On August 7, Sunday Independent of the Independent Media published the article written by Cultural Counsellor Zheng Wen of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa titiled Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games: Sports and Cultural Feast. The full text goes as follows.

Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games: Sports and Cultural Feast

On August 5, the opening ceremony of Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games showcased the Brazilian culture of diversity, passion and openness. Opening ceremony not only marks the official start of the Olympic Games, but more importantly, offers the host a golden opportunity to display its culture and image. A wonderful opening ceremony is often seen as half success of the Olympic Games.

Eight years ago, I had the privilege to participate in the preparation for the 29th Olympic Games held in Beijing, China. The opening ceremony, directed by the world-famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou, presented a splendid sports and cultural feast to nearly 100,000 audiences in the stadium as well as billions of people worldwide in front of the television.

I vividly remember when the clock struck 8 pm of August 8, 2008, a trail of 29 fireworks, in the shape of footprint, marched along Beijing's ancient imperial city axis from South to North, symbolizing the extraordinary historic journey of the modern Olympic Games. When the last footprint stepped into the main venue-Bird's Nest (the National Stadium), the Olympic Games finally came to China, having realized our Olympic dream of one hundred years. The Chinese people, by beating 2008 Fou drums-an ancient Chinese percussion instrument, warmly welcomed athletes from all over the world. Then, a huge LED screen which is 147m long and 22m wide, turned into a beautiful Chinese scroll unfolding in the centre of the stadium. The screen, together with over 10000 performers told a story about brilliant 5000-year-long Chinese civilization. At the end of the opening ceremony, a giant earth model rose from the centre of the stage, on which acrobats ran, jump and cheered, symbolizing the exchanges and integration of different civilizations.

When the modern Olympic Games were first established, there were as few as 12 member states from Europe and America. Only 241 people participated in the first modern Olympic Games and all of them are white people. After the Second World War, the developing world eventually achieved independence and thus, people of different nationalities, ethnic groups and skin colors could compete in the Olympic arena as equals. Today, the International Olympic Committee has 205 members and every four years, over 10,000 athletes join the Olympic Games.

On July 31, 2015, Beijing won its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, standing as the first city in the world to host both summer and winter Olympic Games. At that time, I already served as the Cultural Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa. And when I first heard the news, I was still more than excited.

In 2022, Durban of South Africa will host the Commonwealth Games, which is also a world-class sports event. China, South Africa and Brazil are all BRICS countries. From Beijing in 2008 to Rio in 2016 and to Beijing and Durban in 2022, the world will be deeply impressed by the vitality of BRICS countries. China enjoys rich experience in organizing and operating large-scale sports games and South Africa also held World Cup in 2010. China stands ready to promote cooperation with South Africa in this area and make it another spotlight of our bilateral relations.

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