On January 6th, 2022, the Meet in Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival and the 22nd Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival were held in Beijing. Hu Heping, culture and tourism minister, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Attendees included Zhang Xu, vice culture and tourism minister, Han Zirong, secretary general and all-time vice chair of Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and Wen Hongwu, general manager of the Zijing Culture Group.
Hu Heping said in his speech that the Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival is a large-scale comprehensive international art festival famous at home or abroad. This time, it’s associated with the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games. Sports are ways of connection and culture carries the content for the festival which is held both online and offline. The aim is to create a strong joyful atmosphere to welcome and to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. “Meet in Beijing”-related events is an example to show the amazing culture and cultural events. It will show the Olympics’ cultural content which is “simplified, secure and amazing” and add more highlight to Beijing, the “city of two Olympic Games”, so as to promote Chinese culture, tell Chinese stories well and show to the world a trustworthy, lovely and respectable Chinese image.
The “Meet in Beijing” event is hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Radio and Television Administration, Beijing Municipal People’s Government and the organizing committee of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games. It’s organized by the China Arts and Entertainment Group Ltd and Beijing Cultural and Tourism Bureau. In the evening of the opening ceremony, a large-scale comprehensive culture and art gala named “Let’s Meet in Beijing” is held in the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center. The gala was performed by the China National Traditional Orchestra and Suzhou Symphony Orchestra. The show expresses Chinese stories and the outstanding traditional culture in an innovative way. Technologies like AR and holographic image are used on the stage to integrate creatively art and technology. The virtual singer Luo Tianyi and many Olympic champions appear on the stage, indicating the integration of sparkling youth and the string spirit of the Winter Olympic Games. The gala was recorded with 8K ultra high-definition technology. It will be shown on the CCTV Olympic channel, the documentary channel of Winter Olympic Games of the BTV and other platforms.
21 Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival have been held since it started in 2001. More than 32 thousand artists from more than 120 countries and regions have been to Beijing to show their talents with audience up to 4.7 million people, so the festival is new an important platform for Beijing to enhance the construction of a national cultural center and to improve it’s international influence and reputation. This international festival is a major national cultural event and the name is changed due to the Olympic Games to the Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival and the 22nd Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival. The event can be divided into five sections, including performing art, virtual, video exhibition, city events and celebration, which are launched online and offline to offer nearly a hundred performance to audience form 22 countries and regions. In this way, a strong cultural atmosphere is created to show the unique culture attractiveness of Beijing, the first “city of two Olympics” in the world.