New book scrolls through Olympic history, traditions

The history and spirit of the modern Olympics have been creatively captured in a scroll-like picture book, which expresses the shared wish for a better life through the celebration of sports and the Games.

Late last month, Civilization Magazine and the International Olympic Committee released their third picture book, The Olympic Manifesto, the Beautiful Olympic Cultural Scroll.

Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, wrote in the preface that with the scroll, "the spirit of Olympus will continue to be spread throughout China and the world, ensuring that people, and in particular the young generation, will have a better understanding of the Olympic Movement and will discover why sport and its values matter even more today".

With a length of 60 meters, the scroll-like book was written in three languages－Chinese, English and French. It takes festivals as its inspiration to introduce the 23 countries and 43 cities that have held Olympics since the Games were restarted.

It also shows all the emblems of Olympic Games and maps of host cities to give readers a visual trip through Olympic history.

The scroll begins with Greek Orthodox Easter, a religious holiday, and introduces the history of Athens and of the first summer Olympic Games held there when the modern Games were restarted in 1896.

A number of historic and unusual festivals, such as France's Nice Carnival (which is also called the Parade of Flowers) and National Ice Cream Day in the United States, are included in the book as flourishes of color and demonstration of the shared passion for sports and the Olympic Games.

Zeng Hui, the book's chief designer, said in an interview with China Central Television that they've designed each volume in scroll format since the first edition, which was published in 2012, because this is the best way to show a panoramic representation of Olympic history.

"It's (scroll) the best way to immerse readers in the time-space convergence," Zeng explained.

The first and second picture books in the series were jointly released in 2012 and 2016, respectively, and portray the history of the modern Olympic Games, Eastern and Western civilizations, and the names of 120 famous people who have influenced the development of the Games.

"The modern Olympic Games needs a systematic description of its development to pass on its spirit and values. That's why we made this series of picture books," said Lou Xiaoqi, chief editor of Civilization Magazine in Beijing.