An aerial view of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in East China’s Zhejiang Province Photo: VCG

The 19th Asian Games closing ceremony will be held on Sunday at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, or the “Big Lotus.” Just like the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony will be filled with innovative elements including digital torchbearer and computer numerical control (CNC) lawn.

Sha Xiaolan, director of the closing ceremony of Asia’s largest sports event, said during a press briefing that the digital torchbearer will reappear at the ceremony and witness the extinguishing of the Asian Games flame, to be watched by hundreds of millions of viewers.

“People have already gotten a clear picture of the digital man through the opening ceremony and experienced the shock of its arrival more than two weeks ago. We have openly solicited the name of the digital man on the Internet, with nearly 10,000 names have been submitted,” Sha said.

The “digital torchbearer” online torch relay activity was launched simultaneously with the real torch relay. Before the opening ceremony, the online attenders of Asian Games "digital torchbearer" exceeded 104 million. 

Each online participant is a point of light that converges on the Qiantang River to form a figurative “digital person” who met with Olympic champion swimmer Wang Shun at the main venue to light the main torch tower at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games on September 23.

Sha revealed that during the closing ceremony, the digital person will have another emotional expression of action, adding that it will be a very warm moment in which the Asian Games sacred fire is extinguished, as the digital man, the crowd in the stadium as well as the actors and actresses will come together to celebrate the ending of the sports gala event.

“Amid children's chorus, the digital man will slowly leave the stadium in a very anthropomorphic form, and the audience will witness a very touching scene, which is also an echo with the opening ceremony,” he added.

Sha said that his team hopes to create a “Garden of the Asian Games” during the closing ceremony, and a CNC lawn will become an important support for the idea.

The garden will contain dolls, animals and other elements, constituting a picture of man and nature coexisting harmoniously. In terms of the technology support, the CNC lawn has nearly 40,000 light-emitting points, which can be combined with AR and other tech solutions to produce a variety of patterns, text and colors.

“We have tested this lawn at an alternate venue and it fully achieved our design effect. It is the first time in the world that such a CNC lawn will appear at the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, and I believe it may impress many,” Sha said.

Global Times