There's a funny article in Slate Magazine on the Fuwa, or Beijing 2008 Olympic mascots. (Swifter, Higher, Cuddlier).
It turns out that everyone hates them. The article says that the mascots are considered a curse, and are being blamed for everything from the Olympic torch protests to the Sichuan earquake. Wikipedia reports that some Chinese have taken to calling the characters "Wuwa" (witch dolls).
But this should come as no surprise. Everyone hates Olympic mascots. The author defends the Fuwa, in part by comparing them to even lamer mascots from Olympics past:
"Have we forgotten how lame most Olympic mascots are? The 1980 Lake Placid mascot was a live raccoon (which tragically died before the games even started). The 2006 Turin mascot was an ambulatory ice cube. The 1992 Barcelona mascot was an indifferently sketched dog, which the artist claimed he'd drawn while stoned.
Let's not forget the 1996 Atlanta mascot, known variously as "Whatzit," "Whatizhee," or the shortened "Izzy." To this day, I remain unsure what exactly Izzy was meant to embody. The Journal recalls that he was "derided as everything from a 'blue slug' to a 'sperm in sneakers.'"
Press Censorship in Beijing
On a less funny -- even ominous -- note, Chinese officials are restricting access to a host of Web sites at the Olympic center for foreign press. The NY Times reports (via the Associated Press) that the Chinese are filtering out Amnesty International's site, and any site that mentions Tibet in the URL.
According to the Times,
"Kevan Gosper, an I.O.C. official, had said the international organization had received assurances from Chinese officials that Internet censorship would be lifted for journalists during the Games. But on Tuesday, Gosper issued a clarification, the AP reported. He said the open Internet extended only to sites that related to Olympic competitions."
There have also been reports that the Chinese have censored web sites that criticize the Fuwa, meaning that this blog, if noticed, would also be censored.
Think about it.
3 comments:
Ok, I'm IN Beijing right now; my dad lives next to the Olympic Village, and Amnesty International works fine for me. Googling Tiananmen and Tibet is perfectly good too, as long as I use Google.com instead of Google.cn. (on Google.cn they say they restrict some of the sites you can view) A few sites actually don't work at all, (there hasn't been a single livejournal blog I can visit) but most things are okay.
Thanks for the on-site reporting, Bonny!
My original post stated that the web site restrictions were in place within the Olympic press center. Any local word on that?
Are you attending any of the events?
How is the heat/humidity/air quality?
oh, I see. I don't know anything about the OPC, it's possible. although then you could walk off into a local Starbucks and use the internet there. =P
I did note that we walked to a Muslim restaurant the other day near the stadium only to find a sign that said "Temporarily closed." Another Muslim restaurant nearby was also closed.
I'm going to see the track events on the 15th and the 22nd; I'll see the men's shotput finals and both 4x100 relays, off the top of my head. I'm excited.
The heat is okay, the humidity is terrible. The air quality isn't great, but it's a LOT better than it was four years ago, the last time I went to China - you never saw clouds then, ever. Most of the time Beijing is still pretty hazy, but that's partially due to the fact that the city was like that in the first place. When it clears up it's pretty beautiful.
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