It has only been 4 months since the Beijing Olympics 2008, but for some reason it seems to have happened so very long ago. Perhaps it’s because of the credit crunch and lots of real life things happening, but my online activity has really dwindled. This includes the continuation of the series on the Closing Ceremony, where this post has been in ‘draft’ for far too long without actually having ever been written up.

Above is a photo of the 7 sopranos who serenaded us all with their rendition of the Chinese folk song 今夜月明 or The Moon is Bright Tonight. Out of all the performances that night, I have to say this sweet love song was my absolute favourite performance of the evening (more photos of some of the other performances can be found at the end of this post) Their voices (and their outfits) were absolutely gorgeous!

This is the list of the soprano performers:

張也, 湯燦, 張燕, 陳思思, 雷佳, 王麗達,哈輝

The original plan was to introduce all of the singers individually, but I think it’s safe to say that they are all very accomplished sopranos and perhaps it will be fine to leave it at that, since on a personal level, the actual song and their rendition of this particular arrangement was the most wonderful part.

I have actually recorded the song from the BBC broadcast of the Closing Ceremony, and find it so very uplifting to listen to. The song is sung by a girl to a boy in the mountains, and she sings about the magnificently bright moon that has risen, which reminds her of the one she is missing. And as the wind sweeps up to the hills, she asks if he can hear her calling to him.

At least, that’s my interpretation of the original lyrics, although CRI Online has helpfully provided the names of the people who brought us this arrangement (卞留念、趙兆、孟可 and 尹宜公) I have decided to edit the original lyrics and post what the sopranos actually sang here:

(恩噠恩噠 哩羅來哩羅來)
(恩噠恩噠 哩羅來哩羅來)
月亮出來亮旺旺亮旺旺 （哪呀咿哪呀咿也 哪呀咿哪呀咿也)
想起我的阿哥
在深山 (噠 噠 哩羅來哩羅來）
(哪呀咿 哪呀咿也 哪呀咿呦呀咿也)
哥想月亮天上走天上走 哥 (哪呀咿哪呀咿也)
哥哥啊 (來啦哩 來啦哩 來啦哩 來啦哩羅來哩羅來）
山下小河淌水
清悠悠 (哪呀咿哪呀咿也 啊呦呀呦 咿也)

月亮出來亮旺旺 亮旺旺 月亮出來亮旺旺 亮旺旺
亮旺 亮旺 亮旺 亮旺……
月亮出來亮旺旺

一陣清風 吹上坡 吹上坡 哥啊 哥啊 哥啊
你可聽見阿妹叫阿哥……
阿哥 月亮出來 月亮 月亮

It is a little shorter than the original, and the words that you can see within brackets interweaves between the actual lyrics, and are nonsense if taken literally, but musically they are a perfect accompaniment for the song.

If you would like to be reminded why this song is so good, feel free to listen to the mp3 recording that I mentioned earlier from the BBC broadcast below. Alternatively, you can also download The Moon is Bright Tonight for your own enjoyment as well. It is really something worth listening , especially in the winter months, in my humble opinion, and it would be great to find out if you thought the same too!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Download the mp3 recording of The Moon is Bright Tonight from the BBC‘s broadcast of the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony or click on the ‘play’ button above to listen to the mp3 on the site!

Unless I get round to writing about the Handover to London, this may be the last post on the Olympics 2008 for the time being. But I think, as the BBC’s Matt Slater summed up so eloquently in his blog post:

The closing ceremony was absolutely in keeping with everything I have seen in Beijing over the last three and a bit weeks: staggering in scale, perfectly choreographed, visually stunning and absolutely on time.

p/s: Some of the other photos we promised at the start of this post from the Beijing Olympics 2008 Closing Ceremony including Jackie Chan, Karen Mok, Andy Lau, Joey Yung and other really big name (old-skool) celebrities singing 遠方的客人請你留下來 or Please stay, Guests from Afar.

Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

And some of the 75 acrobats mimicking flames as they performed on the 25-metre tall Memory Tower.

Photo courtesy of azzurri_nr1

Last but not least, Placido Domingo and 宋祖英 (Song Zuying) singing the duet of 愛的火焰 or Flames of Love together.

Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

It wasn’t quite on the same scale as the Opening Ceremony - a mere 200 drum performers and 1,100 silver bell dancer for the first ‘Reunion’-themed part, compared to the 2,008 drummers at the start of the Opening Ceremony. In all, 7,000 performers took part in the Closing Ceremony and they didn’t even get a chance to rehearse in the stadium in the past few days because of the Athletics.

Photo courtesy of One Ben K

It was also a very modern performance compared to how the Olympics were introduced, and the underlying message was to ‘greet and welcome guests’. The music was gorgeous – delicate and upbeat in parts, contemplative the next. The cinematic effect was beautiful, as expected of Zhang Yimou, the director. At this point, I was impressed by the 60 light wheels that ‘rolled’ into the darkened stadium, traveling along path of lights formed by the dancers, which reminded me a little of the Wall of China (even if it wasn’t intended)

Photo courtesy of rich115

As the formation changed, they were joined by followed by 200 bouncing and flying performers, which were supposed to reflect the more modern and extreme sports in the Olympics (according to the on-going BBC commentary) and finally, the opening of the closing ceremony ended as the dancers formed four passages to greet the incoming flag bearers of each country, and then the athletes.

Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

In contrast to the formal entrance of the athletes at the Opening Ceremony, everyone was allowed to run in freely. Needless to say everyone pretty much looked ecstatic and cheered at the camera This was followed by the award ceremony for the winners of the Men’s Marathon event (a new world record was set by the gold medalist WANSIRU Samuel Kamau!) and a big thank you was given to all the representatives of all the volunteers who had worked so hard to support the games.

So much more followed, that I think it would be appropriate to split this post into a few sections and write about the individual performances that really stood out for me, such as the London Handover and the musical rendition of The Moon is Bright Tonight. Please stay tuned for the next part of this series!

Christine Ohuruogu won Olympic 400m gold for Britain with a stunning surge down the home straight in Beijing!

The line, taken from “ Ohuruogu grabs gold for Britain“, really summarises the amazing performance by the athlete. I watched the event on the video player (hopefully international readers can also watch the video) that showed the entire finals from the starting blocks to the parade after the sprint, and strangely, although I already knew the result, it didn’t stop the onset of nervousness that always seem to accompany ‘live’ viewing of competitive events that involve team GB.

This is probably because for about the first 300 metres, Christine Ohuruogu really didn’t look as though she was in contention for gold at all. I’m going to put this down as me being an unseasoned 400m viewer, but after watching America’s (title favourite) Sanya Richards leave her fellow runners behind in the first half of the race, I could barely watch the last stretch. But oh my god, didn’t Christine Ohuruogu impress at the end?

In that very last stretch, her speed suddenly increased and she emerged from the ‘pack’ (I mean this) of 400m sprinters to power ahead into gold! It was actually a very surreal experience watching it, dare I say a bit like watching Usain Bolt‘s captivating Men’s 100m Final performance, except she didn’t slow down.

And after reading a few more articles, it is almost for sure that the tactical performance of Christine Ohuruogu during this big moment and all of her hard work in training has paid dividends and won her this precious medal. The BBC’s Tom Fordyce called her win ‘A Tactical Masterpiece‘, where he mentions her coach, Lloyd Cowan, as one of the key players in this campaign; although according to TF, Katherine Merry (bronze medalist of the 400m in Sydney) believes that:

the victory had its roots in Ohuruogu’s decision to spend the first half of the year working on her one big weakness… …short sprints.

What is clear is that this win will go far in taking her away from the doldrums of the past two years, where she was banned for a year due to missing 3 random drug tests. I didn’t follow the story very closely, but it was genuinely sad that this could taint an otherwise impeccable record (she has won a medal at every major event that she has attended) from an obviously talented athlete and I am just very very glad that she has taken the top prize of the event. As the Telegraph’s Richard Edwards and Richard Spencer so succinctly put it (in their excellent article about Christine Ohuruogu):

From hero, to zero, to hero again.

So a huge congratulations to Christine Ohuruogu and also to all the other Olympic medalists today, such as Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy (both cycling), Paul Goodison (sailing) and Germaine Mason, who took silver on his Olympic debut for the high jump – a ‘wild card’-esque entry who wasn’t expected to win any medal. Their combined efforts, along with the rest of the GB team, have shot us to a mind-blowing third on the medals table! The gold medal tally of 16 is certainly the best that Great Britain have seen in a century!

