2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

Fireworks during the ceremony

File:BeijingOlimpicGames2008-08-08.jpg

Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman performing "You and Me" the Beijing Olympic theme song.

The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8) on August 8, 2008, as 8 is considered to be a lucky number. The number 8 is associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture. 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 was assisted by Chinese choreographers Zhang Jigang and Chen Weiya. The director of music for the ceremony was composer Chen Qigang. It was noted for its focus on ancient Chinese culture, and for its creativity, as well as being the first to use weather modification technology to prevent rainfall. The final ascent to the torch featured Olympic gymnast Li Ning, who appeared to run through air around the membrane of the stadium. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours and was reported to have cost over US$100 million to produce. The opening ceremony was lauded by spectators and various international presses as spectacular and spellbinding and by many accounts "the greatest ever".

Attending heads of state

More than 100 heads of state, heads of government and sovereigns attended the opening ceremony. The number of heads of state who attended the opening ceremony was by far the largest in Olympic history.

List of heads of states and dignitaries

Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai Albania - Prime Minister Sali Berisha and wife Algeria - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Andorra - Head of Government Albert Pintat Santolària and wife Angola - President José Eduardo dos Santos and wife Armenia - President Serzh Sargsyan Australia - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and wife Thérèse Rein Azerbaijan - President Ilham Aliyev and wife Mehriban Aliyeva Bangladesh - Chief of Army Staff, General Moeen U Ahmed Belarus - President Alexander Lukashenko Belgium - Prince Philippe Bosnia and Herzegovina - President Haris Silajdzic Brazil - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Brunei - Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Bulgaria - President Georgi Parvanov Burundi - President Pierre Nkurunziza Cambodia - King Norodom Sihamoni Canada - Foreign Minister David Emerson, State minister Helena Guergis, and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell Chad - Prime Minister Youssouf Saleh Abbas China - President Hu Jintao and Liu Yongqing, former President Jiang Zemin, and the entire Politburo Standing Committee Chinese Taipei - Chairman of the Kuomintang Wu Po-hsiung, Vice President Lien Chan Democratic Republic of the Congo - President Joseph Kabila Cook Islands - Head of State Frederick Goodwin and wife Croatia - President Stjepan Mesić Cyprus - President Demetris Christofias and wife Denmark - Prince Frederik and wife Princess Mary Djibouti - Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita Fiji - Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama and wife Finland - Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen France - President Nicolas Sarkozy and son Louis, Bernard Accoyer, and Jean-Pierre Raffarin Gabon - President Omar Bongo Germany - Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder Ghana - President John Agyekum Kufuor Greece - Foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, Michael Liapis Guam - Governor Felix Camacho Guinea - Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré Hong Kong - Chief Executive Donald Tsang and Financial Secretary John Tsang Hungary - President Pál Schmitt and wife Iceland - President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson India - President of the Indian National Congress (INC) Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary of the INC Rahul Gandhi, and Chief Election Commissioner M. S. Gill Ireland - Sports Minister Martin Cullen Israel - President Shimon Peres Italy - Foreign Minister Franco Frattini Japan - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and wife Kazakhstan - President Nursultan Nazarbayev and wife Kenya - Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka North Korea - Chairman of the Presidium Supreme Assembly Kim Yong Nam South Korea - President Lee Myung-bak and wife Kim Yoon-ok Kyrgyzstan - President Kurmanbek Bakiyev Laos - President Choummaly Sayasone and wife Latvia - President Valdis Zatlers and wife Luxembourg - Henri, Grand Duke and Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess Madagascar - President Marc Ravalomanana and wife Malaysia - King King Mizan Zainal Abidin and Queen Queen Nur Zahirah Mali - President Amadou Toumani Touré and wife Mauritius - President Anerood Jugnauth and wife Federated States of Micronesia - President Manny Mori Monaco - Head of State Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock Mongolia - President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and wife Montenegro - President Filip Vujanović and wife Svetlana Mozambique - President Armando Guebuza Myanmar - President Thein Sein Netherlands - Prince Willem-Alexander and wife Princess Máxima, and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende New Zealand - Governor General Anand Satyanand and wife Norway - King Harald V and Queen Sonja Pakistan - Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and husband Jose Miguel Arroyo Qatar - Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani Romania - President Traian Băsescu and wife Russia - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Samoa - Head of State Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi and wife San Marino - Rosa Zafferani and husband, and Federico Pedini Amati and wife Saudi Arabia - Prince Bandar bin Sultan Serbia - President Boris Tadić and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić Seychelles - President James Alix Michel Singapore - President S. R. Nathan and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew Slovakia - President Ivan Gašparovič and wife Slovenia - Sports Minister Milan Zver South Africa - Former President Zanele Mbeki Spain - Prince Felipe and wife Princess Letizia, and Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos Sri Lanka - President Mahinda Rajapaksa and wife Shiranthi Sweden - Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth Switzerland - President Pascal Couchepin and wife Brigitte Tajikistan - President Emomalii Rahmon Thailand - Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej Timor-Leste - President José Ramos-Horta Togo - President Faure Gnassingbé Tonga - Crown Prince ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho and wife Turkmenistan - President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow Ukraine - President Viktor Yushchenko United Kingdom - Princess Anne (Prime Minister Gordon Brown to attend closing ceremony) United States - President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush, Former President George H. W. Bush and wife Barbara Bush, and Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Uzbekistan - President Islam Karimov Vanuatu - President Kalkot Mataskelekele and wife and Ham Lini and wife Vietnam - President Nguyễn Minh Triết

