Tradition, technology and political message at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics

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Beijing presented its Winter Olympics to the world on the first night of spring following the Chinese calendar.

paraded shone again

.

They were the stars of the Olympic Games in which the world was captivated by the development and innovation of a China that solemnized its return to the international scene by showing its growing economic power.

The orchestra director of those Olympic Games 14 years ago,

, three times nominated for an Oscar, then set the bar very high with a ceremony at the National Stadium in Beijing, known as the Bird's Nest, which was seen by 2,000 million people. people on television.

Zhang, 71, has now become the first director to lead the ceremonies of two Olympic Games in the same city.

For this Friday night, it scheduled an entertaining show that for 100 minutes mixed cutting-edge technology and Chinese tradition.

With temperatures below zero and with the stadium half full, many spectators clung to the blankets that the organization left on the seats.

The first big applause was when Chinese President

entered, greeting International Olympic Committee (IOC) President

from a distance .

Later, Xi sang the national anthem as the Chinese flag was raised.

The coat worn by the Chinese leader, a black waterproof urban parka, was very popular on national social networks.

So much so that in just a few minutes he was sold out on Taobao, the most famous e-commerce page in the country.

Xi Jinping, President of China. AP

The nearly 3,000 athletes who compete in 15 sports (7 snow, 8 ice) representing

, came out of the Games bubble to parade on tiles that seemed to be made of ice on which motifs inspired by doors and windows were projected. Chinese traditional windows.

The organizers have said that they have carried out more than

since January 23 and that they found more than 230 positives for Covid among the athletes, staff of the Olympic committees of the countries and journalists who arrived in Beijing.

The Spanish delegation, made up of 14 athletes, went out to the Bird's Nest with

(snowboarding, the main trick to get on the podium) and

(skeleton runner). During the parade, the most political spotlight was on the only athlete representing India (there are 19 delegations that only have one athlete in their ranks), alpine skier

, who came out to the stadium a few hours after his country announced that it was joining the diplomatic boycott led by the United States and that it would not send any emissary to Beijing either.

A decision that came after Wednesday's Olympic torch relay featured a Chinese army commander,

, who fought a clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers on their shared Himalayan border in June 2020.

Another focus was on the delegation representing Taiwan, the island with a young democracy that China considers a breakaway province.

Since neither international sports organizations nor more than 14 countries around the world recognize Taiwan's sovereignty, the island has to participate in these events always with the degraded status of "

".

The attraction of the ceremony was also in the box of authorities.

Amid the

over China's crackdown on the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region, there were no political representatives from the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom or Australia in Beijing.

The most prominent presence was that of Russian President

, who had a previous meeting with the Chinese leader.

Russia, as happened in Tokyo 2020, participates under the acronym ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) after starring in a series of doping scandals.

Vladimir Putin during the ceremony of the Winter Games.AP

Among the thirty foreign representatives who attended the ceremony were

, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the president of Egypt,

, or the Argentine president

. UN Secretary-General

and World Health Organization (WHO)

were also among those in attendance.

Guterres has come under fire this week from some human rights organizations who accuse him of holding back a report the UN was preparing before the start of the Games on

.

While the director of the WHO was accused by the United States government when Trump was in collusion with Beijing for allegedly covering up the severity of the pandemic in its early days.

During the last minutes of the ceremony, a video was broadcast in tribute to the victims of Covid-19 while the slogan of the Games was displayed in the stadium:

.

Then

's

played while several athletes skated through the stadium.

They were seven Chinese skaters, all national medalists from various eras, the last torchbearers.

Two of them,

(of the Uyghur ethnic group, in a clear message from Beijing to critics)

, who compete in these Games, were in charge of lighting the cauldron.

Light show during the ceremony.AP

Beijing intended to do what Tokyo failed to do: hold the first big party of the post-pandemic era.

That was the plan.

, celebrating the return of the old normality.

At least something close to it.

A normality that has been palpable in the city for a long time.

But the bubble that concentrates the Winter Olympics, overshadowed by the diplomatic boycott of human rights, is in a parallel and more dystopian reality that has nothing to do with day-to-day life in the bustling neighborhoods of a city where more than 21 million people.

In the end, the coronavirus has not given a truce.

And if to this is added the lock of a country that

, then it is explained that the bubble of the Beijing Games is much more restrictive than that of Tokyo, where journalists, after the first week inside a closed circuit, they were given at least one card to take the metro for free.

In Beijing, on the other hand,

and the closest they are to the local population is when they look out the window of the exclusive trains that connect the venues.

There is also no sale of tickets to the public in these Games as was intended.

The organization will select small groups among the local population, institutions and companies to attend the competitions.

The stadiums are expected to be at 35 or 50% capacity, as was the case at the opening ceremony.

At least, it is already much more than the Tokyo Games, with the empty stands.

In the latter, the point is for Beijing.

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