Asian Games 2023: China says no to fireworks in opening ceremony

The Games will begin on September 23 in Hangzhou

By Web Desk
September 18, 2023
Opening ceremony of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. — AFP

Fireworks are considered as the beauty of the opening and closing ceremonies of any big sporting event. Call it the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup or the Commonwealth Games, fireworks are present in all the ceremonies.

But China have decided to opt against it as the Asian Games 2023’s opening ceremony will not feature any kinds of fireworks.

The decision was taken in accordance with the betterment of the environment.

“The opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games will break the tradition of having fireworks performance, as we are sticking to a green philosophy in hosting the event,” said Sha Xiaolan, the general director of the games’ opening ceremony, on Sunday.

“As we want to reduce the carbon emissions as much as possible, so we have decided to cut the fireworks performances.”

Sha, however, added that there will be the use of technology — like visual effects and sound shows — to communicate with the audience on the theme of “people, beauty and emotions”.

“The most important thing is that we want to spread our philosophy of environmental protection, and that’s why we finally made the decision,” Sha added.

Asian Games 2023 will begin on September 23, however, some events including football, volleyball and cricket will start on September 19.

It must be noted that 222 Pakistani athletes — 160 male and 62 female — and 65 officials are set to participate in the mega event.

Pakistan will be participating in Archery, Athletics, Bridge, Badminton, Boxing, Cricket, Climbing, E-sports, Fencing, Golf, Hockey, Kabbadi, Karate, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Squash, Swimming, Tennis, Taekwondo, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Weightlifting, Wrestling and Wushu.

Some major sports from which Pakistan will be missing are Judo, Equestrian, Baseball, Football and Gymnastics. Pakistani athletes will miss participating in these sports due to funding issues and delays in confirming entries.

As per the Olympics Council of Asia (OCA), about 12,500 athletes from all over the world will be taking part in the mega event which is going to be a record.

In the 2018 Jakarta Olympics, about 11,300 athletes participated.

The Asian will have 483 events and 61 disciplines across 40 sports. China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, India and Hong Kong are sending about 600 athletes each as per the OCA.

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