Behind the Winter Paralympic Awards bouquet: 150 disabled people knitted with more than 6 million stitches

　　A small blue flower was added to the award bouquet of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.

　　The Winter Olympics awards bouquets consist of roses, roses, lily of the valley, hydrangea, laurel, and olives, which symbolize fraternity, perseverance, happiness, unity, victory and peace, respectively.

The blue cosmos added to the Winter Paralympic Awards bouquet symbolizes strength.

　　"This blue cosmos embodies the spirit of self-improvement of the disabled." The idea came from Tang Zhanxin, one of the leaders of the Winter Paralympic Awards bouquet weaving team, and a spinal cord injured person who founded the first in Beijing. Home of Hope for People with Spinal Cord Injury.

　　Tang Zhanxin introduced that the 500 bouquets of the Winter Paralympic Awards came from the hands of 150 disabled people. It took at least 35 hours to complete each bouquet. They were knitted stitch by stitch, totaling more than 6 million stitches.

　　These bouquets are woven from wool and are also known as "flowers of glory that never die."

It belongs not only to the Winter Paralympic athletes, but also to everyone who worked for its birth.

　　A blue cosmos

　　In the original design, the awards bouquets for the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics consisted of 6 flower types, but the ribbons were of different colors.

　　In August 2021, the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation approached Tang Zhanxin and asked if their cultural and creative studio could help make handmade woolen products. Tang Zhanxin agreed.

In 2014, she founded the Beijing Hope House for Spinal Cord Injured Persons (hereinafter referred to as "Hope House"), and five years later established a cultural and creative studio composed of disabled persons.

　　When Tang Zhanxin saw the photo of the bouquet, he knew that it was the award bouquet for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, but he had to keep it secret from others until it was officially announced.

The award bouquets consist of roses, roses, lily of the valley, hydrangea, laurel and olives, which symbolize friendship, perseverance, happiness, unity, victory and peace respectively.

The hand-woven woolen flowers also contain the concept of thrift and sustainable Olympic Games.

　　Can you add a flower that symbolizes the quality of the disabled?

Tang Zhanxin first thought of cosmos, the flower language is "strong", and considering the original color matching of the award bouquet, he chose blue cosmos with coordinated hues.

　　In the end, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee adopted the suggestion of Tang Zhanxin and his team and added a blue cosmos to the Winter Paralympic awards bouquet.

　　"This blue cosmos is particularly close to the spirit of self-improvement of the disabled. After joining, it can also better reflect the society's concern for the disabled." Tang Zhanxin felt gratified.

　　After the bouquets were determined, she and her team were busy with weaving, proofing, and submitting for review. The samples they weaved were recognized by the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, and they began to undertake the production of 500 bouquets of award-winning wool for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics.

　　In the following two or three months, Tang Zhanxin's team convened 150 disabled people from 10 districts in Beijing to devote all their efforts to the production of bouquets for the Winter Paralympics.

　　In order to learn the "Shanghai-style woolen yarn weaving technique" used in the bouquets of the Winter Paralympics, the organizer provided teaching videos, and invited teachers to teach offline, and even taught at the homes of disabled people who lived far away.

　　Tang Zhanxin also recruited volunteers to help, and Cao Lu was one of them. She and other volunteers mainly helped to wrap the yarn.

The wool sent by the organizer is in a tangle, which is easy to tangle and needs to be tangled in a ball.

The disabled people are in wheelchairs and it is inconvenient to put the wool on the shelf, so Cao Lu and the others help.

　　Occasionally when she is free, Cao Lu will follow her teacher to learn how to make flowers.

As the inheritor of Beijing-style paper-cutting, after trying it out, she realized that it is not easy to make a small flower.

　　More than 6 million stitches for 150 disabled people

　　With skill, it takes at least 35 hours to make a bouquet of Winter Paralympic awards.

　　Behind every needle is sweat and hard work.

Guo Yuanyuan, 37, is a congenital spinal cord injury patient and a staff member of Hope House, mainly responsible for sending and receiving materials and weaving bouquets.