Although the article did initially focus (inevitably) on Phelps, The Times’ Simon Barnes couldn’t help but start to wonder: Where are all the breasts? I haven’t watched many of the women’s swimming events, but no doubt the more dedicated viewers of the sport might have noticed th change in some of the female competitors’ body shapes, as illustrated by the photo below:

I’d say she’s female, judging by the painted fingernails, but then again, you never know …

The second half of the article discusses the proven sporting merits (5 new world records!) of the new hydrodynamic Speedo LZR Racer swim suits, which, says Simon Barnes, “increases hydrodynamic efficiency by compressing the body so the muscles don’t flap about so much” when you’re in the water.

Of course, there is always a downside to such wonderful technology (according to Speedo, the new range is ultrasonically bonded so there are no seams); SB mentioned ‘wardrobe malfunctions‘ that could only have been inspired by ‘Janet Jackson’ (it happened twice to the rather unfortunate medal contender Jessica Schipper) as apparently it breaks quite easily, which has even prompted one swimmer to wear another suit underneath to save herself from baring all.

Given the track record so far (even Phelps wears the legs-only version) I think the important take-home message for other female athletes from that article is this:

It’s worth looking a bit flat-chested if you want the speed …(and) you can always regain your femininity when you have wriggled out of the damn things after the race.

For more of Simon Barnes‘ blog posts from Beijing, click on the link below!

http://timesonline.typepad.com/olympics/

Phelps with his latest gold medal (Credit: Getty Images)

The new record surpasses the likes of other top OIympics gold medal holders, such as the frequently mentioned Mark Spitz (also a swimmer), Larysa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, and Carl Lewis who have all won nine Olympic gold medals a-piece.

This achievement is worthy of celebration, and it helps that Phelps is a thoroughly likeable chap really who has not only shown himself to be a dedicated swimmer, but appears to have the additional quality of being humble about his achievement, something I believe that is very endearing to almost everyone but the harshest of critics.

Some reports have called him the greatest Olympian, but I think others were more accurate in saying that this new record makes him the most successful Olympian in terms of gold medals. There was certainly a lot of debate going on the BBC’s Tom Fordyce‘s blog article Is Phelps really the greatest? which I have found to be a good read, although a number of users seem to have their pet favourite ‘great’ Olympian (including Jesse Owens). The blog post and subsequent comments continuously asks the question: What makes the ‘greatest’ Olympian?

An Olympian who has scored the most medals? The gymnast Larissa Latynina (according to Tom Fordyce) has the biggest medal total ever of 18. Or an Olympian who has scored the most golds in individual events? Carl Lewis has a claim here with 7, says TF. Or is it the Olympian who has stood the test of time and won gold in consecutive Olympiads,? Cue name drop Sir Steve Redgrave who has won 5 golds in 5 Olympic games. Mark Spitz still holds the record for the most golds in just one Olympiad (9) and even Jessie Owens is still remembered for his achievements. The Times‘ Calvin Shulman has helpfully produced a list of what he regards to be the Top 100 Olympics Athletes, the kind of list which is always worth a browse when reading up about such matters.

I’m going to dodge the question here, and instead move on to an amusing (but probably true, what do I know?) analysis of Phelps by Steve Parry, a former Olympic (swimming) medallist who is currently guest-blogging for the BBC. He talks in more detail about What makes Phelps so special? which was so helpfully summarised by this picture:

Essential requirements when building your perfect swimming robot…

Apparently our ‘man-of-the-moment’ has short legs but a long torso, which really helps with the swimming speed since there is “less drag and more propulsion“; and according to Steve Parry, being a “6ft 4ins, 83kg man” generally means you’re seriously under-weight! Like Ian Thorpe, Phelps also has the added advantage of having extremely large paddle-like hands and flipper-like feet (SP helpfully points out that Phelps is a size-14) which help propel him even further through the water.

Combine these features with:

• a longer than average wing-span
• low body fat
• muscles that produce half the lactic acid of rivals

and there you have it, the essential guide on how to become the next swimming world champion… and possibly another great Olympian!

