THEY COULDN’T maintain the opening ceremony by the river or the lake, so that they introduced the river and the lake to the Asian Games right here on Saturday. And the night that started with a whoosh ended with a silent flicker.
China, the nation believed to have given the world fireworks, shunned one in all its most widely-used innovations for soundless, smokeless sparks within the ceremony that dazzled with digital creations and boundless creativeness.
The 115-minute extravaganza, aesthetic and awe-inspiring, on the 81,000-seater Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium noticed augmented actuality — rivers and waves, 3D stadiums and flying sports activities gear, digital torchbearers and folks within the sky performing to conventional tunes.
Nothing captured the AI-driven nature of those Asian Games greater than the lighting of the cauldron, probably the most coveted a part of any opening ceremony. As the torch exchanged arms between China’s greatest sporting stars contained in the stadium, a digital torchbearer — a fruits of a digital relay by which over 105 million folks participated — crisscrossed via the most important Hangzhou landmarks earlier than getting into the stadium from the far finish, circling it, and ultimately lighting the flame.
China President Xi Jinping had earlier declared open the Games, postponed by a yr because of the pandemic. So over-prepared has China been for the Asiad that it held 5 gown rehearsals of the ceremony, with full-scale manufacturing and spectators within the stands.
Ironically although, when the day arrived, eight years after town was awarded the occasion, the ceremony, whose central theme was water, was threatened by rains. The organisers stored a smaller indoor venue on standby, able to shift the whole extravaganza subsequent door at a number of hours’ discover in case it poured.
But the rain gods relented and the one droplets that drizzled have been digital – tens of millions of drops coming collectively to kind a river, which then flowed to kind tides on which boats sailed. Artists painted on them and poets sat on the sting, sipping the well-known native tea, and in search of inspiration from the shimmering water physique that flows via town centre.
The ceremony, directed by Chinese filmmakers Sha Xiaolan and Lu Chuan, was an ode to town that holds near-mythical standing in China, for its lakeside location in addition to for being a non secular retreat. They say that through the Southern Song interval, poets and artists sought refuge on the banks of the tranquil West Lake and have been held in excessive esteem.
These previous relics could solely be of symbolic worth now, as Hangzhou has reworked into an ultra-modern, high-tech and cashless society. It’s on the centre of China’s tech revolution and AI creations.
All these components — rivers and lakes, canals and bridges, poets and artists, and tech — have been seamlessly built-in into a blinding, inventive present that was designed as a lot for the 1000’s contained in the stadium because it was for the tens of millions watching it on the tv.
Even the in any other case drab athletes’ parade was stuffed with symbolism.
At 8.15 pm on a breezy night time, Tokyo Olympics medal-winning boxer Lovlina Borgohain and hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh led the Indian contingent out to a not-so-warm reception from a capability crowd, amid a standoff between the 2 international locations after three athletes from Arunachal Pradesh have been denied accreditation playing cards and supplied stapled visas as an alternative for the Games.
It supplied a glimpse into the welcome that awaits them over the subsequent two weeks after they compete in 40 sports activities.
With their biggest-ever contingent of greater than 650 athletes, India have set a lofty objective of successful 100 medals, which would require them to compete out of their skins. A bulk of Indian medals are anticipated from athletics, with hockey, taking pictures, badminton and archery amongst different potential medal-winning disciplines.
The wrestling disaster and a minefield of a attract boxing, the place Paris Olympics spots are at stake, make India’s probabilities in two fight sports activities they normally excel in look difficult.
Yet, it was troublesome to not really feel sanguine about India’s prospects when the contingent walked out.
Japan was the one different nation that bought the identical response from the spectators as India. In sharp distinction to Afghanistan, who have been the primary off the blocks and have been welcomed with loud cheers, with 17 ladies athletes representing the nation in a multi-discipline occasion for the primary time for the reason that Taliban took over.
North Korea marched out a bit of later, marking their return to worldwide sports activities for the primary time for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic, their athletes receiving one of many warmest receptions together with Hong Kong – the packed stadium waved Chinese flags when the delegation walked out — and Pakistan.
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An even greater roar was reserved for the Chinese Taipei contingent and it grew louder when the massive screens contained in the stadium confirmed Xi Jinping flashing a large smile and clapping.
China emerged final, protecting in step with the Games custom, and have been greeted by a deafening roar as world champion swimmer Qin Haiyang and basketball star Yang Liwei led the contingent out amidst excessive expectations of a file haul.
The first gold medal of the Games can be on supply on Sunday morning, within the calm waters of Fuyang, for rowing. And the hosts will hope to journey the wave.