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China announced Olympic mascots...
The Five Friendlies...
Pictured: a panda and some burning child.
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Craig Simons
Cox News Service
Nov. 11, 2005 12:00 AM
BEIJING - A giant panda, of course.
An Olympic flame, naturally.
A Tibetan antelope? A swallow? A fish? Beijing on Friday announced the mascots for the 2008 Summer Games - dubbed the "Five Friendlies," five characters to match the five Olympic rings - at a ceremony complete with drum troupes and fireworks in the Chinese capital.
The stylized characters, with bulbous heads and colorful headdresses, "express the Chinese people's wishes for peace, friendship, progress and harmony," said Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games.
"Beibei," the fish, "carries the blessing of prosperity" and is a "symbol of surplus in Chinese culture," a press release stated.
"Jingjing," the giant panda, was chosen, Liu said, to represent Beijing's desire to protect the environment and to stage a "green" Olympics.
Fewer than 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wilderness in western China. Numerous international environmental organizations have worked with the Chinese government to protect the animals.
"Huanhuan" symbolizes "the Olympic flame and the passion of sport," the press release stated, while "Yingying," the Tibetan antelope, and "Nini," the swallow, represent health and good luck.
Strung together, the five names spell out "Beijing huanying ni" - "Beijing welcomes you" - a message of inclusiveness.
Multiple mascots have been featured in previous Olympics. The 2000 Summer Games in Sydney had three native Australian animals, including a platypus. The 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City offered a hare, coyote and bear.
But in choosing the mascots, the Beijing Olympic Committee passed over a handful of more traditional characters, including figures from classical Chinese literature and legendary icons, like the dragon.
The competition was intense, with regions and other interests pushing their favorites. With so many contenders, the lobbying sometimes turned negative.
"From the perspective of foreigners," the state-run Xinhua News Agency said in an editorial, the dragon "is too powerful," while the South China Tiger "may frighten people."
Sun Wu Kung, the central character of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, had been a strong contender.
In the book, Sun, also known as the Monkey King, converts from the native Chinese religion of Daoism to Buddhism. He accompanies a monk on a westward adventure and obtains immortality.
Ne Zha, a boy-deity with magical powers, had been another contender. Legend holds that Ne was born wearing a golden bracelet that he could enlarge to use as a weapon to protect the emperor.
Both had their supporters.
"Monkey King can fully demonstrate the Olympic Motto (of) 'Higher, faster and stronger,' " the Xinhua editorial said. "Monkey King is fast, since by turning a somersault, it can reach a place 54,000 kilometers away; mounting a cloud in the sky and looking downward, it can see farther; when facing a strer demon, it can use its wisdom to defeat the enemy so that we say it is strer."
A Web site promoting Ne Zha claimed that he is "capable of traveling at lightning speed and attacking his enemies (with) a fiery weapon." He is also "cute and full of sunshine."
China's budding conservationists will be heartened by the choices. Both the inclusion of the panda and the Tibetan antelope, also highly endangered, will raise environmental awareness.
While possibly 1 million Tibetan antelope roamed the arid Tibetan Plateau in the 1960s, they have been poached for their fine fur and fewer than 75,000 survive today.
"Illegal hunting of Tibetan antelope is a very serious problem," Xie Zhixiang, the founder of a Web site that promoted the antelope as the Olympic mascot, said. "By choosing it as the mascot, the world will know this is an endangered species and the poaching can be curbed."
An English-language Web site supporting the Tibetan antelope added a physiological reason to choose the beast: "Their firm horns (are) like sharp swords, their robust bodies like giants, their strong and vigorous limbs indicate that they are good at track events."
The choices also received the endorsement of the International Olympic Committee.
"I believe that this little group of friends? will help to spread the Olympic messages throughout the world, IOC President Jacques Rogge said in a letter read at the event. "I'm sure the Five Friendlies will touch the heart of the world." |
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Anti-Purple Alliance.
