Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Fuwa, the betta

The Wall Street Journal's blog, China Journal, shows a page from the sketchbook of artist Han Meilin, who is none too pleased that his original concept for the Beijing Olympic mascots, the Fuwa, went from this...

...to this...

Huanhuan Nini Beibei Jingjing Yingying

...due to his sponsors mucking about with his creation.

An accompanying WSJ article explains.

Then the bureaucrats got involved. "There had to be a panda, even though you'd think the public would have had enough of them," says the 72-year-old artist.

That article also has a slideshow of the brief history of Olympic mascots. Do you recognize any of these? Hover over a pic for the name of the critter.

Schuss (Grenoble 1968) Amik the beaver (Montreal 1976) Waldi the Dachshund (Munich 1972) Misha (Moscow 1980) Sam the eagle (Los Angeles 1984) Hodori the tiger (Seuol 1988) Cobi the dog (Barcelona 1992) Izzy (Atlanta 1996) Olly the kookaburra, Syd the platypus and Millie the echidna (Sydnet 2000) Athena and Phevos (Athens 2004)

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