The English name of Fuwa was originally planned as Friendslies, but was later changed to Fuwa, which is its pinyin.

Fuwa is the mascot of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Its colors and inspiration come from the five Olympic rings, China’s vast mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, and people’s favorite animal images. Fuwa conveys friendship, peace, a proactive spirit and the good wishes of harmonious coexistence between man and nature to children around the world.

The evening of November 11, 2005. The Beijing Workers' Stadium, the oldest sports building in New China, is dressed in festive attire. As night falls, Beijing enters the 1,000-day countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games. In the commemorative activities held to commemorate this important moment, the mascot of the 29th Olympic Games was finally unveiled.

At 20:15, the party and state leader Jia Qinglin touched the switch on the publishing device. Five laser beams shot out of the publishing device were projected on the big screen. The outline of the mascot was outlined on the big screen. Five lively and lovely figures. The image of the mascot is fixed on the big screen. At the same time, five inflatable mascot cartoons more than 2 meters high walked onto the stage from behind the big screen - this is the long-awaited mascot of the 29th Olympic Games - Fuwa.

The Fuwa are five cute and close friends. Their shapes incorporate the images of fish, giant panda, Olympic flame, Tibetan antelope and sand swallow kite respectively.

Each doll has a catchy name: "Beibei", "Jingjing", "Huanhuan", "Yingying" and "Nini". In China, overlapping names are a traditional cultural way to express love for children. When you put the names of the five dolls together, you will read out "Beijing welcomes you" as Beijing's warm invitation to the world.

Fuwa represents the dream and the desire of the Chinese people!

Characteristics of "Fuwa"

The mascot of this Olympic Games has five major characteristics:

First, the mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games embodies the "green" spirit of the Beijing Olympic Games. The organizing concept and Olympic spirit of "Olympics, Humanities Olympics, Science and Technology Olympics" convey the ideal and pursuit of peaceful development of human society, harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and harmonious coexistence between people.

Second, the mascot has strong Chinese characteristics. The mascot makes extensive use of rich Chinese cultural elements, showing the diversity of Chinese culture in many aspects. The Fuwa is perfectly integrated with traditional Chinese culture. The five colors of the Five Fuwa are exactly the five elements of China - metal, wood, water, fire and earth, and the two rituals in life. , the two rituals give rise to the four images, the four signs give rise to the Bagua, the Bagua gives rise to all things, and the unity of the Five Fuwa symbolizes the great unity of the people of the world.

Third, mascots are widely representative.

Fourth, mascots have original intellectual property rights and broad market development space.

Fifth, the Beijing Olympic Games mascot is the crystallization of collective wisdom, permeating the wisdom and labor of all aspects. In particular, the members of the creation and modification team played an important role. Many famous domestic literary and artistic figures have participated in discussions many times. , participate in modifications and provide comments.

The innovation and breakthrough of "Fuwa"

First of all, in terms of design ideas, animals and people are perfectly combined for the first time. For the first time, the Chinese Fuwa combines humans and animals, emphasizing the concept of the Humanistic Olympics and highlighting the people-oriented approach.

Secondly, for the first time in terms of design concept, Olympic elements are directly integrated into the mascot. Because every Olympic mascot must show the Olympic spirit, and we directly quoted Olympic elements, such as the fire baby, which comes from the Olympic flame.

The third breakthrough is in the application of mascot design, which highlights the personalization of extended use. The mascot consists of two parts, the headdress and the body. It is a complete image, but the headdress part can be completely removed and developed and produced separately. Every adult and every child can put their favorite "hat" on their head and dress themselves up as a mascot. This kind of application has not existed in the past, and the interaction between people and mascots has been enhanced.

Finally, Beijing is the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that the mascot has been changed to five, which is the most ever. This is because Chinese culture is broad and profound and has too much to express.

