Skip to main content

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The Chinese culture, one of the oldest cultures in the history of mankind.A culture in which superstitions are part of their culture and tradition.For the Chinese population , these games were something special, we had to show the world the beauty of ancestral traditions and the modernity of a China that opened the doors to the world.In this article, continuation of Historical Meaning in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (1/2), we will discover the meaning of each inaugural performance.Let's begin to unravel this and other curiosities related to the Historical Meaning in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2).

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Article index

Historical significance at the Beijing Inauguration 2008 | The Start

You could not expect less from the Chinese organization, hundreds of people on stage, perfectly coordinated, lights, sound, technology and especially history. The opening of the Beijing Olympics 2008 , showed the world the technological and economic progress of a great power such as China.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

To begin we will say that the date for the Inauguration of the Olympic Games, is not pure chance.August 8, two thousand eight (8/8/8) was the date chosen for its relationship with good luck.In the Asian country the number «8» is the lucky number then, the more eight you have the better you rage in life.If the floors that occupy plants with the number eight are more expensive.

The lights go out, a wick of powder runs throughout the stadium or I clean while a clock goes back in time, fire falls fall through the cornices, while a meteor crashes into the center of the stadium, leaving hundreds of little lights blinking as a trail.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The clock giving backward in time.

The beginning of time, the rebirth of life, the appearance of man.That is the first guino that the Chinese people give to their long and exciting history, such as the Powder.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Fire, the beginning of the story

But those lights are accompanied in total synchrony with a rumble of drums , it is a traditional Chinese instrument called Fou, originating from the Xia Dynasty .A percussion instrument made of clay and bronze and considered the oldest in the country.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Traditional Chinese music makes an appearance , 2,008 Fou percussionists in unison interpret a traditional piece.2008 fou surrounded by LED lights, creating an incredible spectacle of light and sound.With each blow of the hand a light effect, a privilege for sight and hearing.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Suddenly the darkness and silence until with the Fou and the leds of these, the account begins back.On reaching 0, the lights are turned on and with rhythmic thumping of the fou, a sound of footsteps , maybe someone is approaching.Beijing in the direction of the Olympic stadium.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Footsteps over the sky of Beijing

When the footsteps arrive, an explosion of light, pyrotechnics and technology, simulating a rain of fire to form in the center of the stadium the image of the Olympic hoops.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Children wearing the typical costumes of the different Chinese Dynasties

Another important moment of the ceremony loaded with great symbolism was the moment of raising the flag of the People's Republic of China, when tribute was paid to the different Chinese dynasties.the traditional costumes of the 62 ethnic groups of the country.

Historical significance at the Beijing Inauguration 2008 | Culture

Representation

From here the show begins, a review of the most important inventions of Chinese culture starting with the role .

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The representation of a giant scroll in the center of the stadium, a large scroll that is slowly unfolding and that will be the thread of the whole ceremony.In the center of the parchment a huge blank sheet, this Little by little, the leaf is decorated with your hands.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The first writings were made on wooden tablets

Later the printing of texts will appear, a group of Chinese scribes with written tablets, as a sample of the first materials for the es Crimping, give way to the impression of literary texts, a guino to the great philosopher and thinker Confucius , with the representation of the Analects .Symbols that like a wave, leave happening creating philosophical sentences.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Analects de Confucio

Next the parchment changes, now the images they represent are allegorical to the important Silk Road , where a woman dances, surrounded by dancers carrying reeds, a clear allusion to the 7 trips of the eunuch Zheng He.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Silhouette of the ship commanded by Zheng He.

The representation on the parchment of images with clear allusions to the invention of the chi compass na and the Chinese navigation.This allegorical part of the trips ends with the dancers surrounding the scroll, while forming the silhouette of the ship that Zheng He commanded.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The Chinese compass

Finished this representation we pass at traditions of Imperial China , a traditional Chinese dance with costumes from the different Yepocas dynasties of Chinese history, adorned with the representation of their mythology and religion, where the representation of the dragons should be highlighted.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Representation of Chinese Dragons

Finally, and after making a plea for the future, the new space explorations, peace and unity, a group of master experts in the art of T ai Chi (traditional Chinese gymnastics), gives us a beautiful synchronization and coordination of smooth movements and incredible plasticity.

Meaning

Chinese scribes before the invention of the paper, used strips of wood or bamboo strips for a hard point to write.The system did not facilitate writing and much less the file of the annotations.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The invention of The brushes made with hair made it necessary to look for new materials to write on, trying on different types of fabrics, silks, fabrics, rice straw and even cotton.It is believed that it was the eunuch Cai Lun, who I create the first papermaking process in the second century BC, during the period of the Han dynasty.

