<p>I also really enjoyed NBC's commentary after the closing ceremony, especially its closing remarks that have a very positive, optimistic, and encouraging tone. "The world has come to see China, and China has welcomed the world with open arms... you do not need to learn mandarin or attain a masters degree in international diplomacy in order to understand the obvious signs of warmth and friendship of the Chinese people." </p>
<p>Lastly, I'm also feeling a little nostalgic now, that the games are finally over. Those of us on CC who commented on this thread have all been partcipants of the Olympic movement. During the brief 16 days of the games, cliched ideals like friendship, trust, and openness have materialized themselves into something magical, something we could all feel, distant as we may be from each other. Although differences and disagreements remain, we realized that those ideals of friendship, trust, openness, and harmony form a type of human progress that could overcome our differences. "Magical" is the word I'd use to describe it. </p>
<p>我和你 心连心 同住地球村
为梦想 千里行 相会在北京</p>
<p>来吧 朋友 伸出你的手
我和你 心连心 永远一家人</p>
<p>You and me
From one world
We are family,</p>
<p>Travel dream
A thousand miles
Meeting in beijing.</p>
<p>Come together
Put your hand in mine,</p>
<p>You and me,
From one world
We are family.</p>
<p>"You and Me" Theme Song of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games</p>
<p>
[quote]
Of course, it will no longer be an issue. China has spent north of 40 billion USD in preparations for the games. The IOC won't be stupid enough to ignore those numbers, and certainly won't be foolish enough to dispute and alienate 1/5 of the world. All in all, I don't think it's a matter of being fair or unfair in the first place.
[/quote]
although you do have a point there, you make it sound as if the atheletes were underaged FOR SURE, and then IOC are in on it. I mean they're not gonna lose the money if they find out that the gymnasts were really underaged... and I for one wouldn't mind if they declared that, because the truth is the truth, and I'm sure most of that 1/5th would feel the same. Also, the IOC isn't investigating themselves. There's another party involved (i forgot what it was called) so I don't think they would pretend anything.</p>
<p>Anyway, I really don't like the closing ceremony. WTH that girl STEPPED ON PEOPLE TO GET ON THE FREAKING BUS. WTH? Why did that guy have to make it so the little girl stepped on people's backs? and the four (i think it was) people just kept on running then crouch down to be stepped on again... that was unnecessary... it's like those people were slaves...</p>
<p>^that was the english ppl......</p>
<p>anyway, i did like the closing ceremony...absolutely LOVE the tower part...amazing. omg jackie chan was this! haha he's adorable, love his smile while singing!</p>
<p>and lastly, JIMMY PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tho i thought it would've been better if that woman wasn't there to take part in the performance. that's jimmy page man.....the woman was unnecessary and almost a distraction. no offence</p>
<p>I think this song is quite amazing. The melodies are magical, and the words intoxicating, inferring that we are all part of a global village.</p>
<p>我和你 心连心 同住地球村
为梦想 千里行 相会在北京</p>
<p>来吧 朋友 伸出你的手
我和你 心连心 永远一家人</p>
<p>You and me
From one world
We are family,</p>
<p>Travel dream
A thousand miles
Meeting in beijing.</p>
<p>Come together
Put your hand in mine,</p>
<p>You and me,
From one world
We are family.</p>
<p>you don't need to double post it... and @ yournamehere i don't care if it was english or chinese. That part sucked. It made the whole thing suck. Not that it would've been much better anyway. The opening/closing ceremonies were so long and boring. I didn't like them.</p>
<p>and who translated that? it's more like me and you heart to heart all live on earth. For dreams a thousand five-hundred-metres meet in Beijing. Come heart to heart always a family.</p>
<p>okay?... but the english didn't have THAT much time to put on a better show... it WAS kinda weird at first, w/the umbrellas and newspapers flyin across and stuff, but hey, at least give it some respect. at least they had jimmy page... that was one of the highlights of the night for me personally. jimmy page and the tower act. it would definitely be very hard for london to top beijing's ceremony......</p>
<p>so the translation didn't match word for word...so what? they got the point across.</p>
