August 13, 2008
Today’s San Jin City News reprinted an article from yesterday’s Yangtse Evening Post about a dancer’s accidental injury during the rehearsal of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Liu Yan, an award-winning dancer and the wife of Lang Kun, a well-known director in CCTV, was supposed to be the featured dancer in the “Silk Road” section of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. But during rehearsal on July 27, Liu miscalculated a jump from the stage to a moving platform and fell three meters, landing with her back catching on a track on the ground.
The newspaper reported that Liu has a “dislocated 12th thoracic vertebra and serious neural damage” and that “the damage might be irreversible.”
A photo on the front page of the newspaper shows Zhang Yimou and two opening ceremony directors visiting the bedridden Liu Yan. Zhang was quoted in the article as saying “You have sacrificed so much for the Olympic Games and for the country…we thank you. The whole country thanks you.”
- Yangze Evening News via Sina.com (Chinese): Lang Kun’s new wife fell and paralyzed during the opening ceremony rehearsal