Sequence of events

Welcoming ceremony

The opening ceremony proper began with a contemporary drum sequence by 2,008 Fou drummers. The LED-embedded Fou drums and their glowing drumsticks were lit up by the drummers. In formation, the drummers lit their drums to form giant digits (in both Arabic and Chinese numerals) to countdown the final seconds to the Games and herald the start of the opening time of 8:08 p.m. local time, in continuation of the 8/08/08 opening date.

A trail of 29 fireworks, another of the great Chinese inventions, in the shape of footprints were let off marching along Beijing city's central axis into the national stadium. The firework footprints were set off at the rate of 1 every second, each represented one of the 29 Olympiads, signifying the Beijing Olympics as the XXIX Olympiad of the modern era.

Next, twenty "fairies" (Buddhist apsaras of the Mogao Caves) were suspended in midair as they hovered near giant Olympic rings which seemed to float in the stadium, each holding 45,000 beads. The Olympics rings were then lifted up high vertically to show the complete Olympics emblem.

China's national flag carried into the National Stadium

Attention was then turned to 56 young children representing the 56 ethnic groups of modern China. Each was Han Chinese, but donned an ethnic costume. They marched in the flag of the People's Republic of China as a young girl in red, 9-year-old Lin Miaoke (林妙可), was seen performing Ode to the Motherland while listeners heard the voice of Yang Peiyi (楊沛宜), a seven-year-old. 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 People's Liberation Army 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 raised.

Artistic section

At the prelude to the section, Beautiful Olympics, a short film was screened depicting the making of paper, another of the Four Great Inventions. Ceramics, porcelain vessels and other Chinese fine arts artifacts were beamed on a giant LED paper scroll, representing the first great Chinese inventions, 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 art. This was accompanied by the sounds of the guqin, China's ancient 7-string zither, as played by Chen Leiji (陳雷激). The LED scroll then showed an old, rare painting by Wang Ximeng.

The giant scroll was then moved aside to show a fluid array of 897 movable type blocks that formed three variations of the character 和 (harmony), representing the third great Chinese invention: the movable type press. The character was shown, consecutively, in Bronze inscription, Seal script and Kai Script (Modern Chinese Script). 810 Zhou-era performers 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 plum 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.

A scene of Beijing opera performers

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.

Next, a female dancer dressed in Tang-era clothing entered, suspended by a rectangular extension held by hundreds of performers. On the giant LED screen was a depiction of 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 a metal spoon floating in a fluid suspensible vessel, danced in the center of the giant LED scroll that showed images of sailing junks and maps of Zheng He's seven voyages.

Actors' performance

Fireworks explode above the National Stadium

The next segment featured Kunqu, one of the oldest extant Chinese operas, with two opera artists, a man singing and a woman accompanying on a guzheng. Another male performer then painted on the scroll painting with a Chinese brush in front of several guzheng players. The giant LED scroll expanded and showed several beautiful classic paintings in succession. At this point, two rows of huge royal dragon pillars called huabiao (华表) emerged and stretched skyward, as pink and orange fireworks were set off overhead

Lang Lang playing together with five-year-old Li Muzi on a white Steinway concert grand piano

Then followed the modern segment where pianist Lang Lang and five-year-old Li Muzi 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.

