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Olympic Opening Ceremony Uses Chinese Movable Type
How is it possible that we have yet to mention the Olympics? I was in Ireland for the opening ceremonies, but caught the spectacle on RTE. Of course, as language fans tend to do, I got all excited when the performers started to form Chinese characters from inside their accordion boxes. The plucky Irish announcers were quick to help with the translation, letting us know we were seeing the Chinese character for "Peace" or "Harmony" repeated several times.
It was pretty impressive, and when I got back I went searching for more information on the various elements of Chinese used in the ceremony, and found this detailed explanation. I must not have been listening to the Irish commentary closely enough, because I missed that the accordion boxes had their own characters on top, representing Chinese movable type. Another interesting fact: it apparently took these performers 10 months to perfect the movable type routine.
More pictures from the ceremony can be seen on the Boston Globe's Big Picture Blog. (SUZANNE)
Tags: Chinese, movable type, Olympic Games, Olympics
August 13, 2008
