Author: Wang Yu (Associate Professor, School of Media and Art, Tianjin Institute of Physical Education)

On February 7, the 9th Asian Winter Games (hereinafter referred to as the "Asian Winter Games") opened in Harbin, and China once again became the focus of international ice and snow sports. With the theme of "Ice and Snow Dream, Asia is One Heart", this Asian Winter Conference is not only a grand event for sports competition, but also an important stage for showing China's image, conveying cultural values, and promoting international exchanges.

In the context of economic globalization, sports events have long surpassed competitive sports itself and become an important carrier for building a national image and demonstrating cultural soft power. In recent years, the international communication pattern has faced profound changes, and the traditional "one-way output" model has gradually declined. The "flexible narrative" based on culture, sports, etc. is becoming an effective path for breaking cultural barriers and enhancing mutual understanding and recognition.

As the largest comprehensive winter sports event in Asia, the Asian Winter Games covers more than 30 countries and regions, attracting widespread attention from the world. On this ice and snow track, whether it is the fighting spirit displayed by athletes on the field or the cultural symbols incorporated into the event, it will be easier to break the distance and language barriers and convey them to the hearts of the audience. The expression of "using the body as the media and cultural people" will help present a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China to the world.

International large-scale sports events have always been the highlight of the spread of national image. At the opening ceremony of the Asian Winter Games, "The Integration of Tradition and Modernity" became a highlight of the national image in the new era. The opening ceremony team integrated technology, art and Chinese intangible cultural heritage folk customs in new ways of internationalization, fashion and modernization. The stage design of "ice sculpture and jade masonry" combines technologies such as AR, naked-eye 3D, ultra-high-definition wrapping and large screen to present the audience with a northern ice and snow painting full of Chinese culture.

The Harbin Asian Winter Games is another major international comprehensive ice and snow event held by China after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As of now, 1,275 athletes from 34 Asian countries and regions have signed up for the Asian Winter Games. As an intercontinental event, the Asian Winter Games will provide a valuable platform for dialogue on Asian civilizations. Many Asian countries have rich ice and snow resources, which contain the unique cultural genes of each country. Using events as a medium and ice and snow activities as a link to promote the dissemination and exchange of ice and snow cultures in various countries, will help promote communication and mutual learning among different civilizations in Asia, and create a harmonious but different civilizational music that is shared by the beauty.

With the development of new media, young people have become the main force of cross-cultural communication. Before the game, many young athletes shared Asian Winter Games equipment, venue "black technology", mascot blind box figures on their social media accounts, and food in the athletes' village, which aroused heated discussions among netizens. The Asian Winter Games Organizing Committee has also innovatively deployed new media communication and actively embrace young people's preferences and familiar narrative methods. The live broadcast of the official torch relay event of the Asian Winter Games attracted more than 2 million viewers to watch online, and young people from many countries participated in the creative interaction of related topics. These sincere and frequent folk exchanges and interactions have built a more affinity "youth discourse field" and enhanced friendship and trust among young people from all countries.

The integration of ice and snow sports and traditional Chinese culture bursts out new sparks. Whether it is the mascots of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics "Bingdundun" and "Snow Rongrong", or the mascots of the Asian Winter Games "Binbin" and "Nini", they are all very popular. Around these new IPs containing traditional cultural elements, a series of cultural and creative products such as plush dolls, blind box figures, seal ornaments have been derived. Through the meaning of young people and spontaneously spread, traditional culture has brought new vitality.

The new stories in various fields of China are also widely circulated through this event. Among them, there are sports stories about ice and snow sports shifting from niche trends to mass lifestyles, economic stories about ice and snow resources moving from regional consumption to global industries, green development stories dedicated to achieving "zero carbon events", and innovative stories about using technology to light up smart events. As a multi-dimensional narrative place from sports to culture, from technology to consumption, Harbin Asian Winter Club uses sports competition as a medium to tell the world a new story of China's development in the new era. How to transform the bonus of the event into a long-term mechanism, promote the future development of my country's ice and snow sports, ignite the public's lasting enthusiasm for participating in ice and snow sports; how to strengthen the ability to set agenda, actively explore agendas, and deepen narratives; how to cultivate the originality of ice and snow culture, produce local cultural works, and form a narrative matrix that complements the event; how to better innovate the discourse communication model and reconstruct Chinese narrative in youth language are all topics worthy of our exploration and thinking.

When athletes from various countries draw beautiful arcs on the ice, and when the cheering sounds of different languages ​​are intertwined in the venue, what we see will not only be a sports event, but also a vivid story of a country's openness, inclusiveness, innovation and self-improvement. We look forward to taking the Harbin Asian Winter Conference as an opportunity to deepen the construction of the international communication system and promote the creation of a more three-dimensional, comprehensive and vivid image of China.