Guangming Daily
February 2, 2022
By Wang Dong, Hou Keke and Huang Xiaoyi
The traditional Chinese Spring Festival falls on February 1 this year, three days before the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. As the Winter Olympics coincides with the Year of the Tiger, festive air permeates the upcoming ice and snow events. Athletes and other members of national delegations will have a memorable experience celebrating the Spring Festival at the Winter Olympics sites and venues.
Olympics-themed flower beds in Tian’anmen Square (Xinhua/ Chen Zhonghao)
The Main Media Center was filled with a joyous atmosphere on the morning of Feb. 1. No matter where they came from, people greeted each other with “Happy New Year”. The Spring Festival couplets and the Chinese character “Fu” (meaning happiness) specially prepared by the venue operators for journalists added new colors to the center. Festive decorations with unique Chinese characteristics became favorite items for journalists from all over the world to take photos which will be shared to the global audience through their reports.
Miro, a Dutch journalist who has been covering winter sports for a long time, said he was invited to participate in activities held at his hotel on New Year’s Eve, and he wrote “Fu”, pasted Spring Festival couplets and made dumplings along with other foreign journalists. “I feel very excited. I love dumplings. Before I came to Beijing, I used to eat dumplings in Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands. This time, I am finally able to write ‘Fu’ and paste Spring Festival couplets like a Chinese, and it is a very happy time for me”, said Miro.
He continued with delight, “I can eat food both from my hometown and from all over the world.”
The Olympic Village, the Main Media Center, the hotels, and the various venues are festively decorated, and a festive atmosphere prevails everywhere one goes. International friends are curious about and interested in the activities related to the Spring Festival culture, and many said they would like to participate in them and learn more about Chinese folk culture.
“Bing Dwen Dwen” and “Shuey Rhon Rhon” at the south end of Olympic Landscape Avenue in Beijing (Xinhua/ Li Xin)
The Chinese New Year festivity is present everywhere in Beijing Winter Olympics. The Winter Olympics emblem is a case in point. Its main body resembles the calligraphic form of the Chinese character “Dong” (winter), meaning dream and future as well as the brightness and purity of snow and ice. But according to Lin Cunzhen, the designer of the emblem, she and her team took elements of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival into account in terms of color and others in the design. “The character ‘Fu’ and couplets are manifestations of calligraphy, which also embody the Chinese Spring Festival culture. With this in mind, we chose calligraphy as the form. We have also made a special design, which is to put the emblem on a red Xuan paper sprinkled with gold and adopt ink color for the emblem. It looks festive. There is also a ribbon in it, which in fact symbolizes the Spring Festival”, said Lin.
In the restaurants in Zhangjiakou Olympic Village, there is also a scene of festivity: red gates decorated to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, red lanterns hung on the roof, paper-cut paintings of “Bing Dwen Dwen”, “Shuey Rhon Rhon” and the Great Wall... Specialties such as dumplings, roast duck and hot pot are offered at the Chinese restaurant. During the Winter Olympics, restaurants will also serve traditional Chinese New Year food.
Before the Spring Festival, the “Cultural China” exhibition officially launched in Zhangjiakou Olympic Village integrated “Chinese New Year” elements into the Winter Olympics. The exhibition hall specially displayed “intangible cultural heritage” works related to New Year customs, such as colorful paper cuts from Yu County, auspicious wood-block New Year pictures from Wuqiang County, festive palace lanterns from Gaocheng, tiger-head shoes from Raoyang County and iron lanterns from Fengning County, creating a unique atmosphere of the Chinese New Year.
Chinese and international journalists pose for photos in front of the “Beijing Story” exhibition hall Feb. 1, 2022 (Guangming/ Guo Hongsong)
In addition, the exhibition is divided into multiple parts including Cultural Corridor, Traditional Dwellings, Traditional Stages and Winter Olympics Stories in accordance with their thematic contents. The Cultural Corridor is mainly about Hebei’s intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, displaying exquisite works such as Dingyao, Yishui inkstones, cloisonné, filigree mosaic, inside-bottle paintings from Hengshui, kiln porcelain from Cizhou, carved lacquer and so on. The Traditional Dwellings reproduces the scenes of traditional family life, displaying traditional artworks and household objects, such as cloth paste paintings from Fengning County, shadow puppet carvings from Tangshan, clay sculptures from Quyang County, peach stone carvings from Yongqing County, grain paintings from Guantao County, reed paintings from Anxin County, wickerwork from Gu’an County, etc.
In the exhibition hall, there is also a stage playing traditional culture videos on repeat. Meanwhile, some traditional performance props such as opera headpieces from Dingxing County, opera masks from Gu’an County, Changshan war drums from Zhengding County, Gaoqiao Shangjia Sheng from Bazhou, and pottery Xun from Baoding are on display. The Winter Olympics Stories section focuses on the cultural connotation of Winter Olympic medals and torches.
When the Winter Olympic Games and the Chinese Lunar New Year coincide, cultural interactions and the cultural integration of the Spring Festival make the gathering and the competitions of world athletes more exciting. Beijing, as a host city of two Olympic Games, gives 2022 Winter Olympics special beauty and participants a unique experience.
Rewritten by Ma Pei and Gao Yongwei, Fudan University
Source: FDU外院
