Asthe host city of the next Winter Games, Beijing held a wonderful eight-minuteshow at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics, sendinga warm invitation to the whole world.
The show was directed by Zhang Yimou, a famousChinese director who was also responsible for the eight-minute summer handoverin Athens in 2004 as well as the opening and closing ceremonies in Beijing in2008 that had a big success in the world.
UnlikeAthens which focused on showing Chinese history with traditional culture likered lantern and jasmine(茉莉花), "Beijing 8 Minutes" gave special importance to theChinese people's sincere welcome to the world by using modern technology.
Leading the team were two dancers in costumesof pandapuppets that are the world's largest but thelightest at the same time, each weighing only about 10 kilograms. To reduce thepressure on the two dancers, researchers had tried hundreds of differentmaterials until ending up with high-technology ones.
Duringthe whole performance, the dancers and robots both wore LED lights on them thatcould be fit for the cold weather at PyeongChang Olympic Stadium without therisks of breaking. The costumes were also made with a kind of special materialto keep the dancers warm.
Performersdanced with 24 intelligent robots – standing for Beijing hosting the 24thWinter Olympics. They showed scenes of sports such as skating and skiing.
Pictureswere projected to the icy floor while dancers skated across it, making a senseof augmented reality(增强现实). A number of moving screens in the middle of the field were alsocontrolled by artificial intelligence(人工智能).
