China’s virtual show: Digital torchbearer lights flame, river flows inside stadium
THEY COULDN’T hold the opening ceremony by the river or the lake, so they brought the river and the lake to the Asian Games here on Saturday. And the evening that began with a whoosh ended with a silent flicker.China, the country believed to have given the world fireworks, shunned one of its most widely-used inventions for soundless, smokeless sparks in the ceremony that dazzled with digital creations and boundless imagination.
The 115-minute extravaganza, aesthetic and awe-inspiring, at the 81,000-seater Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium saw augmented reality — rivers and waves, 3D stadiums and flying sports equipment, virtual torchbearers and people in the sky performing to traditional tunes.
Nothing captured the AI-driven nature of these Asian Games more than the lighting of the...