<p>It was all just very post-modern, that short performance the Brits gave, which wouldn't have been half bad except 1) post-modern is less of a mass crowd-pleaser when you've just seen some of the most spectacularly coordinated performances in the opening and the closing ceremony from the Chinese, and 2) they kept harping on the fact that we have lousy weather here with those ominous black brollies.</p>
<p>Well, good bye Olympics. Anybody know where the Winter '10 or the Summer '12 olympics will be held?</p>
<p>winter well be held in whistler, if you never heard of that, its somewhat close to Vancouver, BC, Canada. About a 2 hour drive north. </p>
<p>summer is obviously london.</p>
<p>and yournamehere... why are you so defensive? It's not like I said anything bad about you. I was just expressing my opinion on the opening/closing ceremonies. And I was asking who translated the song.</p>
<p>anyone with adequate english would know that your wanting to know who wrote a song sounds more like a proclaimation for a life-and-death dual with accusatory tone. I'm not sure you actually meant that (!) but it just sounds that way when you post it on CC. </p>
<p>And btw, according to your "proper" translation, "me and you" doesn't even make sense grammatically in English. And how do you think the song is going to end up if they literally put "a thousand and five hundred meters" in there. It's a pretty serious event that 4 billion people were watching. There's no room here for not-so-funny jokes or satires, if that's what you intend on bringing. </p>
<p>And no we are not only trying to be "defensive here," but most importantly, most of us are trying to enjoy a spectacular show here. Give it a break.</p>
<p>My translation:</p>
<p>我和你 心连心 同住地球村
为梦想 千里行 相会在北京</p>
<p>来吧 朋友 伸出你的手
我和你 心连心 永远一家人</p>
<p>Me and you, heart to heart, stroll to our global village.
For one dream, travel thousands of miles, gathering at Beijing. </p>
<p>Come, friend, put out your hand
Me and you, heart to heart, forever as one family. :D</p>
<p>username, i wasn't defensive, i was just tellin the truth. the way your comment was written was...a little less than polite. if you didn't word it the way u did, i would've never said anything.</p>
<p>Isn't there already an English version? The one that Sarah Brightman sang along the Chinese man in the opening ceremony? I'm sure officials thought that was an adequate translational adaptation of the Chinese version.</p>
<p>just wonderin, am i the only one who thought they kinda chose the wrong person to sing at the opening? sarah brightman if that's the performer durin the last act. i was hopin for someone with a bigger voice, who can REALLY belt out like whitney houston or celine. sarah's voice pretty, but not nearly enough to fill the stadium, IMO. i kinda really want to hear whitney!</p>
<p>I think it was the stadium's acoustics. I couldn't hear the Chinese man well, I couldn't hear Leona Lewis well, and I couldn't hear Sarah well either. I think she had the angelic voice that matched the message of the song. A belter would not have been peaceful enough. I really think the children at the closing did the best job with the song.</p>
<p>"A belter would not have been peaceful enough."</p>
<p>yea i guess that was it...they needed her voice quality to send the message.</p>
<p>i should've went to beijing b/c i might've been able to get tickets to see the opening and closing ceremonies b/c of connections. only thought of that last night at the dinner table! and i just went, "dammit". lol. </p>
<p>if i had started to like the olympics earlier, i probably would have went. BAD TIMING for me! i was fourteen 4 yrs ago, not exactly the age to watch the olympics....sigh</p>
<p>think of it this way: it's so much cheaper to just watch on TV, Plus, you can get a good overview. If you were actually there, you won't be able to see so clearly even if you were in the front seats. Plus the noise would kill your ear.</p>
<p>and I watched every olympics since i was born... cept for the 2000 one. and winter ones.</p>
<p>I figured Sarah Brightman didn't sing so well... She's like 40 or 50 but still pretending to be cute, which really made me uncomfortable. And her voice was too affected. Why can't they just leave the song to the childrens? </p>
<p>But it is not so big a flaw. Generally speaking the whole games were fantastic. Actually better than I've earlier imagined, for I've seen too many disastrous shows all my life in China.</p>