A Tàijíquán performance by 2,008 masters showed the fluid movements achieved when in harmony with nature. They demonstrated martial arts while combining to form geometric mass human formations. A skit was shown with schoolchildren drawing and coloring on the paper scroll and chanting poetry. These were the same children representing the 56 ethnic groups of China. They symbolized a Green Olympics (to protect the world). As their sequence drew to an end, the giant white paper was lifted vertically to reveal a drawing of mountains and waters with a smiling face as the sun. Then, there was a light presentation showing brightly-coloured flying birds, symbolizing the rebirth of the phoenix and the bird-nest stadium itself.

Performers dance on the surface of an illuminated sphere in the middle of the National Stadium

The next segment was a celestial show and the arrival of astronauts symbolizing Chinese space exploration, with a gigantic, 60-foot, 16-tonned ball structure representing the earth. 58 acrobats tumbled rightside up, sideways or upside down on its surface, which was then transformed into a giant glowing Chinese lantern.

The Chinese singer Liu Huan and British singer Sarah Brightman, stood on the central platform, sang the 2008 Olympic theme song: You and Me.

2,008 performers then held out parasols with smiling faces of young children. This was followed by red and orange fireworks in the form of smiley faces. The representatives from the 56 ethnic groups danced a vigorous folk dance.

Parade of nations

See also: 2008 Summer Olympics national flag bearers

The athletes taking part in the 29th Olympiad parade of nations marched out to the centre of the Stadium.

In accordance with Olympic tradition, the national team of Greece, which hosted the last Summer Olympics, in Athens, entered first, in honor of Greece's status as the birthplace of the Olympics; while the host country came last. Greece entering first and China entering last symbolized the two most recent Summer Olympics host nations.

Traditionally nations are ordered in alphabetic order of the national language of the host country (or if there's more than one, the more dominant of the languages of the area of the host city, as it would be indicated during the next Olympics, in Vancouver, when the countries entered in English, although French and English, the languages of the Olympics, are also the languages of Canada, as it's the more dominant of the two in Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia.); as Chinese writing is not alphabetic, the teams paraded by stroke order of the first character of their respective countries' names in Simplified Chinese.

Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by the order of the five basic strokes in Chinese characters (Chinese: 一,丨,丿,丶,乙.). If two or more countries have the same first character, then compare the strokes of the second one. For example, Latvia (Chinese: 拉脱维亚), Great Britain (Chinese: 英国), and British Virgin Islands (Chinese: 英属维尔京群岛) are the 114th,115th and 116th to entry respectively while the first character of their names are all 8 strokes. However,the strokes order of Latvia's first character (拉) is 一丨一丶一丶丿一 while that of Great Britain is 一丨丨丨乙一丿丶. Latvia's 3rd stroke (一) is before that of Great Britain (丨), which made Latvia enter ahead of Great Britain. The first character in Britain's name and the one in British Virgin Island are the same one （英）. But the second one in Great Britain's name is guo (国), which has 8 strokes, while the one in British Virgin Islands is 属, which has 12 strokes. So Great Britain entered before British Virgin Islands. This made Guinea (几内亚) the second country to enter following Greece as it only takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). Australia (Chinese: 澳大利亚) marched 202nd, just ahead of Zambia (赞比亚), which was the last country to march before China. The first characters of these countries' names (澳 and 赞) are written 15 and 16 strokes respectively.

Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the marching nations in French, English, (the official languages of the Olympics) and Standard Chinese with music accompanying the athletes as they marched into the stadium. The leading signs of delegations, carried by young Chinese women in stylish red dresses, had their names in these three languages printed in Chinese calligraphy style. Chinese names of most states were condensed to their short form when possible. For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina (波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那) entered as Bohei (波黑) in Chinese, while Saudi Arabia (沙特阿拉伯) entered as simply Shate (沙特). The exception was the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which entered in Chinese as its full designation (前南斯拉夫马其顿共和国) because of the Macedonia naming dispute. China entered as People's Republic of China in English and French, but simply as Zhongguo (中国) in Chinese.

