The opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 20:00 (8:00 PM) China Standard Time (UTC+08:00), on 8 August 2008, due to the significance of the number 8, which is considered to be auspicious"Beijing Confirms the Opening Ceremony Time for 2008 Olympics" , Travel China Guide. Retrieved 2 August 2008. and is furthermore associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture. The artistic part of the ceremony comprised two parts titled "Brilliant Civilization" and "Glorious Era" respectively. The first part highlighted Chinese civilization and the second part exhibited modern China and its dream of harmony between the people of the world. The stadium was full to its 91,000 capacity according to organizers.
The ceremony was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who was the chief director, and whose international reputation rests partly on work banned in China. He was assisted by Chinese choreographers Zhang Jigang and Chen Weiya.Zhang Yimou and his five creative generals The director of music for the ceremony was composer Chen Qigang. It was noted for its focus on ancient Chinese culture (with the Communist revolution being largely omitted). The final ascent to the torch featured Olympic gymnast Li Ning, who appeared to run through air around the membrane of the stadium. Featuring 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours (4:09, second only to Sydney 2000) and was reported to have cost over US$100 million to produce.
The Ceremony was also notable for using weather modification technology to prevent rainfall. Using cloud seeding, the government ordered over 1000 misses filled with silver iodide to surround the city. They were assisted by three aircraft. The goal was to cause potential storms to release the rain before it reached the stadium.
The opening ceremony was broadly praised by the international press as spectacular, and as the best ever Olympic opening ceremony. It drew rave reviews despite controversy, and a worldwide TV audience variously estimated, but likely over a billion. The ceremonies were also criticised for their militarism, high cost, historical revisionism, and lack of humour.
The opening ceremony can also be considered an important branding initiative for China. In 2014, the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and Zhang Yimou were collectively awarded a Peabody Award for the "spell-binding, unforgettable celebration of the Olympic promise".
Creative team The creative team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games consisted of a roster of renowned individuals. The artistic performance of the Opening Ceremony, titled the "Beautiful Olympics", had the internationally acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou as General Director, and Zhang Jigang and Chen Weiya as Deputy General Directors. Its core planning team comprised some of the best artists and technology experts in the world, including Yu Jianping, Lu Jiankang, Cai Guoqiang, Chen Qigang, British stagecraft designer Mark Fisher, Chen Yan, Sha Xiaolang, Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka, Xu Jiahua, Cheng Xiaodong, and Tan Dun. Jennifer Wen Ma was the youngest member of the creative team, and Chief Designer for Visual and Special Effects for the Opening Ceremony.
After working in collaboration with Artistic Director Zhang Yimou on his original creative and production proposal to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), David Zolkwer, Project Director for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games ceremonies, was formally commissioned to provide ongoing Creative and Production consultancy for the Opening Ceremony directly to BOCOG along with colleagues Mik Auckland (Technical) and Celia Smith (Production) – all of whom worked for Jack Morton Worldwide at the time.
In 2006, BOCOG initially chose American filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Yves Pepin, head of the French entertainment group ECA2, and Sydney Games opening ceremony director Ric Birch as special consultants. In February 2008, Spielberg pulled out of his role as advisor in protest over China's alleged continuing support of the Sudanese government and the ongoing violence in the Darfur region. American composer Quincy Jones decided to stay on and contribute to the Beijing Olympics, in the hopes of influencing policy through engagement. Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee was also part of the team creating the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games; his nationality was omitted from official statements.
Gillian Chung was originally scheduled to be a performer at the opening ceremony, but due to the Edison Chen photo scandal, director Zhang Yimou replaced her and her partner, Charlene Choi (not involved in the photo incident) with the C-pop act A-One. A-One was not a part of the performances on 8 August.
Proceedings Prelude
The People's Liberation Army Navy Band performed the "Welcome March" song to welcome International Olympic Committee members and Chinese paramount leader Hu Jintao.
The proceedings began by a flame and an ancient Chinese sundial, awakened by the light of time from the sky, lights up 2008 bronze Fou drums. The drums, running like a time machine, formed giant digits (in both Hindu–Arabic and Chinese numerals) to count down the seconds to the Games. The digits were formed at ten-second intervals starting from sixty before switching over to one-second intervals for the final ten seconds. At the end, a huge fireworks display was set off at the top of the stadium.
Welcoming ceremony – The Song-Fou The 2,008 drummers played the bronze Fou drums and sang lyrics that quoted from The Analects of Confucius: "Isn't it delightful to have friends coming from afar?".