"Fuwa" highlights the charm of traditional Chinese culture

The five Olympic rings are connected by five rings of different colors, representing the five continents: Europe (sky blue), Australia ( Grass green), America (red), Asia (yellow), Africa (black). Five rings of different colors are closely connected, symbolizing the friendship and unity among athletes and people from all over the world.

Surprisingly, the five rings coincide with the Chinese theory of the five elements, which also have five different colors. The 2008 Olympic mascot matches the Chinese philosophy of gold, wood, water, fire and earth with the five Olympic rings. This is the most wonderful combination of the Olympic spirit and Chinese culture, showing the glorious China to the world. culture.

Fuwa Beibei, the five elements are water, Fuwa Jingjing, five elements are wood, Fuwa Huanhuan, five elements are fire, Fuwa Yingying, five elements are earth, Fuwa Nini, five elements are gold, in this way, water , wood, fire, earth, metal, the five elements are complete. The auspicious animals in the air, underwater, on land, in forests, and on grasslands are all anthropomorphic, emphasizing the people-oriented approach and the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Isn't this our country's traditional concept of "harmony between man and nature"?

my country’s traditional Five Elements Theory is an ancient thinker that uses five common substances in daily life to explain the origin and diversity of all things in the world. These five substances are wood, fire, earth, metal, water. During the Warring States Period, the "Five Elements" theory was quite popular, and the theory that "the Five Elements complement each other and win each other" emerged. Mutual generation means mutual promotion, such as "wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood" etc. Xiangsheng, that is, mutual restraint, means mutual exclusion, such as "water defeats fire, fire defeats metal, metal defeats wood, wood defeats earth, earth defeats water" and so on. These views have elements of simple materialism and spontaneous dialectics. The rational elements in them have been preserved and played a certain role in the development of ancient Chinese astronomy, almanacs, medicine, etc.

Due to the influence of the Five Elements theory, traditional culture often applies "five" to daily life and academic fields. There are many types of food crops, which are traditionally called "grains". In fact, the five grains in ancient times refer to something. The annotation of "Mencius Teng Wen Gong" says: "The five grains refer to rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean sprouts." The "five poisons" as they are called among the people refer to scorpions. There are five poisonous animals: snakes, centipedes, geckos, and toads. The five metals refer to gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin; the five flavors refer to sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty; the five meats refer to leeks, scallions, garlic, coriander, and coriander; and the five spices refer to fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, Star anise, cinnamon, cloves, etc. Wuyue is the general name for the five famous mountains in China, namely Mount Tai in the East, Mount Heng in the South, Mount Huashan in the West, Mount Heng in the North, and Mount Song in the middle. The "Five Classics" mentioned in ancient times are the five Confucian classics, namely "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn".

In musicology, there is the theory of "pentatonic" or "pentatonic", which refers to the five tones of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu in the Chinese pentatonic scale. Pentaphone is also a term in phonology, which is divided into five categories according to the place of articulation of the initial consonant: labial, lingual, dental, dental and guttural. Those who cannot pronounce these sounds are called "tone deaf".

In traditional Chinese medicine, the theory of yin and yang and the five elements is its theoretical basis. The concept of the Five Elements has been used in Chinese medicine as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is believed that the liver belongs to wood, the heart belongs to fire, the spleen belongs to earth, the lungs belong to metal, and the kidneys belong to water. The theory of mutual generation and mutual restraint is used to explain the mutual growth and development of internal organs. mutually restrictive relationship. For example, the liver can restrict the spleen, which is called wood restraining earth; the spleen can grow and nourish the lungs, which is called earth producing metal. Pathologically speaking, if liver disease affects the spleen, the method of suppressing the liver and strengthening the spleen is used, which is called "suppressing the wood and supporting the soil"; when kidney deficiency affects the liver, the method of nourishing the kidney and nourishing the liver is used, which is called "nourishing water and nourishing the wood". ” This statement continues to this day and guides clinical practice.

What belongs to the nation belongs to the world. We have a group of five Fuwa dolls to demonstrate the charm of traditional Chinese culture to the world and convey the message of unity, peace and friendship.