  • LA CALIGRAFIA

The Traditional Chinese writing consists of thousands of signs or characters.Its origin dates back to at least three thousand years.There are different theories about Chinese spelling and its origin.The Chinese tradition attributes its invention to Cang Jie, Emperor Minister Huang Di, it is said that I believe the characters that make up Chinese calligraphy from the observation of the footprints of different birds.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Calligraphy and impression

Other legends place their origin in a system of rope knots, while others are attributed to the wise Fu Xi with the creation of 8 trigrams which are groups of three lines, some whole and others cut and ordered around a center, called yin-yang.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The 8 trigrams-The yin yang

  • CONFUCIUS ANALECT

The Analects are talks and reflections that the philosopher Confucius gave to his disciples, these reflections, talks and even discrepancies that they kept their students, they were collected in writing, receiving the name of « Discussions on words «, better known in the West as Analects.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The analectas

The analectas still have a lot of influence within the Chinese culture and even in other Asian countries.

  • THE SILK ROUTE

Silk was one of the most prestigious merchandise and desired by both Eastern and Western culture.Silk making was a secret kept by fire that only the Chinese knew, so it gave it that characteristic.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Silk Road

The Romans already knew this fabric and were great consumers of it. The Silk Road was a trade route that linked East to West.The trade was primarily based on diamonds, rubies, jades, pearls, fabrics, linen, ivory, lacquer, spices, porcelain, coral, glass, amber , etc.

  • THE TRIPS OF ZHENG HE

Zheng He Chinese military and explorer, I go to the history of China for the different trips I made between 1405 and 1433, often called the Chinese Colon.I make different expeditions starting in Nankin I get to explore countries like Indonesia, India, Ceilan, the Mozambique Channel, the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Persia and part of Africa.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Zheng's Travels He

There are known up to seven trips made by the western ocean. I have a fleet of 317 ships , becoming the largest fleet compared to those of the European era, its troop was formed by some 30,000 men.

The trips made by Zheng He, served to establish strong commercial, cultural and diplomatic ties .In addition to developing a technological power and organizational capacity.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Zheng He

The Chinese interest was not colonialism since China had never felt the need for expansion, simply its trips were based on expanding geographical knowledge, knowing and trade with other cultures and establish cordial relations with the new territories they reached.

  • LA BRUJULA

In the times of the Combatant Kingdoms, the Chinese already knew or knew that magnetism always indicated the north, therefore knowing the north, they knew how to place themselves geographically.Thus the first device capable of indicating was born the address, this device was called Sinan.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Sinan-Compass China

The sinan was formed by a polished and magnetic spoon and a bronze plate where directions or cardinal points were marked.The spoon always pointed to the north as it was magnetized and the handle of the spoon, logically indicated the south.

Tai Chi is a kind of martial art that was created in Imperial China and that has been followed by millions of people for a few decades from all over the world.In China, tai chi is practiced in any park in the city, it is usually practiced in large groups, being a true spectacle to see thousands of people performing their smooth and fluid movements.

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

The true origin of tai chi was the practice as a body fight body, with or without weapons, but practice today is more aimed at the physical and psychological benefits The realization of this practice, provides being practiced by the majority of the elderly population of China.

You may also be interested:

In History Today Online we have selected some links from our website, which we hope will be of interest to you.

Historical significance at the Beijing Inauguration 2008 | Images

Historical significance in the Inauguration of Beijing 2008 (2/2)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gustavo Adolfo Becquer Biography

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida; Seville, 1836-Madrid, 1870) Spanish poet.Along with Rosalía de Castro, he is the highest representative of post-romantic poetry, a trend that had as distinctive features the intimate theme and an apparent expressive simplicity, far from the vehemence rhetoric of romanticism. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (detail of a portrait made by his brother Valeriano, c.1862) Bécquer's work exerted a strong He influenced later figures such as Rubén Darío, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez and the poets of the generation of '27, and critics judge him to be the initiator of contemporary Spanish poetry.But more than a great name in literary history, Bécquer is above all a living poet, popular in every sense of the word, whose verses, with a moving voice and winged beauty, have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the predilection of millions of readers.. Biography Son and brother of painters, he was orphaned at the age of ten and live...

Gerardo Rueda Biography

Gerardo Rueda (Madrid, 1926- id. , 1996) Spanish painter and one of the most prominent members of abstract art in our country.For his pictorial constructions he used a wide range of materials (cardboard, wood, cloth, etc.), with which he sought to create a game of radical contrasts of textures; As for color, he sometimes adopted monochrome ( Azul , 1972).He participated in the Hispano-American Biennial of Havana (1953) and in the Venice Biennial (1960).In 1963 he founded with F.Zóbel the Museum of Abstract Art of Cuenca.His works include Blanco, Rojo y Negro (1975), Alea (1978) and the stained glass windows of Cuenca Cathedral (1991).In 1989 he donated part of his graphic work to the National Library.

