Curse of the Fuwa?

Question

I've read a few news articles on those 5 doll mascots for the Beijing olympics, and how the Chinese see them as bad omens. Since I'm not from China I don't really understand their superstitions and beliefs. I'm not superstitious. But I was just wondering what your opinion is - are they simply mascots, or something more?

Answer 1

Not sure but now i'm going to have to look them up!

Edit: They're just a bunch of sweet faced little dolls representing a fish, panda, tibetan antelope, swallow and the olympic torch. Their names, Bei, Jing, Huan, Ying and Ni when put together say 'welcome to beijing'. They.re supposedly a sign of friendship to all the children in the world from china. Have a look on this site en.beijing2008.cn.

Answer 2

Basically, those Fuwa were designed according to the spirit of Olympic Game which is not matching with Chinese culture. Although there were a lot of sport in China, even football match, the basic symbols in  China were the twelves animals. Hence, some really old Chinese may not happy with those Fuwa.

Nevertheless, it is a good chance to create some new symbols. The basic idea of modern chinese-ism is to buy the fusion of West and East culture together for the chief good. Then, a new world will come.