Ain’t the 5 mascots for the Beijing Olympics cute?
Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace — and good wishes from China — to children all over the world.
Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China’s most popular animals — the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow — and the Olympic Flame.
Unfortunately, the Fuwa have been linked to the unfortunate incidents that are currently besieging China by the Chinese themselves.
Jingjing, a panda, the animal most closely associated with Sichuan province where the earthquake struck.
Huanhuan, a cartoon character with flame hair, is being linked by bloggers to the Olympic torch which has been dogged by fierce anti-China protests on its round-the-world tour.
Yingying, an antelope, is an animal confined to the borders of Tibet which has been the scene of riots and the cause of international protests against China, the bloggers point out.
Nini, represented by a kite, is being viewed as a reference to the ‘kite city’ of Weifang in Shandong where China saw a deadly train crash last month.
That leaves only Beibei, represented by a sturgeon fish, which online doomsayers suggest could indicate a looming disaster in the Yangtze River, the only place where Chinese sturgeon are found. – quoted from Monsters and Critics
So will opening the Beijing Olympics on the auspicious day of 8 August 2008 – curb all these bad luck and give us all a spectacular Olympics? We’ll just have to wait and see
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