Meet the Fuwa

I’d like to introduce you to my new friends, the Fuwa.

Bei bei – the Fish – carries the blessing of prosperity

Jing jing – the Panda – …happiness

Huan huan – the Olympic Flame – …passion

Ying ying – the Tibetan Antelope – …health

Ni ni – the Sparrow – …good luck

The Fuwa are the five mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In traditional Chinese style, each mascot’s designs hold symbolic meanings on many levels, from their animal types and headdresses to the meaning of the phrase formed when you combine their names. “Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni” translates to “Welcome to Beijing”. You can read more about the Fuwa in detail here if you so desire.

I didn’t think that I liked them at first—the Fuwa. There are FIVE! What excess, I thought. What blatant maximization of paraphernalia products for profit! Children won’t be satisfied with just one plush stuffed Huan huan doll. They’ll need ALL FIVE—the collector’s set. They’re milking consumers for all they’ve got, I judged.

Yesterday, as I wandered through the Official Flagship Store of the Beijing Olympics, I saw Fuwa backpacks and pen sets, Fuwa commemorative coins and pins, Fuwa USB flash drives and cell phone tassels, Fuwa travel coffee mugs, Fuwa antique-style porcelain ware...

Suddenly I found myself cost comparing Fuwa decal stickers. As a saleswoman approached, I backed away from the glass display case. I’d better google these Fuwa folk, I decided. I’ve got to find out more about who I’m dealing with here. Exiting the store, I was strangely drawn to pet the soft-looking fur of a four-foot plush Jing jing.

So I did a little cyber research, and… It’s not that I’ve totally rejected my previous theory, but I’ve decided that I don’t mind this particular exploitation quite so much.

I’ll admit it. Those cute little faces got to me. Not that I hadn’t seen them before, but I didn’t let myself look that closely before. To learn their names and about how each tiny aspect of their appearance and character was drawn from things China—traditionally and modernly China.

So the Fuwa are a spectacular marketing ploy (yes, I’m being dramatic), but they’re magical too (or maybe, “and so” they’re magical). What they represent inspires hope and dreams in children and adults the world around. And that’s special.

Above all else, the heart of the Fuwa mission is supposed to be seeking “to unite the world in peace and friendship through the Olympic spirit”.

And who's not for that?

Thoughts on Consumerism

I realize that paraphernalia and marketing is not a new or innately bad aspect of large-scale events. And the truth is that most of us want the cutesy characters and the colorful souvenirs, so we can take home a piece of something great. But you gotta admit that it feeds into the cycle of short-term fads and frenzies in consumerist societies.

Maybe fads aren’t bad in themselves—they can be lots of fun—but they don’t often do us any good in the realm of long-term happiness. They can leave us always wanting more, looking for the next thing, discontent with what we have. Fads do, however, tend to bring in the big bucks for certain business industries, particularly each time the product changes.

Consumerism in China is younger than it is in the United States. The Chinese middle-class is growing fast. People here are buying cars, not because they need them, but because it’s the first time they’ve been able to afford them and they’re excited about that. It’s like when you get your first raise (at work or in allowance), and now you want to upgrade to an iPhone like your friend Jim has. Except you haven’t even owned a cell phone before; maybe you’ve only ever used the local public payphone.

If Jim told you that you shouldn’t get an iPhone because it was bad for the environment or because you should learn from his mistakes and not spend so much energy on superficial commodities, it would p*** you off. Who is Jim to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do?! He already has an iPhone. But one out of five people on this earth are Chinese people. That’s a lot of iPhones. (And by iPhones, I mean cars.) That’s a lot of gas; that’s a lot of pollution.

So what do we do? We make friends. And we work together. We practice what we preach, and we try to eliminate our hypocrisies. If we must play the older sibling, we should do so by being a good role model. But we should remember that we don’t always know what’s best and that others don’t necessarily need to follow in our footsteps as we expect.