By: Faheem Anwar Khan
Hangzhou: The Hangzhou Asian Games launched “Asian Games In Hangzhou”, the final installment of the “Hangzhou Charms” trilogy. The short film brings to life the long-term influence and future legacy of the Asian Games on the host city.
The “Asian Games In Hangzhou” short film utilizes the traditional Chinese seal, which has origins that can be traced back 2000-3000 years in history, along with Chinese calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. The item “Art of Chinese seal engraving” was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, which is the first item in Hangzhou entered the List. The major heritage representative organizations: Xiling Seal Engraver’s Society, based in Hangzhou, founded over 120 years ago, who carved all the seals used in the short film.
The Asian Games will be a milestone in the history of Hangzhou, where it will act as a driver in sustainable development, urban regeneration and cultural development, talent migration, English language learning, health and fitness projects. The legacy of the Games has provided new opportunities which has resulted in a new interest in sports and fitness from local residents of all ages, resulting in more than 16 million bookings by the public for fitness, across 382 venues, including 45 Asian Games venues, on the Asian Games online portal. More than 11,000 venues and facilities are available to the general public as part of the long term legacy of the games.
At present, 51 of the 56 competition venues have developed a post Gams utilization plan, and 91% of all venues and operations have developed a sustainable operations plan for post Games operations, which includes the athletes village which after the games will be utilized as a kindergarten. The Hangzhou Charms trilogy depicts some of the unique features that athletes, officials, spectators and local communities of the Hangzhou Asian Games will experience when the Games commence with the Opening Ceremony on 23rd September 2023. Around 12,500 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will compete in 40 sports across 61 disciplines.