However, in a change from the usual “iconic images from the past” theme, the BBC have taken a big bold step of commissioning a two-minute animated piece called “Journey to the East”, with characters from that classic Chinese tale ‘Journey to the West‘ such as Sun Wukong (the Monkey King ‘Monkey‘ who is also the mascot for the BBC’s Olympics broadcast), Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) and Sha Wu Jing (Sandy ) and even Guan Yin, the kind goddess of good fortune who has WuKong’s best interests at heart.

Monkey and Friends

The difference is (as the BBC’s Ollie William’s put it so succinctly) that the animated story has twisted the original to become Journey to the East for the Olympics, where the three friends/companions battle their way to the Bird’s Nest Stadium through some of the Olympic events, such as diving, throwing the hammer and the javelin, hurdling, pole-vaulting, ‘passing the baton’ (yes, the relay) and taekwando just to name many.

The hammer’s life was never the same again…

The animation was the brainchild of the people behind the virtual band Gorillaz (namely Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett) and you can see plenty of pictures of the background scenery, the characters and behind-the-scenes just by clicking on the main information page about the mascot and the production on the BBC website. Watch the animation below!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

So what do you think of the video? I’ve been reading comments posted in response to Ollie William‘s BBC blog post about this very video, and some comments are literally polar opposites, but there are plenty of others falling in-between, although I’m personally very happy to say that most are positive responses to what I feel is a highly dynamic, inventive, inspired and all-encompassing production.

Which of course means – I like it. The music did take me very much by surprise (it switches halfway from a slow and gentle tune with a solo vocal by Jia Ruhan and traditional Chinese instruments, such as the Erhu, to an upbeat electronic track-remix as the action starts) since I was expecting something a bit less ‘Chinese’ in style and more techno (as is usually the case for these videos) but this unique piece did actually complement the animation very well!

I think that what has made the video so unforgettable is this: the combination of a classic Chinese novel, traditional Chinese music and ‘typical’ Chinese background scenery (with a modern twist) as the backdrop to the story of friends working together towards the Olympics Bird’s Nest stadium; it so brilliantly sends out the crystal-clear message that this is all about the Beijing 2008 Olympics, even if the song lyrics might have lost its meaning through (lack of) translation.

The “Journey to the East” storyboard

For those who are wondering about the lyrics, with credit to marcher233 and dirtyfooty for the translation, this is what Guan Yin is singing:

Congratulations Wu Kong, on your pilgrimage
For hope and glory
Kindle the dream, share life and death
Travel the world without pause
Push forth despite difficulties and hardships
Break through the fear, quest for hope and glory
A bright and colorful dream, combining body and soul

For hope… (x4)

On a side note, if you would like to find out more information about the classic Legend of the Monkey King tale, please take a look at this excellent website by Yuen called Journey to the West – The Legend of the Monkey King. There is plenty of in-depth commentary on the actual story, the author, the characters, as well as links to related multimedia such as TV series and films.

Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy

Quite a few readers will have watched one Japanese adaptation called “Monkey” or (Monkey Magic) (esp. the UK readers) that was broadcast on the BBC back in the late-70s. One of the more recent TV adaptations by Hong Kong’s TVB station, in which Dicky Cheung starred as the main character, is also known as “Journey to the West ’96” and (a slightly shameless plug here, as I am participating in the project as a translator/editor!) the series is currently being subbed into English and Spanish by a fansub group called SWK Fansubs.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

UPDATE (23/12/08): As the BBC is no longer providing the file for download, I have decided to provide it here since it is a great theme song. Please click to download the BBC Olympics Monkey Theme Song mp3 in a zip file.

UPDATE (22/08/08): Download the BBC’s Olympics ‘Monkey’ theme song as an mp3 for free directly from the BBC (UK listeners only) for only one week starting today by visiting this site: BBC – Download our Olympics ‘Monkey’ theme. Alternatively, click on the ‘play’ button above to listen to the mp3!

America’s B-team (and the Aussies) broke the world record (during the heats no less) during the 4x100m freestyle relay, as did fellow American Michael Phelps in the men’s 400m individual medley. He had clearly taken a leaf out of Aussie Stephanie Rice‘s book; she had done exactly that in the women’s 400m individual medley much earlier in the day.

