Winter Olympics during the Chinese New Year

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is just around the corner as people are celebrating the Chinese New Year on February 1, the first day of the first lunar month.

On February 2, the XXIV Olympic Winter Games will kick off with the mixed double’s curling. The opening ceremony will be held at the Beijing National Stadium (aka the “Bird’s Nest”) on February 4, and the Games will last till February 20.

While the participants from all over the world enjoy the unique celebration, the Chinese winter sports athletes will compete at home in this holiday season.

Flower parterres at Tiananmen Square. (Photo: Hou Yu/China News Service)

Togetherness
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) amended its "Faster, Higher, Stronger" motto to include the word "Together" last July, calling for solidarity and cooperation against global challenges.
The Chinese New Year has long been an occasion for family get-togethers. Today, even if some people can't be physically together with their family, they still feel together.
The word "together" carries special significance as the Winter Olympics is to be held during the Chinese New Year in 2022.
We are all in this together. With mutual trust and solidarity, we will overcome whatever challenge that comes our way, including the pandemic.

Winter Olympics mascot sculptures in "Snow and Ice Corridor" in Haidian District. (Photo: Hou Yu/China News Service)

Traditional Chinese Culture
"We took the Chinese New Year into account back when we were bidding for the Winter Olympics, hoping to introduce the traditional Chinese culture to the rest of the world through the Winter Games," said Yu Zaiqing, IOC vice president and vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Just as the Summer Olympics in 2008 demonstrated the traditional Chinese culture by the ancient musical instrument performance at the opening ceremony, the "Lucky Cloud" design on the Olympic torch, the floor music of Peking Opera, etc., the Winter Olympics will present another great opportunity to display the traditional Chinese culture - the Chinese New Year in particular.

Beijing National Stadium (the "Bird's Nest") on the opening of 2008 Beijing Olympics Games. (Photo: Mao Jianjun/China News Service)

For instance, many Winter Olympics collections and merchandise featuring Chinese culture are sold well, such as Chinese New Year badges.
The Winter Olympics and the Chinese New Year elements are used in street decorations in places such as Chang'an Avenue, "Sanlitun", and China World Trade Center.

Chinese knot-shaped lights along the Chang'an Avenue. (Photo: Sheng Jiapeng/China News Service)

Moreover, Chinese cultural activities at the Beijing Olympic Village, such as Chinese calligraphy and paper-cutting, are enabling more people to learn about Chinese culture. Likewise, a bowl of jiaozi could serve as a token of the Chinese New Year.
Olympics in China

Winter Olympics-themed parterre at Dongdan. (Photo: Li Jun/Chinanews.com)

China greeted the world with a cheery “Welcome to Beijing” during the Summer Olympic Games in 2008. Fourteen years later, with its motto of “Together for a shared future”, Beijing will be the first-ever city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

A large art installation at the Beijing Olympic Park. (Photo: Zhang Yu/China News Service)

"The 2008 motto showed the world China's openness and the motto of this Winter Games - 'Together for a shared future' - demonstrates China's vision," explained Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association.
With more than a decade of rapid growth, China is standing ready to welcome participants from around the world to be hand in hand, "Together for a shared future".
Rewritten by Wang Yanqiang & Shou Chenjia, Fudan University.