Tribute to the People
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
The performance began by 76 young people consisted of local and foreign university students walking through the Bird’s Nest in unison, with the public welfare song Let the World be Filled with Love written for the International Year of Peace in 1986 sung in the background. After they walked past the stage, the smile face of people all over the world appeared on the road, slowly converging into a long river of images, with Chinese knot streamers symbolizing "unity" floating on both sides. Then the slogan "Together for a Shared Future" emerged, bringing out the theme of the Winter Olympics. The second half of the show featured a roller skating performance to coincide with the "8 Minutes of Beijing" at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. 24 students from Beijing Sport University drew smooth and intertwined lines on the ground screen, "like a racetrack, like a Chinese knot", and then led to the Olympic motto of "Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together". The background music of roller skating performance is John Lennon's anti war song Imagine, which had been presented in several Olympic opening ceremonies, so as to encourage people to put aside all their differences, to unite and live in harmony, away from war; People of different regions and colors work together to protect the earth and play the eternal movement of "harmony and unity".
《致敬人民》。节目伴随着1986年为国际和平年而作的公益歌曲《让世界充满爱》，76名中国大学生和外国留学生步调一致，穿过鸟巢，而参演人员走过的路陆续展示出全世界各国人民的笑脸，慢慢汇成影像的长河，两侧飘拂着寓意“团结”的中国结飘带。随即主题口号“一起向未来”浮现，带出此次冬奥会的主题。节目后半段为轮滑表演，与2018年平昌冬奥会闭幕式上的“北京8分钟”相呼应。24名北京体育大学学生在地屏上划出流畅交织的线条，“既像跑道，又像中国结”，继而引出“更快、更高、更强——更团结”的奥林匹克格言。轮滑表演的背景音乐则选用了于多届奥运会开幕式中呈现过的约翰·列侬的反战歌曲《Imagine》，以鼓励人们抛开所有分歧，团结起来，远离战争，和谐相处；不同地域、不同肤色的人共同守护地球家园，奏响“美美与共”的永恒乐章。
Zhang Yimou(张艺谋）X Joe Wang(王志鸥） X Blackbow(黑弓) X Jody Xiong(熊超）
Jody Xiong
Being A Part of the Team of Zhang Yimou, Chief Director of the Opening Ceremonies of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics had their grand opening ceremonies at the Bird's Nest on February 4th and March 4th 2022. Incredibly, Jody Xiong(熊超）, the legendary Chinese advertising creator, was invited to join zhang Yimou's team as the visual effect director and visual artist of the two opening ceremonies. As the founder and creative director of The Nine in Shanghai, Jody Xiong, also an art director, designer, artist and director, is the most diverse and groundbreaking creative star in China. He has won more than 500 creative design awards. For example, He was named as one of the Asia's top 12 most awarded creative leaders by Campaign Brief Asia; he was the first Chinese winner of the Golden Design Lion award at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; He also won 21 nominations, including the Silver Design Lion and the Bronze Film Lion with a high degree of difficulty; 6 Pencils at British D&AD; 9 Cubes at New York ADC and 16 Merit Awards; 8 Statues at Clio Awards; 5 Pencils at One Show and 18 Merit Awards; 30 Trophies at ADFEST including 2 Grand Prix and 5 Golden Awards; 16 Statues at London International Advertising Awards; Golden EPICA Award and Golden Andy Award; 6 Red Dot Design Awards in German; He has entered the list of top designers in Forbes China; in 2021, he ranked the third in the Best Advertising Director of Asia-pacific region in the Global One Show and New York ADC Ranking. His works have been featured by New York MOMA, CANAL+, TIMES, VICE, The Guardian, WIRED, Huffington Post, ART TIMES and through many other media outlets.
Zhang Yimou(张艺谋), an international film master. The films he directed have won numerous awards at international film festivals, including two Golden Lions in Venice and one Golden Bear in Berlin both for Best Picture, three Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and five Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film Award. He is also the world's first "double Olympic Chief Director" of the opening and closing ceremonies of summer and Winter Olympics. Last March, Mr. Zhang was seeking Chinese creative power. Joe Wang(王志鸥), the director of visual effect of Winter Olympics and the founder of Blackbow(黑弓) Digital Technology, scouted for a group of new media visual effect experts throughout the country and recommended them to Zhang Yimou, the chief director of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Fortunately, Joe Wang found Jody Xiong. Being nervous, excited and expecting, Jody grasped the rare opportunity in his life. After all, the chief director he would cooperate is a film and aesthetic master. The portfolio works alone were prepared for a whole week. Mr. Zhang went through all works and selected seven digital artists, a bit like the plot of Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai, each with his own unique skills and strengths, and Jody Xiong as the representative for creative advertising and design. Since May last year, seven digital artists had gathered in Beijing for countless brainstorm, discussion, proposal, modification and re-proposal, together with the chief director Zhang Yimou and visual effects director Joe Wang, from the Bird's Nest to the Blackbow office to Zhang Yimou's studio. Chief director Zhang Yimou repeatedly stressed that the team must apply Chinese elements to create original ideas, tell Chinese stories well, and follow the tone of ethereal, aesthetic and romantic. The huge ground screen and vertical screen of the Bird's Nest should be skillfully used so that the digital, design, technology, performance and art can be integrated together, with "Chinese-style romance" being delivered to the world.
It was a long and difficult process, full of uncertainty, surprise and excitement. Chief director Zhang Yimou led Chinese creative team, denying one idea after another, and giving birth to one more perfect idea after another. In the final decision of the opening ceremony, Jody Xiong, as one of the visual effect directors, joined China's top digital technology team Blackbow to participate in the countdown projects of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony named Beginning of Spring and Tribute to the People.
Zhang Yimou(张艺谋）Jody Xiong(熊超）
“I’ve been longing for the opportunity to create works that are truly beyond advertising. Beginning of Spring, Tribute to the People and The Bloom incorporate oriental aesthetics and technology. It’s the result of teamwork, containing countless days and nights of painstaking efforts by countless people. I would like to thank chief director Zhang Yimou(张艺谋） for his appreciation and guidance, and also visual effect director Joe Wang(王志鸥） and Cai Guoqiang(蔡国强）. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in these two great events and let Chinese creative power be seen by the world.”Jody Xiong said proudly .
