peking opera make-up, gongs and drums to evoke the Chinese essence
of the 2008 games. “The creativity team has abundant materials
to work with,” said Professor Nie Wei of the Chinese Film
Academy. “They should edit out the more predictable images,
such as Peking Opera, qipao, terra cotta warriors, gongs and drums,
and concoct something that will surprise both the Chinese and
international public.”
China continues to play an ever-greater role on the global stage,
and the Chinese people are now ready to share their culture of
tolerance and good will with the rest of the world. In a recent
sina.com survey, 57 percent of participating netizens expressed
the belief that the opening ceremony should, above all else, evoke
the passion and spirit of contemporary Chinese people.
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