Beijing Olympics opening ceremony blends technology and tradition
OLYMPICS
The power and precision of a rising China are on display with 14,000 performers and hundreds of athletes. The downsides: heat, humidity and numbing repetition.
BEIJING -- The rumble began slowly, softly, as the 2,008 drummers in silvery robes each worked their hands on the bronze surface of a fou, the oldest Chinese percussion instrument.
And then the noise increased, rattling the National Stadium, waves of sound soon punctuated by fireworks as the lights on the surfaces of the drums and the rhythmic movements of the percussionists turned the countdown to Friday's start of the 2008 Olympics' opening ceremony into a blend of technology and tradition.
The striking sound and flashing lights were a fanfare for not only the Olympians, who would later parade across the floor of the stadium known as the Bird's Nest. They announced to the world that China, an ancient culture moldering in the dust of history for nearly the entire 20th century, was marching boldly into the 21st, its 1.3 billion people taking another first step in their journey from a doormat for the West to the pillar of an Asia that stands ever taller.
The Olympic Games hold such cachet in China that hosting them for the first time is a symbol of the country's power and place in the world.
The moment would be recorded, not only by the TV cameras showing the opening ceremony to an estimated 4 billion people around the globe, but also on scrolls, the way things always were in China. Paper, a major invention the country has given to the world, was the unifying motif of the ceremony.
A high-definition scroll opened on the center of the stadium floor, another use of modern wizardry to illustrate classic elements of China. Athletes for the 204 nations -- an expected 205th, Brunei, was excluded at the last minute because it had not sent athletes -- walked through paint before walking across a vinyl scroll, leaving footprints to mark their passage.
Athletes making history in the Games; the Games marking the history of China.
The production mixed power, impact and a huge cast performing formation choreography flawlessly in what looked like the largest Busby Berkeley spectacular ever.
"One section required that over 600 performers should have uniform expression in their eyes, so they must have exquisite feelings, and they have to work very hard," said Wang Hong, manager of the cultural troupe in the Peoples Liberation Army second artillery corps.
Nine thousand of the 14,000 performers were PLA soldiers, who had endured some rehearsals that lasted 48 hours.
