19th Asian Games opening ceremony Hangzhou’s digital torchbearer attracts millions

19th Asian Games opening ceremony Hangzhou’s digital torchbearer attracts millions

HANGJOW’s Jujiang Province showcased the remarkable outcome of the tireless work of the dedicated staff behind the scenes in the 19th Asian Games.

The opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games reached its climax with an unprecedented digital cauldron-lighting ceremony, wherein millions of torchbearers transformed the digital flames into a digital human figure on the Qiantang River before it ignited the cauldron together with swimming Olympic champion Wang Shun, the last of six athletes who relayed the actual flame inside the stadium.

Cui Yongjiang, the creative director of the digital torchbearer he is very aware of the tremendous efforts made behind the perfect presentation of the digital image.

To keep the ceremony a secret until the last minute, all rehearsals for the digital cauldron-lighting ceremony took place at night following the completion of site clearing.

“At the moment of ignition, the digital figure has to activate an on-site ignition device. How to make a perfect combination of all the aspects in the process is very challenging. Therefore, during every rehearsal at night, we spend a lot of time on coordinating different departments and work scheduling, so as to make the whole process flawless.”

“It is an arduous and challenging task. We must make repeated adjustments about the angle, size, movement of the digital figure and also its posture when igniting,” according to Cui Yongjiang, Creative Director, Virtual Execution of Opening Ceremony of Hangzhou Asian Games.

Aside from sci-tech elements, the digital figure also has symbols of the Liangzhu culture, which arose in the location of modern Hangzhou about 5,000 years ago and is world-known for its unique water conservancy system.

“Integrating the Liangzhu culture into the digital figure poses a new challenge for us. We have picked out some distinctive totems from the Liangzhu culture and put them on the digital figure’s shoulders, arms, and even behind its knees. The digital figure also features some luminous lines, which together with the particles, can create a sense of modernity, strength, future, and science and technology,” Cui Yongjiang, Creative Director, Virtual Execution of Opening Ceremony of Hangzhou Asian Games

The 19th Asian Games, co-hosted by Hangzhou and five other cities in Zhejiang Province, will last through October 8 of this year.

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