Michael Phelps (Credit: Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

The Dutch also took a surprise gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, breaking the Olympic record at the same time, although the biggest shock of the day for me had to be Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan winning the men’s 400m free style gold. However, it turned out that he had won the World Championships just last year in Sydney, but it’s good to know that some people do perform well even in their first Olympics!

Park Tae-hwan (Credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

And in other events… Nicole Cooke won the first gold medal for Britain in this Olympic campaign, which incidentally turned out to be the first ever medal won by Britain in the Olympics women’s road cycling event!

I managed to pick up some pictures from Flickr of the opening ceremony, and would like to thank all the photographers for sharing their pictures online. Unfortunately I was silly enough to not save all the actual links, so apologies for not giving proper and individual credit here:

“One World, One Dream” slogan, featuring the ‘World’ rising up from the ground, and images of children from across the globe at the rim of the stadium’s ‘bowl’. The main theme (‘You and Me’) was sung by Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman. You can just see them at the top of the world.

A glimpse at the some of the fireworks used for the opening ceremony, and all in all, apparently there were some 40,000 shots fired into the air! Although I’ve not found a good picture yet, the fireworks representing 29 footsteps along Beijing’s “Axis” to the Bird’s Nest to mark the start of the 29th Olympiad was also very inspiring!

The sheer scale and numbers, evident particularly during the parade of athletes from all 204 delegations … 91,000 spectators and 10,000 athletes, and this excludes all the performers and the staff working behind the scenes (a reported 20,000).

The count down begins till the start of the opening ceremony. Can you believe this was all done by the symbolic 2008 people on the drums?

The very ones that you see here!

This part of the opening ceremony started off with an empty space in the middle of the scroll that unfurled to reveal Chinese culture and history, and as the dancers elegantly pirouetted their way round the paper, they added ink and drew clouds and mountains, typical of Chinese calligraphy art.

And this is a shot of the scroll itself, unfurled…

… which was used as a centre stage for many of the themed performances, which, by the way, were all coordinated by the director of “House of Flying Daggers“, Zhang Yimou.

The pillars from the previous picture ‘rose up’ majestically from the ground, each with a performer in elaborate outfits, some of them being styles from different dynasties. Note the gold dragons carved into the pillars.

Some exceptionally elegant dancers (men and women) were on show last night, and one lady in particular danced centre-stage on a moving platform on the scroll.

The very-one that was painted live by the dancers before. This is probably a better picture showing the overall effect. This canvas was subsequently enhanced by several other painter performers, including school children colouring the canvas during a ‘lesson’. It was then laid onto the ground during the team parade, and every single athlete who took part in this parade had to step on some ink pads and leave their footprints.

This was a depiction of the less well-known history of “Zheng He” sailing around the world at least 87 years before Christopher Columbus started his journey, and is made up of long, individual wooden paddles each held by one of the 2008 performers. They looked incredibly heavy as the performers swung them around during the performance.

And again, more fireworks in and around the Bird’s Nest.

Last but not least, the lighting of the Olympic torch, which no one had seen during rehearsals, and it was both amazing and very symbolic at the same time. The climax was heightened as the identity of the last torch bearer (Li Ning) was kept secret until the very last minute. After receiving the flame, he was raised up to almost the roof/ceiling of the Bird’s Nest, and seemed to run around the rim whilst another scroll unfurled itself, and the videos of all the runners who had relayed the torch and many other videos were projected onto his path.

Alas, I’ve missed out quite a lot of pictures here, where they showcased ‘movable type’ (this was quite something, I will try and find the video for this as I was seriously impressed) ‘Confucius’, traditional instruments and operas, the art of Tai-chi and Kung-fu, the “Terracotta Warriors”, and all the indigenous tribes (50+) dancing in their traditional outfits etc.

The ceremony was extremely high budget (apparently in the region of $100 million USD) and definitely did not disappoint, showcasing talent, flair, creativity, imagination, advanced technologies and overall it was just such an incredible scene to watch live, that I still recall it so very vividly now.

A huge kudos to the performers, staff and everyone who have worked so very hard for the Olympics! Thank you for amazing me and no doubt the whole world!

p/s:For some beautifully large and high-resolution pictures, please visit this article on Boston.com by Alan Taylor.

Hope you enjoy the opening ceremony as well too!