Expertise takes center stage

Dong Xueting, one of the members of the production team for the four performances, has been working closely with Wu for the past six months.

She believes that Wu is a very strict and detail-oriented person. "Her guidance is meticulous; even typos in the scripts will be pointed out. Over time, she has instilled good work habits in us," Dong says.

"But our work is only a small part of what she oversees. She has to coordinate with various departments, processes, and roles. Despite the complexity of her responsibilities, she has her own logic and organizes everything very clearly," Dong adds.

The team had five meeting rooms in their office area in Hangzhou, dedicated to each of the four performances and discussions on music or other content. Over the past six months, Wu shuttled between these five meeting rooms from morning to night.

Dong explains that the team often finished work as late as 2 or 3 in the morning, but by 8 am the next day, Wu was back in the office, full of energy. "She always appeared with exquisite makeup, looking radiant. She worked very hard, but she also knew how to enjoy life," Dong says.

Dong believes that Wu has portrayed the delicate and soft side of women in the four ceremonies of the Asian Games and Asian Para Games.

During the closing ceremony of the Asian Para Games, Wu and her team invited a girl volunteer who narrates movies for the visually impaired to explain how the torch was extinguished to blind children in the audience. "I believe they could understand and feel the atmosphere of the live event," Wu said.

During the opening ceremony of the Asian Para Games, the performances of two "blade warriors" (amputees wearing lower-leg prosthetics) stunned the audience. Wu explained that initially, the two were arranged as A and B roles, with one serving as the understudy for the other. However, after several rehearsals, the directing team found both to be outstanding and decided to have them perform together.

"The way they ran was soul-stirring. After adding emotion to many performances, they became something that the audience could truly understand," Wu says.

During the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, the highly anticipated digital torchbearer waved goodbye to the crowd and made a heart gesture before disappearing into the night sky.

Colleagues on-site noticed that Wu was in tears. She explained that witnessing the departure of the digital figure stirred both excitement and a sense of reluctance in her heart.

She also felt that this performance had been incredibly challenging because the transition from the track and field competition to turning the venue into a performance space had to be done in 24 hours, and the actors only had a day to rehearse.