Leading singers, actors and musicians from home and abroad will attend the opening ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games Tuesday night at Shanghai Stadium to perform their masterpieces or interact with athletes.

Chinese entertainers Karen Mok (L) and Vicki Zhao (R) pose with 19-year-old Special Olympian Zhao Zengzeng, at a press conference for the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, on Monday, October 1, 2007. Both stars will perform at the event's opening ceremony on Tuesday in Shanghai. [Photo: xmnext.com]

Olympics global ambassadors Vicki Zhao and Karen Mok said they began to work for the Special Olympics last year.

"As the Olympics global ambassadors, we visited many schools for the intellectually disabled last year to communicate and play with them," said Zhao.

"The experience let me learn more about them - a group of people with their own pleasure, dejection and hopes."

Working as the ambassador, Karen Mok felt a strong sense of mission and thanks for the chance to do something for the Special Olympics athletes. As international stars, both Mok and Zhao said their main task is to promote the Games and the spirit they embody to the world.

In the opening ceremony, Zhao will guide the audience to play the flute with the performance of cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble.

They will for the first time publicly perform the song they composed for the event. It is named Joy, the core of the Special Olympics. Thousands of simple Chinese bamboo flutes will be provided to the audience to join in playing the song.

Tan Dun, a prominent Chinese musician, has composed music for the Special Olympic Flag march-in ceremony and will conduct the symphony orchestra during the ceremony.

Tan Dun is a Chinese contemporary classical composer. He is most widely known for his Grammy and Oscar-award winning scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.

By attending the event, Tan said he had a stronger feeling of loving or being loved and will bring the feeling into his works in the future.

In the opening ceremony, pianist Lang Lang will play Horses with his father Lang Guoren on erhu.

"The composition is known worldwide and is always played as an echo in my concerts," Lang said, explaining why they chose to play it.

(Shanghai Daily October 2, 2007)