Chinese Seal - Dancing Beijing

　　WHEN the emblem for the 2008 Olympic Games was finally unveiled in a solemn ceremony in the gardens of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, the term "Chinese Seal - Dancing Beijing" quickly raced around the world.

　　The emblem perfectly combines the vigorous spirit of Olympic sports and ancient Chinese culture.

　　Ancient inspiration

　　The seal of "Dancing Beijing" is a special type of Chinese seal known as an Image Seal or Xiaoxing Seal. The designer's inspiration came from the image of a dancing god in the ancient Image Seals of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

　　The god of wind and sea, called Yuqiang, has two snakes next to his ears and another two snakes under his feet. The seal is now on display in the Shanghai Museum.

　　The Beijing Olympic Games seal also has many elements in common with the Image Seals of dancers and warriors of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) with their simple lines and lively, exaggerated gestures.

　　The main part of the official Games emblem - a red, dancing figure - also resembles the Chinese character "Jing" (for capital as in Beijing) and its free-style strokes symbolize the energy and openness of China's capital.

　　Its lines are well executed aesthetically as befits an ancient Image Seal: lively but solemn, strong and graceful, smooth and powerful, ancient and modern.

　　The design captures the spirit, character and verve of Chinese culture. It also indicates the determination of China's capital city to create a "New Beijing" and provide a great Olympics and also to make the 2008 Games a Green Olympics, a High-tech Olympics and a People's Olympics.

　　There is a special part in the image where the dancer's feet seem to extend outside the border of the image, so people who enjoy the work can use their imaginations to make it up (as shown in the accompanying drawing).

　　This device is a special area of Chinese art called "leave space" which means that even the part outside the work still belongs to the picture. This device is widely used in Chinese calligraphy and painting.

　　However, from an artist's point of view, this special area of Chinese art is ruined somewhat when the Olympic emblem appears on the special souvenir Coca-Cola cans.

　　On the cans, the emblem has a white outline around it which cuts into the space where the lines would extend outside the picture and thus restricts people's imagination.

　　Chinese-style ceremony

　　At the Temple of Heaven ceremony, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of NPC and Hein Verbmggen, Chairman of the Co-ordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee, lifted the yellow wrapping satin and unlocked a rosewood box to reveal the crystal-clear jade Chinese seal of "Dancing Beijing".

　　The seal is delicately carved in precious Hetian jade from Western China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

　　With its dragon-shaped knob and a golden ribbon, the seal is specially designed and used by ancient emperors. According to strict ancient Chinese custom, only an emperor's seal, the highest level of seals, could be made of jade and have a dragon-shaped knob.

　　The ceremony to announce the emblem is rooted in Oriental culture with the Chinese seal, the red ink-pad, the special Xuan paper and the Chinese-style long table.

　　Actually, the emblem was stamped onto the paper ahead of the ceremony because the process would have been too demanding for the two officials to achieve successfully and quickly.

　　However, the ceremony of stamping the seal is quite wonderful and solemn.

　　The seal in Chinese culture symbolizes commitment. So using a seal as the bearer of the emblem also indicates the commitment of 1.3 billion Chinese to give the world an extraordinary Olympic Games.

　　Special film

　　The promotional film for the emblem was directed by Zhang Yimou, China's most renowned movie director and this was another highlight of the ceremony. Zhang's film is in three parts: the seal, the colour red and, of course, sport.

　　In the first part about the seal, a lovely baby stamps tender footprints onto paper and a pretty girl stamps her red lips on a painting which demonstrates the basic principle of a seal.

　　When watching lovers stamping their seals onto newly-made pottery, the audience is able to see and enjoy the depth and charm of Oriental culture. The stamping of seals onto pottery was the main function of seals in the Warring States Period.

　　In another scene from the movie, a strong wind blows away sand to expose an ancient bronze seal cast with characters that mean "Guangnafuyin" (the official seal of Guangna prefectural city). The seal is one of the four official seals of the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) still in existence.