The 2008 Summer Olympics : Beijing, China

[kezme44]

is it a good one?? i'm at work and can't see it but i'll watch it tonight

 

[Faith Akiyama]

So thrilling!

 

[TheGlassAngel]

Amazing opening ceremony!!

I cried, I won't lie. I get very emotional during these things.

Beautiful beautiful integration of art, history and technology.

 

[Faith Akiyama]

Some first photos for those who haven't seen it yet and might want a preview

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gallery

 

[kezme44]

why didn't i call off today
it's not the same watching the replay
wow...colorful indeed

 

[cul8tr]

OMG the opening is soooo beautiful. Colours, music, everything. I love drummers and tai chi segments. And the technology they used. Amazing

 

[larien]

I just opened the tv.I wonder if the Turkish convoy have passed yet ??

 

[iLoveCouture]

Darn it they aren't playing it here tonight until 7:30 PM!

 

[Faith Akiyama]

This is a pretty interesting note:

The nations were marching not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. The exceptions were Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, which was given its traditional place at the start, and the 639-member Chinese team, which lined up last with Yao as its flag-bearer.

In other words, 美国 (USA; 17 strokes) would go after 日本 (Japan; 9 strokes), but before 危地馬拉 (Guatemala; 30 strokes)

Although I wonder if they went with the traditional or simplified form...

 

[agneslo]

i am SOOOOO EXCITED frankly, i have never felt that proud of my motherland! WHOA!!!!!!!

 

[agneslo]

This is a pretty interesting note:

In other words, 美国 (USA; 17 strokes) would go after 日本 (Japan; 9 strokes), but before 危地馬拉 (Guatemala; 30 strokes)

Although I wonder if they went with the traditional or simplified form...

I guess they did it with the simplified form, traditional form is commonly used in some of the Guangdong Province and HK only

 

[LolaSvelt]

I really loved the light drums at the start of the ceremony!

 

[Faith Akiyama]

I guess they did it with the simplified form, traditional form is commonly used in some of the Guangdong Province and HK only

Do you remember the order? Because that might tell us what they used...I'm only wondering because the whole ceremony was about history and "tradition," so I wouldn't be surprised if they went for traditional form, either

 

[stersita]

thank you so much for posting that info, Faith
I was wondering about the order, that's really interesting how they did it

 

[agneslo]

anyway, the China team just ENTERED!!! YAO MING!!!!

 

[agneslo]

Do you remember the order? Because that might tell us what they used...I'm only wondering because the whole ceremony was about history and "tradition," so I wouldn't be surprised if they went for traditional form, either

just checked on the binyang.gov.cn , they used the simplified form.

[FONT=&#23435]今年4月，在国际奥委会联合会全会上，北京奥组委提出“将按照汉字笔画顺序制定入场顺序”，按照这一原则，如果代表团第一个字的笔画相同，就按第2个字的笔画来确定排序，以此类推。 [/FONT]
[FONT=&#23435]在本届奥运会上，在希腊代表团首个入场后，来自非洲的几内亚代表团将第2个出场，因为“几”字只有两画，而韩国代表团的“韩”字有12画，将排在第176位，朝鲜代表团将排在第177位。在2000年悉尼奥运会上，英文名字以“K”打头的韩国代表团(Korea)和朝鲜代表团一起以第97位入场；2004年雅典奥运会，按照希腊文的字母排序，韩朝代表团也以第84位入场。 [/FONT]

to sum up the news, they said they will count on the FIRST word to line up first, if the country shared the same strokes, they will then count the second word. and given Korea as the example, they used the simplified form, which has 12 strokes. according to the news. Because if they used the traditional form, it will have 17 strokes.

 

[Faith Akiyama]

Thanks Using only the first character would be a lot easier

 

[kezme44]

 

[larien]

^I kind of gave the same reaction!

 

[TheGlassAngel]

I'm probably not as knowledgable as Faith in this topic but one stroke indicate one marking.

For example: [FONT=&#23435]上

would be 3 strokes because it takes three marks to make up the letter while [/FONT][FONT=&#23435]的 would be 8 strokes because it takes eight markings to make up the word.

I hope this makes some sense. I also hope that I calculated the strokes properly because my Chinese is very rusty
[/FONT]