Footprints of History and Olympic Rings The firework footprints were set off at the rate of one every second; each represented one of the 29 Olympiads, signifying the Beijing Olympics as the XXIX Olympiad of the modern era. The 29th footprint arrived at Bird's Nest and transformed into Star Olympic Rings. Next, the rings were lift up by twenty "Dunhuang fairies" (Mahayana Chan (Zen) Chinese Buddhist apsaras of the Mogao Caves).
National flag-raising ceremony
Attention was then turned to 56 young children representing the 56 ethnic groups of modern China, and wearing respective costumes. They marched in the flag of the People's Republic of China as a young girl in red, nine-year-old , was seen performing "Ode to the Motherland", miming to the voice of Yang Peiyi. Only one-third of "Ode to the Motherland" was sung, to save time. The flag of the People's Republic of China was then handed over to eight well-dressed PLAGF Honor Guard Soldiers who carried the flag in a slow, goose-stepping march over to the flag podium, and the Chinese national anthem "March of the Volunteers" was sung by a 224-member choir while the flag was unfurled and raised, with red and yellow fireworks going off at the end.
Artistic section The theme of the Artistic section was China's history and art.
Scroll Painting
At the prelude to the section, Beautiful Olympics, a short film, was screened depicting the making of paper, another of the Four Great Inventions, ending with a rolled-up scroll painting to set the stage for the next segment. Ceramics, porcelain vessels and other Chinese fine arts artifacts were beamed on a giant LED scroll, representing the first of the Four Great Inventions of China, paper, and displaying animated graphics, slowly unfurling. At its center was a piece of white canvas paper, which then ushered in a performance of black-costumed dancers whose hands hid brushes that had been dipped in ink. They performed a dance while leaving their trails on the block of white paper, reminiscent of Chinese ink and wash painting. This was accompanied by the sounds of the guqin, China's ancient seven-string zither, as played by Chen Leiji (S: 陈雷激, T: 陳雷激, P: Chén Léijī). The LED scroll then showed an old, rare painting by Wang Ximeng.
Written character The giant scroll was then moved aside to show a fluid array 897 movable type blocks that formed three variations of the character 和 (Hé "harmony"), representing the third great Chinese invention: the movable type press. The character was shown, consecutively, in bronze inscription, Seal script and KaisScript (Modern Chinese script). Performers in Zhou-era clothing representing the "3000 Disciples of Confucius", carrying bamboo slips, recited excerpts from the Analects: "Isn't it great to have friends coming from afar?" () and "All men are brothers within the Four Seas" (). The blocks changed into a small version of the Great Wall, which then sprouted peach blossoms, the Chinese symbol for openness. At the end of the sequence the tops of the movable type blocks came off to reveal 897 performers, who waved vigorously to the crowds, indicating that the individual pieces of type block were not computer controlled and synchronized, but rather the combined efforts of 897 perfectly in-sync performers.
Opera The next segment saw ancient terracotta soldiers and Chinese opera, followed by a Beijing opera puppetry performance. The Wusheng type of Beijing opera performers was also enacted.
Silk Road
A Dunhuang fairy danced on the paper—which had been recoloured as a golden desert by projected illumination, and was held up by hundreds of men in clothing of ancient diplomatic envoys. A giant scroll showed the ancient Silk Road. This was followed by a procession of men, in blue costumes, who with huge oars formed formations of junks, symbolizing the expeditions of Zheng He. A performer holding another great Chinese invention, the compass (in its ancient form of a metal spoon floating in vessel), danced in the center of the giant LED scroll that showed images of sailing junks and maps of Zheng He's seven voyages on Maritime Silk Road in the Ming dynasty.
Li and Yue (Ritual and Music)
This segment represented the prosperity of ancient China as "The State of Li and Yue." Accompanied by the music of Kunqu, one of the oldest extant Chinese operas, the giant scroll expanded and showed several beautiful classic ancient paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. At this point, two rows of huge royal dragon pillars called huabiao emerged, and stretched skyward, with the performers dancing to the ancient tune Flowery Moonlit River in Spring, as pink and orange fireworks were set off overhead.
Starlight
Then followed the modern segment where pianist Lang Lang and five-year-old Li MuziLang delights the crowd with moving performance Chen Jie, China Daily Staff Writer. performed a melody from the Yellow River Cantata. Around the pianists a sea of rainbow-coloured luminescent performers swayed in wave-like unison to suggest the flow of the Yellow River. The illuminated performers, symbolizing modern-day China, then arranged themselves in the shape of the Dove of Peace, which wings were then set into motion as the performers moved about. They formed the bird's nest shape of the Beijing National Stadium. When a young girl flew a kite – also a Chinese invention – above them in mid-air, the performers' lights flickered in an intricate pattern.
Nature