2008 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony
Encyclopedia
The 2008 Summer Paralympics
opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium
on September 6, 2008 just two weeks after the end of the 2008 Summer Olympics
. The event was themed "One World, One Dream" and "Transcendence, Integration, Equality." The show was attended by about 91,000 to 100,000 spectators. It was approximately 3-hours in length and consisted of 6,000 performers and 4,000 disabled athletes from 148 countries.
of the People's Republic of China
Hu Jintao
makes an entrance along with Philip Craven
, president of the International Paralympic Committee
. Fireworks
are displayed counting down the numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 after a short video. The flag of the PRC is raised while the military band of the Chinese People's Liberation Army play the national anthem March of the Volunteers
. More fireworks are displayed. Cartoon marathon athletes wear suits of different colors to form a line of rainbow
. The rainbow stripe stretches around the stadium. They form the symbol of the Paralympic Games.
(几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). A total of 148 nations enter in the predetermined order. With the Paralympic Games, athletes enter the stadium first and then watch the performances together with the audience. A huge feather consisting of 148 feathers is formed within the Bird's Nest
, with each feather symbolizing the ideal of all people with disability in the world.
. Meanwhile, Chinese
and English
voice-over is aired "there are dreams in life after all". The sunbird and the blind singer Yang Haitao (杨海涛) walk onto the center stage in the field together referred to as the "White Jade Plate". Yang performs the song "Heaven" (天域), then saids "My name is Yang Haitao. I am blind. My home is China. If I can see the light for three days, I want to see my father, my mother and you the most…" A white cloud appears, then a trumpeter plays the music of "Hello, Stars" and 300 deaf girls communicate with sign languages, led by 50 sign language teachers. The girls form a series of circles a the "White Jade Plate" and expand. Fireworks are lighted.
A girl with one leg appears in a wheelchair
. She wears one pair of red shoes having lost her leg in the Sichuan earthquake
. She is circled by a group of ballet
performers dancing with arm aerobics wearing shoes in their hands. The girl in the center is then carried around.
Blind pianist Jin Yuanhui (金元辉) plays the piano to accompany the four seasons theme. The plate panels are rotated in different colors to represent different sceneries. Then 2,000 space robots appear in a circle. They change into the four forms of frog, seagull, cow and duck with a popular cartoon dance. The audience imitate the sounds of these animals: "Croak! Croak! Croak!" " Moo! Moo! Moo!" and "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Fireworks are displayed. The Paralympics mascot Fu Niu Lele (福牛乐乐) is represented.
A female singer pushing a baby carriage and a male singer walk and sing on the White Jade Plate. 100 female dancers slowly flow to the White Jade Plate like a galaxy. Thousands of luminous silver threads pull the whole Earth, as if he is carrying a traveling bag full of mountains, rivers and lands of the whole world. A display of 750 performers form birds and swans with their hands. On the blue backdrop it appears as birds or animals in the sky.
accompanies Philip Craven
, president of the IPC
, to the podium to give an address. Paramount leader Hu Jintao
then declares the Paralympics games opened at 22:36 Beijing time.
and Andy Lau
, the Paralympic flag
was raised and the Paralympic anthem played.
Representatives of the athletes and judges then take an oath
. Chinese goalball
judge Hao Guohua took the Paralympic oath on behalf of all officials, while paralympic runner Wu Chunmiao took the oath on behalf of the competitors.
The first torchbearer, Jin Jing
, brought in the Olympic torch
lit from the Temple of Heaven
in Beijing. It was handed down by six torchbearers. The paralympic flame is transferred last by Ping Yali to Hou Bin
, the high jump
gold medalist with one leg. In his wheelchair, Hou Bin pulls himself up to the cauldron and the flame is lit. A long series of firework is displayed around the stadium.
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....
opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium, also known officially as the National Stadium, or colloquially as the Bird's Nest , is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.-History:...
on September 6, 2008 just two weeks after the end of the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
. The event was themed "One World, One Dream" and "Transcendence, Integration, Equality." The show was attended by about 91,000 to 100,000 spectators. It was approximately 3-hours in length and consisted of 6,000 performers and 4,000 disabled athletes from 148 countries.
Pre-ceremony performance
The site of pre-ceremony performance is the Small Stage to the north of the field. After Pre-ceremony performance, the hosts give interactive guidance to the audience for 40 minutes. The pre-ceremony performance included a series of musical performances.- Military Music Performance: Welcome Music
- Folk Music Performance: Good News from Beijing Reaches the Border Villages
- Drum Music Performance: Ebullient Festival
- Male Solo: Come on!
- Male-female Duet: Happy Gathering in Beijing
- Lead and Chorus: Every one is No.1 performed by Andy LauAndy LauAndy Lau MH, JP is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actor, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same time...
- Male-female Duet: Miracle in the East
- Grand Chorus: The Blue Danube
- Male-female Duet and Chorus: The Drinking Song
- Grand Chorus: Ode to JoyOde to Joy"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...
- Chorus: Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing
Welcoming ceremony
PresidentPresident of the People's Republic of China
The President of the People's Republic of China is a ceremonial office and a part of State organs under the National People's Congress and it is the head of state of the People's Republic of China . The office was created by the 1982 Constitution...
of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
makes an entrance along with Philip Craven
Philip Craven
Sir Philip Craven MBE is a British sports official and former athlete. He is the second and current President of the International Paralympic Committee .-Education:...
, president of the International Paralympic Committee
International Paralympic Committee
The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nine sports...
. Fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
are displayed counting down the numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 after a short video. The flag of the PRC is raised while the military band of the Chinese People's Liberation Army play the national anthem March of the Volunteers
March of the Volunteers
March of the Volunteers is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China , written by the noted poet and playwright Tian Han with music composed by Nie Er. This composition is a musical march...
. More fireworks are displayed. Cartoon marathon athletes wear suits of different colors to form a line of rainbow
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc...
. The rainbow stripe stretches around the stadium. They form the symbol of the Paralympic Games.
Parade of nations
As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, with a flag bearer for each national team. . As Chinese is written in characters and not letters, the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names.In this list the, host country came last Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made GuineaGuinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
(几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). A total of 148 nations enter in the predetermined order. With the Paralympic Games, athletes enter the stadium first and then watch the performances together with the audience. A huge feather consisting of 148 feathers is formed within the Bird's Nest
Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium, also known officially as the National Stadium, or colloquially as the Bird's Nest , is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.-History:...
, with each feather symbolizing the ideal of all people with disability in the world.
Artistic section
Sound of birds chirping resonate in the otherwise silent stadium. A sunbird flies from the top of the Bird's Nest. Then the sunbird flies down to the golden meadow in the field to awaken a blind singer from his sleep. The sunbird chirps in front of him, and the singer translates the sunbird's message for the whole audience with sign languageSign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
. Meanwhile, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
voice-over is aired "there are dreams in life after all". The sunbird and the blind singer Yang Haitao (杨海涛) walk onto the center stage in the field together referred to as the "White Jade Plate". Yang performs the song "Heaven" (天域), then saids "My name is Yang Haitao. I am blind. My home is China. If I can see the light for three days, I want to see my father, my mother and you the most…" A white cloud appears, then a trumpeter plays the music of "Hello, Stars" and 300 deaf girls communicate with sign languages, led by 50 sign language teachers. The girls form a series of circles a the "White Jade Plate" and expand. Fireworks are lighted.
A girl with one leg appears in a wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
. She wears one pair of red shoes having lost her leg in the Sichuan earthquake
2008 Sichuan earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
. She is circled by a group of ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
performers dancing with arm aerobics wearing shoes in their hands. The girl in the center is then carried around.
Blind pianist Jin Yuanhui (金元辉) plays the piano to accompany the four seasons theme. The plate panels are rotated in different colors to represent different sceneries. Then 2,000 space robots appear in a circle. They change into the four forms of frog, seagull, cow and duck with a popular cartoon dance. The audience imitate the sounds of these animals: "Croak! Croak! Croak!" " Moo! Moo! Moo!" and "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Fireworks are displayed. The Paralympics mascot Fu Niu Lele (福牛乐乐) is represented.
A female singer pushing a baby carriage and a male singer walk and sing on the White Jade Plate. 100 female dancers slowly flow to the White Jade Plate like a galaxy. Thousands of luminous silver threads pull the whole Earth, as if he is carrying a traveling bag full of mountains, rivers and lands of the whole world. A display of 750 performers form birds and swans with their hands. On the blue backdrop it appears as birds or animals in the sky.
Speech
Liu Qi, head of the Beijing Organizing CommitteeBeijing Organizing Committee
The The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, or BOCOG, also known as the Beijing Organizing Committee, is an informal name for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. It was also the organizing committee for the Games of the XIII Paralympiad...
accompanies Philip Craven
Philip Craven
Sir Philip Craven MBE is a British sports official and former athlete. He is the second and current President of the International Paralympic Committee .-Education:...
, president of the IPC
International Paralympic Committee
The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nine sports...
, to the podium to give an address. Paramount leader Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
then declares the Paralympics games opened at 22:36 Beijing time.
Paralympic flame lighting of the flame cauldron
After a performance of the theme song Flying with the Dream by Han HongHan Hong
Han Hong is a Chinese singer and songwriter of ethnic Tibetan and Han Chinese origin. She is one of the most famous female singers in China, and has maintained her diva status since 2003. She is also a songwriter who specializes in a variety of Chinese folk music. Her signature works are Tibetan...
and Andy Lau
Andy Lau
Andy Lau MH, JP is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actor, and film producer. Lau has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maintaining a successful singing career at the same time...
, the Paralympic flag
International Paralympic Committee
The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nine sports...
was raised and the Paralympic anthem played.
Representatives of the athletes and judges then take an oath
Oath
An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...
. Chinese goalball
Goalball
Goalball is a team sport designed for blind athletes. It was devised by Hanz Lorenzen , and Sepp Reindle , in 1946 in an effort to help in the rehabilitation of visually impaired World War II veterans...
judge Hao Guohua took the Paralympic oath on behalf of all officials, while paralympic runner Wu Chunmiao took the oath on behalf of the competitors.
The first torchbearer, Jin Jing
Jin Jing
Jin Jing is a Chinese female Paralympic fencer. She was a torchbearer carrying the Olympic torch amid political protests during the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in Paris, France...
, brought in the Olympic torch
Olympic Flame
The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928...
lit from the Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest...
in Beijing. It was handed down by six torchbearers. The paralympic flame is transferred last by Ping Yali to Hou Bin
Hou Bin
Hou Bin , born in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, in 1975, is a Chinese athlete who specialises in the high jump.He lost his left leg in an accident at the age of nine. He subsequently became a Paralympian, and represented China at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta. He won gold in the high...
, the high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
gold medalist with one leg. In his wheelchair, Hou Bin pulls himself up to the cauldron and the flame is lit. A long series of firework is displayed around the stadium.