The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 8-24, has the most amazing, beautiful "child-friendly" mascots. They are known as the Fuwa, meaning "The Friendlies".They represent China's most popular animals ~ the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow + and the Olympic Flame. When you put their names together ~ Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni ~ they say "Welcome to Beijing." They symbolise the 5 elements of Nature ~ the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky and the 5 Olympic rings.
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In China's traditional culture and art, the fish and water designs are symbols of prosperity and harvest. The lotus designs in Jingjing's headdress are inspired by the porcelain paintings of the Song Dynasty (A.D.960-1234). Yingying's flying pose captures the essence of a species unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the first animals put under protection in China. Nini represents the Beijing love of flying kites. Huanhuan stands in the centre of Fuwa as the core embodiment of the Olympic spirit. The fiery designs of his head ornament are drawn from the famed Dunhuang murals ~ with just a touch of China's traditional lucky designs.
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Already the Fuwa are being sold in Olympic souvenir shops. Ever since "Waldi," the first mascot in Olympic history, was unveiled at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games, mascots have become a main element of the Olympic image.
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The Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia, Greece on 24th March, 2008. The red and silver aluminium torch represents an ancient Chinese scroll and features a "lucky cloud". The torch relay is expected to last 130 days and covers a distance of 137,000 kilometres. It will pass through the five continents and visiting some of the principal points of the ancient Silk Road. Its theme is “Journey of Harmony”, and its slogan is “Light the Passion, Share the Dream”.
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The Games in Beijing will play host to the 28 summer sports currently on the Olympic programme. Approximately 10,500 athletes are expected to participate.
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But I believe it will be the Fuwa that linger. There is a smiling, relaxed "cuteness" in their imagery that appeals to the child in all of us.
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Postscript:
1. But there is a shadow in Olympic paradise. The Tibetan Olympics is close to realising its dream of "One World Two Olympics". Its torch relay, which started on January 30, 2008, from the Indian Capital New Delhi, reached its first destination – Sydney on Sunday. Themed “One World Many Dreams”, (countering the perceived Chinese Communist ideology of One World One Dream) the Tibetan Olympics seeks to celebrate Tibetan sporting spirit under the pride of their National Flag after being denied participation at the 2008 Beijing Games.The sporting event will take place in Dharamsala in India from 15 to 25 May, 2008, much ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in August. ~ Phayul.com Monday February 18, 2008
The official schedule of the Torch Relay: Delhi: 30 January → Sydney: 17 February → Taipei: 24 February → McLeod Ganj: 10 March → Tokyo: 16 March → Maui, Hawaii : 23 March → San Francisco: 30 March → New York City: 6 April → Sucre, Bolivia: 13 April → London: 20 April → Capetown: 27 April → Jerusalem: 4 May → McLeod Ganj: 25 May
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2. Meanwhile, there is more to Tibet than political turmoil. There is the "big chill". Yak Attack's blog details the chaos and suffering in Tibet. I just don't get it.... why is there so much media coverage for the political problems between Tibet and China (I am NOT a political person), when there is no coverage at all for the snows that have devastated thousands upon thousands of Tibetans? The snows actually started first! At this point, blizzards have covered eastern Tibet, southern Qinghai, and northwest Sichuan provinces, and in some areas lasting for 37 days! Only one article has appeared, www.chinaview.cn 2008-03-02. The article said, “Severe snow disasters have left 1.65
million people snow blind and frostbitten, 500,000 livestock and
wildlife dead and 3.1 million others on verge of starvation in
Tibetan prefectures of northwestern Qinghai Province.
Since October last year, consecutive low temperature had gripped the
province.
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