The athletes marched along the tracks toward the center of the stadium, which was encircled by white-capped Chinese cheerleaders welcoming each contingent. As they did so, they would step on colored ink before treading on the Chinese painting done earlier by the children and the performance artists.

Throughout the entire Parade of Nations, the Olympic athletes were treated to live traditional music ensembles, hand-picked by the Chinese Olympic committee from around the world. Each ensemble represented a continent from the five Olympic rings. The groups included Chinese orchestra, Scottish bagpipers (Fintry Pipe Band), Aboriginal musicians and dancers from Australia (William Barton), South African drummers (Drum Cafe), and North American mariachi group (Mariachi Mujer 2000).

Unlike in previous years, North and South Korea did not send a unified team; their athletes marched in separately as Korea Republic (South Korea, Chinese: 韩国) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea, Chinese: 朝鲜民主主义人民共和国). Taiwan marched under the name "Chinese Taipei" (Chinese: 中华台北) per a 1989 agreement - and the Chinese media has seemed to follow suit, referring to Taiwan as Zhonghua Taibei (Chinese: 中華台北).

The Chinese contingent, which was last, was led by Yao Ming and Lin Hao, the 9-year-old primary school student who had rescued two schoolmates during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.

Speeches by the Presidents

Liu Qi, the head of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, gave a speech in Mandarin welcoming the athletes. Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee, followed with a speech in English, praising the Chinese for their warm reception and effort. He urged the athletes to "have fun" and to reject doping and performance enhancement drugs. This reminder was reiterated in French. Afterward, Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China, formally announced the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The Olympic flag was carried in by eight former athletes from China. They were:

• Zhang Xielin (table-tennis)
• Pan Duo (Everest mountaineer)
• Zheng Fengrong (athletics)
• Yang Yang (A) (short track speed skating)
• Yang Ling (shooting)
• Mu Xiangxiong (swimming)
• Xiong Ni (diving)
• Li Lingwei (badminton)

They then passed on the flag to soldiers of the People's Liberation Army as the flag was raised and the Olympic anthem played. A multinational chorus of 80 children sang the Olympic Anthem in Greek. Chinese table tennis champion Zhang Yining and arbiter Huang Liping took the Olympic oath, representing athletes and officials respectively.

There was a short dance presentation, followed by bright yellow fireworks - representing the release of doves of peace.

Torch relay and the lighting of the flame cauldron

At this point, the Olympic flame entered the stadium as a continuation of the Beijing relay leg from the outside. The Olympic torch was relayed around the stadium by 7 athletes, and was finally passed on to Li Ning, the former Olympic gymnast champion, the 8th and final athlete.

The eight athletes were, in order:

• Xu Haifeng (shooting, China's first Olympic gold medalist in any event, 1984)
• Gao Min (diving, China's first repeat Olympic gold medalist in any event, 1988 and 1992)
• Li Xiaoshuang (gymnastics, China's first gymnastics all-around World Champion and Olympic gold medalist, 1992 and 1996)
• Zhan Xugang (weightlifting, China's first double Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting, 1996 and 2000)
• Zhang Jun (badminton, double Olympic gold medalist in mixed doubles badminton, 2000 and 2004)
• Chen Zhong (taekwondo, China's first and double taekwondo gold medalist, 2000 and 2004)
• Sun Jinfang (volleyball, member of team that won China's first major championship in a team sport)
• Li Ning (gymnastics, China's most decorated athlete at its first Olympics, 1984)

Li Ning, who was suspended by wires, then appeared to run horizontally along the walls of the stadium through to the Olympic cauldron, which at this moment was still not shown. As he ran along the upper wall of the stadium, the projection displayed a scroll opening ahead of him, on which was beamed footages of previous torch relays around the world. At the final moment, a spotlight revealed the final resting place of the Olympics flame, which had appeared during the torch run. A colossal torch situated at the top of the stadium was lit by a proportionately large fuse.