Since it was her first exposure to knitting, she watched the video repeatedly and did it stitch by stitch.

　　A small sweet-scented osmanthus flower with a diameter of about 1 cm, she followed the teacher to learn for a day, weaving and dismantling.

After learning, she groped for half an hour and knitted the first small yellow osmanthus flower, 35 stitches.

As for the larger flowers, it will take more time and stitches, such as roses and lily of the valley.

　　Weaving leaves is also not easy.

Take the most difficult laurel leaf as an example, the wool used is very thin, the stitches are complicated, and the distance between each stitch must be accurate to the millimeter.

The color of the leaves is dark green, and after weaving for a long time, it is difficult to see the texture of the dark wool, and it is easy to make mistakes.

There are 24 bay leaves on a bunch of flowers, and a skilled person can only weave four or five a day.

　　After the flowers and branches and leaves are arranged, Guo Yuanyuan will also participate in the assembly of the bouquet, just like a flower arrangement.

According to the requirements of the organizer, different flowers should show different shapes.

Guo Yuanyuan gave an example, "Like a lily of the valley, it grows upward, and the flower has to hang down, so the mouth of the flower cannot face upward."

　　On the evening of December 31, 2021, the Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics award bouquets were officially announced.

The team members who participated in the weaving suddenly realized that the woolen flowers they knitted were the award bouquets at the Winter Paralympics.

　　On January 14, 2022, all 500 "Flowers of Glory" were completed.

Behind this, there are more than 6 million stitches knitted by 150 disabled people.

Tang Zhanxin was proud of the disabled people who participated. "They showed me the energy that burst out of disabled friends."

　　"This is the flower watered by our sweat"

　　On the evening of March 5, at the first award ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics, bouquets appeared on the field.

　　Cao Lu remembered that everyone was very excited that day. They posted photos of the awards they took from various angles to the group, and posted the video of the bouquet weaving before.

"Everyone feels very honored. This is the flower watered by our sweat."

　　Participating in volunteer work for the disabled for five or six years, Cao Lu felt that while helping the disabled, she also felt a lot of positive energy.

"They may have some inconveniences in their lives, but they are all very optimistic and strong. Why don't we work hard?"

　　Guo Yuanyuan is also proud of herself. She has never been doing the same thing for such a long time, and her work ability has been greatly exercised.

At the same time, she has also mastered a craft that she is interested in, and wants to continue to explore the fun of weaving.

　　Before coming to Hope House, Guo Yuanyuan was taken care of by her family.

In 2016, she participated in the "Life Reconstruction" activity organized by Hope House, which enhanced her self-care ability and self-care awareness, as if she had been reborn.

Two years later, she became a staff member of the Hope House and has been working to this day.

　　"I hope to help severely physically disabled people like us rebuild their lives and rebuild their values." Tang Zhanxin talked about the original intention of establishing Hope House.

In 2004, Tang Zhanxin, who was about to graduate with a master's degree, traveled abroad and suffered a spinal cord injury due to a car accident.

The sudden accident made her desperate, but seeing the hard work of her parents, she decided to live a good life.

　　After changing her mentality, Tang Zhanxin began to use the Internet to connect with other people similar to her, encourage each other, and start a new life.

In 2014, Tang Zhanxin and several friends jointly established the first Hope Home for Spinal Cord Injury in Beijing.

Up to now, Hope House has helped more than 800 people with spinal cord injuries nationwide to achieve self-care, provided vocational skills training for more than 1,500 disabled people, and helped more than 200 disabled people find employment.

　　"Many disabled friends actually have great potential. We should recognize our potential and work hard to practice it." Tang Zhanxin hopes that disabled friends can overcome difficulties, and hopes that all sectors of society can give them more support and help. Let them come out of the slump in life.

She also wants to make the Hope House more professional and bring hope of "rebirth" to more disabled friends.

　　Beijing News reporter Wu Caiqian intern Tang Saikun