Chinese firm lights up 2026 Asiad with unique flame concept

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. "It's 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."