A flurry of spectacular fireworks of various colours and shapes, some projecting Olympic rings, others forming hoops, flower outwards, fountain or float down, accompanied the ending of the ceremony. The ceremony ended at 12:09 am, August 9, 2008 CST, which was later than the time originally planned: 11:30 pm, August 8.But it was amasing

Encore

As the audience started to exit the stadium, singers from Mainland China and Hong Kong came onto the stage to provide music as a way to stall the audience from leaving all at once. Jackie Chan, Karen Mok, Han Hong, and Sun Nan (孙楠) sang the first song, "Stand Up"; while Andy Lau, Nicolas Tse, Joey Yung, Wakin Chau, Wang Feng, and Sun Yue sang the second song, "Cheering for Life". Since the ceremony was already overtime by then, this portion was not televised.

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.

In 2006, the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) initially chose American film-maker 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 offered to write a theme tune for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and decided to stay on and contribute to the Beijing Olympics. Chinese film-maker Ang Lee was also part of the team creating the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.

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 PRC C-pop act A-One. A-One was not a part of the performances on August 8.

Incidents and controversies

Accident during rehearsal

Liu Yan, one of China’s top classical Chinese dancers, fell from a three-meter high platform during practice on July 27, 2008 and sustained severe spinal injuries. She was paralyzed waist-down after a six-hour operation. Despite her not performing in the ceremony proper, deputy director Zhang Jigang ensured Liu's name was written in the program as the lead dancer.

In an interview after visiting Liu Yan in the hospital, Director Zhang Yimou said, "I feel sorry for Liu Yan, my heart is full of regrets, I’m deeply sorry. Liu Yan is a heroine. She sacrificed a lot for the Olympics, for me, for the opening ceremony." Shortly after the opening ceremony, in an earlier media interview, Zhang expressed: "I regret many things, many details of this performance, many things I could have done better. For example, there are performers who were injured. I blame myself for that."

Rehearsal leakage

The South Korean Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) secretly filmed rehearsals of the opening ceremony and leaked parts of it, violating a prohibition by the Organizing Committee. The video was uploaded at YouTube on July 30, 2008, but was deleted soon after its upload. However, several additional videos have been uploaded by other users. The Organizing Committee investigated the unauthorized filming, and on August 6, 2008, banned SBS cameras inside the stadium during the ceremony as reprisals for the leak.

Girl lip-synching to recording by another singer

The song "Ode to the Motherland" appeared to be sung by Lin Miaoke at the ceremony, but it emerged she had mimed her performance to a recording by another girl, Yang Peiyi. It was a last minute decision to use lip-synching, following a Politburo member's objection to Lin's voice. International Olympic Committee executive director Gilbert Felli defended the use of a more photogenic double. Although the names of both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi appeared in the programme notes, the vast majority who watched the broadcast did not realise Yang Peiyi's role until several days later when music director Chen Qigang acknowledged it.

Performers at previous Olympic opening ceremonies had occasionally synched to recordings of their own performance, such as the tenor Luciano Pavarotti at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, due to his pancreatic cancer. Then nine-year-old Eleonora Benetti also lip-synched to a previous recording of the Italian National Anthem. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra appeared to perform at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, but the music spectators heard was entirely pre-recorded, with some of the music pre-recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Computer-simulated fireworks

Television coverage of the fireworks show which displayed the 29 firework "footprints" outside the stadium was simulated by computer animation. Twenty-nine sets of fireworks in the shape of a footprint did actually go off, but it was decided that it would be difficult and dangerous to get a good shot from helicopters capturing all 29 of the footsteps (which went off every two seconds), so a CGI of 27 of the footprints was made for television broadcasts, and only the last two were filmed live. The 55 seconds of display took the BOCOG a year to choreograph. The substitution of CGI footage was mentioned during the time-delayed U.S. broadcast of the ceremony on NBC by announcers Matt Lauer and Bob Costas.

Children representing minority groups

On August 15, Wang Wei, the vice president of the BOCOG confirmed that children who appeared in the opening ceremony in the costumes of the 56 ethnic groups of modern China did not belong to the ethnic minorities their costumes indicated, as described in publicity materials, but instead all or most were members of the majority Han Chinese. Wang said it was "traditional" and not unusual for actors in China to wear different ethnic costumes.