Elio Donato Biography

Elio Donato (4th century AD) Latin grammarian.Preceptor of Saint Jerome, he wrote some Commentaries to the works of Terence and Virgil and a grammar considered one of the most complete works of its kind in Antiquity. Donato (right) with Terence and his commentators The famous grammarian Elio Donato was considered the" grammaticus urbis Romae "par excellence.Together with the rhetorician Victorino, through severe studies he tutored a whole generation of diligent disciples; Among them was Saint Jerome himself, who repeatedly quotes Elio Donato with the reverent title of "praeceptor meus", speaks of his unusual doctrine and places it at its peak in the year 353.His work must be understood as that of a master that he wrote for his school. From Donato we keep an Ars grammatica in two versions, both due to the same author: a "minor", of a catechetical nature, for initiates or "infants" and referring to the eight parts of speech; and anothe...

Heinrich maier Biography

Heinrich Maier (Heidenheim, 1867-Berlin, 1933) German philosopher.He produced a "critical realism", along the lines of H.Driesch.He is the author, among other works, of Aristotle's syllogistics (1896-1900) and of The philosophy of reality (1926-1935).

John Dos Passos Biography

John Dos Passos (John Roderigo Dos Passos, Chicago, 1896-Baltimore, 1970) American storyteller, prominent member of the so-called "Lost Generation", a heterogeneous group of authors that usually include poets like Ezra Pound and novelists like Ernest Hemingway and F.Scott Fitzgerald.John Dos Passos became famous above all for Manhattan Transfer (1925), a work that, with its panoramic and objective vision of the city, spearheaded an important urban trend in the contemporary novel. John Dos Passos Grandson of a Portuguese shoemaker and illegitimate son of a lawyer, he was educated in the maternal home.In 1917 he graduated from Harvard University, where he met intellectuals linked to the group "Harvard aesthetes." During the First World War he was an ambulance driver on the French front, an experience that provided him with material for his novel The Initiation of a Man: 1917 (1920).This was followed by Three Soldiers (1921), with which he achieved critica...

Gustav Kirchhoff Biography

Gustav Kirchhoff (Königsberg, Prussia, 1824-Berlin, 1887) German physicist.A close collaborator of chemist Robert Bunsen, he applied spectrographic analysis methods (based on the analysis of radiation emitted by an energetically excited body) to determine the composition of the Sun. Gustav Kirchhoff In 1845 he enunciated the so-called Kirchhoff laws, applicable to the calculation of voltages, intensities and resistances in the yes of an electrical mesh; understood as an extension of the law of conservation of energy, they were based on the theory of physicist Georg Simon Ohm, according to which the voltage that causes the passage of an electric current is proportional to the intensity of the current. In 1847 he served as a Privatdozent (non-salaried professor) at the University of Berlin, and after three years he accepted the post of professor of physics at the University of Breslau.In 1854 he was appointed professor at the University of Heidelberg, where he befriended Rober...

John baskerville Biography

John Baskerville (Wolverley, 1706-Birmingham, 1775) British printer.He was a teacher, but abandoned his profession to dedicate himself to typography, where he achieved notable fame for the aesthetic perfection of printing characters, which he personally cast and engraved.He was also the inventor of vellum.

Joseph Boussinesq Biography

Joseph Boussinesq (Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 1842-Paris, 1929) French mathematician.He also studied physics and was a professor of different disciplines in Paris.A member of the Academy of Sciences, his work covered very diverse fields of physics, mathematics and philosophy.His statistical studies on hydrodynamics are especially interesting.His works include Infinitesimal Analysis Course and Analytical Theory of Heat.

1492: The European Expansion

After the long period of crisis that characterized the end of the Middle Ages, Europe , from the mid-fifteenth century, manifested a remarkable dynamism.The population began to increase, the lands became again in tillage, trade routes experienced the heyday of yesteryear. Sailing always in search of expensive spices and gold, European navigators launched themselves farther and farther into the ocean.Two inventions dominated the progress of the technique: the printing press of Gutenberg, and the artillery. In relation to all this, economic wealth and discovery of the world, advent of a new humanism and artistic flourishing, the date of 1492 does not constitute All a surprise. However, the new islands that were found Cristobal Colon were to be revealed as the pr imera scale of an immense and unsuspected continent; and the Spaniards would carry their spirit of crusader evangelists and voracious conquerors to him. " Renaissance ", " 16th century revolu...

Jose Maria Sostres Biography

José María Sostres (José María or Josep Maria Sostres Maluquer; Seo de Urgel, 1915-Barcelona, ​​1983) Spanish architect trained in Barcelona.He was a co-founder and member of Grupo R, which contributed to the renovation of postwar Spanish architecture.In a first stage, he experimented with natural materials and traditional elements in projects such as the Casa Elías (Bellver de Cerdaña, 1946), the Casa Cusí (Seo de Urgel, 1952) and the María Victoria hotel (Puigcerdà, 1952).From the end of the fifties he developed a fully modern style, influenced by neoplasticism, in works such as the Casa Agustí (Sitges, 1953-1955), the Casa Iranzo (Esplugues de Llobregat, 1957) and the reform of the newspaper building El Noticiero Universal (Barcelona, ​​1963-1965).Since 1962 he was professor of the history of architecture at the Barcelona School of Architecture.He received the National Architecture Prize in 1972. Born in the Lleida town of Seo de Urgel, at the age of six he moved with his fam...