The Asian Games cauldron, designed by Chinese company Zhejiang Dafeng Industry, creates a low-carbon flame-like effect using water mist and precision lighting. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The 20th Asian Games officially opened at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Japan on Sept 19 with a ceremony that drew heavily on Japanese traditions — centuries-old culture and arts performed on a stage shaped like a beating heart.

What is less known is that the entire process was led and orchestrated by Zhejiang Dafeng Industry, a private company based in East China's Zhejiang province.

Usually, host nations generally run the opening and closing ceremonies with their own teams, but the convention was broken this time, as Dafeng has been tasked with planning, producing, and operating both the opening and closing ceremonies.

In the past, Chinese companies were mostly equipment suppliers or service providers for a part of the whole process, explained Jiang Fan, general manager of Dafeng's brand and marketing department.

"This time, it's different," she said. "From creative planning, main torch tower design and production, and cultural programs, to stage performance and presentation, and the overall planning, production and operation of the opening ceremony, Dafeng was the 'chief architect'."

A highlight of the ceremony was a giant heart-shaped stage standing at the center of the stadium.

"Japanese aesthetics are usually considered to be understated and restrained," said Zhu Xian, an artistic director from Dafeng who served as executive producer and creative director of the opening ceremony.

"We wanted to add a bright, lively touch to that foundation — giving the ceremony a more passionate, youthful and energetic emotional tone," she said.

After rounds of discussion, the Dafeng team and their Japanese counterpart agreed on the theme "Harmonic Heart Beat", weaving Asia's diverse cultures into a shared rhythm.

The main torch tower, designed by Yang Shaochang, Dafeng's design director, took a heart-shaped outline to echo that theme.

"The heart shape expresses the idea of one heartbeat for Asia," Yang said. "Its flowing curves and metallic textures also nod to Nagoya's industrial identity."

Hangzhou's experience in hosting the Asian Games, combined with its mature artificial intelligence ecosystem, has directly empowered the creative and delivery process, according to Yang.

By combining AI with designers' creative sketches to generate renderings and models, the team could quickly screen various designs and significantly shorten the creative process.

"What used to take a month can now be completed in a week," Yang said. Dafeng's Hangzhou team also used digital simulations to test the cauldron's wind resistance, seismic response, and lighting effects under Nagoya's real weather conditions.

But the boldest idea and innovation is perhaps the flame itself. Instead of traditional fuels, the cauldron employs a low-carbon "fire from water" technology, creating a flame-like effect with water mist and precision lighting. The technology is expected to cut more than 200 metric tons of carbon emissions over the 16 days of the Games.

Never before had a single Chinese company served as an overall solutions provider for an opening ceremony of an Asian Games. For Dafeng, that role did not come overnight.

The company supplied seating for the 2004 Athens Olympics. It later provided seating systems for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the ground core device for the main cauldron at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The main torch tower of the Hangzhou Asian Games, shaped like a giant surging tide, was also designed and manufactured by Dafeng.

It is just one of the latest cases in which Chinese imagination is increasingly capturing global audiences. The hit video game Black Myth: Wukong, for instance, has sold more than 30 million copies, with overseas buyers accounting for more than half, and won the Golden Joystick Award for Game of the Year. Toymaker Pop Mart's latest Labubu dolls drew overnight crowds in places like Los Angeles and London, with the company's revenue in the Americas surging to 6.81 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) in 2025.

"When the cauldron was lit in Nagoya, all the effort was worth it," said Zhu, the artistic director.

"For us, this is far from the end — it's a new starting point."