Reception

Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, described the ceremony as "spectacular" and an "unforgettable and moving ceremony that celebrated the imagination, originality and energy of the Beijing Games." He hailed the Beijing National Stadium as "one of the world's new wonders" and a "fitting setting for an amazing Opening Ceremony." Hein Verbruggen, IOC Member and Chairman of the Coordination Commission for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, called the ceremony "a night to remember", "a breathtaking culmination of seven years of planning and preparation" and "an unprecedented and grand success" that exceeded all his expectations.

The AFP called it "a spectacular opening ceremony." The BBC and The Times concurred by calling it a dazzling and spectacular show in Beijing. The Associated Press praised the show as spectacular with an extravaganza of pageantry and "interlude of fervor and magic" as well as being "spellbinding" and noted the show steered clear of modern politics. The USA Today described it as an exhilarating display of China's thousands of years of traditions of art and culture, and the Art Daily stated it was a celebration of China's ancient history, along with sumptuous costumes from different imperial dynasties. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented that "the scope, precision and beauty of the production was, you will agree, astonishing." The Spanish media were impressed by the opening ceremony, with Antena 3 describing the ceremony as "an astonishing effort," while Cuatro called it "awesome and impressive." Cadena COPE said it was "the most dramatic Olympic opening ceremony ever." Germany's Deutsche Welle also praised it as a spectacular and a firecracker of a show, and a trip through China's rich history.

Steven Spielberg called the show "an unforgettable spectacle" and "arguably the grandest spectacle of the new millennium." At the end of 2008, the American Film Institute selected the coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony as one of their "Eight Moments of Significance" of the year of 2008, and states: "The opening ceremony, directed and staged by acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, marked the most significant live event of the year" and it described the opening ceremony as "staged with breathtaking poetry."

World leaders were also impressed by the opening ceremony. U.S. President George W. Bush described the ceremony as "spectacular and successful". Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "the spectacular to end all spectaculars and probably can never be bettered."

While praise for the opening ceremony was widespread amongst the world's media, the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times described some western media reactions as "cynical" and "hostile". The Globe and Mail had a column with title "The iron hand behind the magic show", some questioned the "heavy military theme". Asia Times, although praising the show as "stunning opening ceremony...with its panoply of color, painstaking choreography and sweeping portrait of Chinese culture and history" referred to the games as one devoid of "fun" in its article headlined "Awe (but no laughter) in Beijing".

Television

Estimates of the global television audience varied: "around one billion" (Reuters); "experts estimated ... more than two billion" (Wall Street Journal); "2.3 billion" (MindShare); "Billions...probably the largest live television audience in history" (Bloomberg); "3 billion" (Sky News); "nearly 4 billion" (Xinhua); "as many as 4 billion" (Washington Post); "estimated 4 billion" (McClatchy). This included an estimated 842 million viewers watching on host Chinese broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), with polls ranging from 63 and 69 percent of the Chinese viewing population, exceeding that of the 51-58 percent who watch the network's annual Chinese New Year gala.

The BBC reported five million viewers in the United Kingdom, the Seven Network had 7.8 million viewers in Australia, The Hollywood Reporter said 4.4 million in France watched the ceremony, the ARD estimated 7.72 million viewers in Germany, while in Italy, RAI had 5.5 million viewers, and in Spain, TVE obtained 4 million viewers. In the United States, the NBC network delayed its telecast by 12 hours for evening primetime viewing, though Americans in markets bordering Canada could watch it on CBC Television, and others watched clips of it earlier on YouTube and other online video websites. Still, it managed to capture an average of 34.2 million viewers and a total of 69.9 million viewers. The ceremony, therefore, became the most watched Olympic Opening Ceremony ever held in a non-U.S. city by American audience, a record previously held by the Lillehammer Games of 1994. It was the biggest television event in the U.S. in 2008 since the Super Bowl, and it also surpassed the ratings for the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony and that year's finale of American Idol.

Dedication

In the United States, NBC concluded its broadcast with a message saying that their coverage of the opening ceremony was dedicated in memory of Jim McKay, longtime Olympics broadcaster with rival ABC, who died two months before. ABC "loaned" McKay to NBC to serve as a special correspondent during their coverage of the Salt Lake City Olympics.

See also

Media related to 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony at Wikimedia Commons

• 2008 Summer Olympics national flag bearers
• Four Great Inventions of ancient China
• 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony

External links

• Official website
• Sequence of events