The Beijing Olympics 2008

Posted on August 10, 2008
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The greatest sporting spectacle on earth has started and we in India sit with our fingers crossed as the opening ceremony unveiled itself yesterday with a host of world leaders (George Bush, Putin, Sarkozy, Sonia Gandhi, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Shimon Peres, Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza) marking their presence in Beijing. China has now officially put the stamp on the long known fact of being a superpower in all spheres of human imagination. As the night of August 8, 2008 passed, the sound of heavy footsteps thundered across the “Bird’s Nest” as colossal burning “footprints” marched in the sky along Beijing’s central axis all the way through the Olympic Green to the National Stadium. Spectators all over the world had a virtual tour of Chinese culture; what they saw was ancient China and young China, a nation wishing to build a harmonious home together with friends from all parts of the world.

More than 20,000 performers from all parts of China including Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei, regaled the audience with superb martial arts performances going on through song and dance. With the constantly changing backdrop and an amazingly complex displays of fireworks, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was launched, literally, with a bang and drummed up the slogan “One World One Dream.” Absolute artistic harmony was created with Chinese elements that are already well-known in the world, such as Peking opera, martial arts, the Great Wall, terracotta warriors, the Silk Road and Zheng He’s ocean voyages, and are going to be showcased with almost all the events that are planned for the world viewers. Another concept to be seen is with the paintings like the, “moveable type printing,” “Confucius’ 3,000 disciples,” “The Analects of Confucius,” “Zheng He’s ocean voyages” and “Chinese ritual music” which would all be showcased, depicting the flow of Chinese civilization.

“These five rings — blue, yellow, black, green and red — represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other. Moreover, the six colours (including the white background) thus combined represent those of all nations, without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the French, English, American, German, Belgian, Italian and Hungarian tricolours, the yellow and red of Spain are side by side with the new Brazilian and Australian flags, the old Japan and the new China. It is a true international emblem”, they say.

The Olympics symbol is the most recognised symbol too.– The results of a survey carried out in six countries (Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Great Britain and the USA) in 1995 showed that 92% of those questioned correctly identified the Olympic rings, which made them the most-recognised symbol. They were followed by the McDonald’s and Shell emblems (88%), Mercedes (74%) and the United Nations (36%). (SRI Sponsorship Research International).



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