Hi friends!
The exciting moment has finally come and gone. The mascot was revealed last night. No relevant reports are to be found on foreign websites...yet. So, our foreign members here are very lucky indeed! :-)
I will translate some of the information for our Western friends' convenience to
participate in the discussion.
The inspiration of the "Friendlies" design came from the five Olympic rings. The Friendlies are five little cartoon characters, the four representing four animals and the last the fire of Olympics. Beibei is a fish, Jingjing a panda, Huanhuan the fire, Yingying a Tibet antelope, and Nini a swallow.
It is not difficult to figure out what the panda and Tibet antelope mean, as they are rare species peculiar to China. The fish means prosperity and according to the information, the swallow is a symbol for Chinese kates, which means to spread spring and happiness over to the whole world.
The first one, Beibei in blue, also represents water. Jingjing the panda gets green leaves on its head so that it represents forest. Huanhuan *is* fire. Yingying the antelope runs on the ground so naturally it represnts earth. The last
one, of course, means the sky. These five things, water, forest, fire, earth, and the sky are basic elements in Chinese culture.
If you put their names together you will get "Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni," which literally means "Beijing Welcomes You."
Now let's take a closer look at each of...of the babies. :-)
Jenny