China: Curse of the Olympic mascots?
In case you ever wondered if those Olympic Fuwas weren't just a little too cute to be true, apparently you aren't the only one.
For China, the superstitious formula to that effect which has been making its way across various networks since the Sichuan earthquake looks accurate enough given the number of tragic events which have befallen China already this year. And mention of the Curse of the Fuwas [zh] has been getting deleted left and right and off Baidu and there are even separate versions, so the curse must really exist and the few criticisms of the notion [zh] that do still exist are powerless to stop it.
So, Sohu blogger Elvia Wu sums it up in a post that has since been deleted:
中国，08年的中国真是多事之秋呀！
从年初到现在，中国一直祸事连连。山东火车相撞、西藏闹事、奥运火炬在传递过程中被抢，现在成都又发生了大地震，死伤过万人！
近来在网上及手机短信中流传着这么一段话：
一个福娃头上是风筝，代表潍坊，于是山东出事了；
一个福娃是藏羚羊，于是西藏出事了；
一个福娃是火炬，于是火炬出事了；
一个福娃是熊猫，于是四川出事了；
现在还剩一条鱼 ….
From the beginning of year until now, it's been disaster after disaster for China. The train car collision in Shandong, the unrest in Tibet, grabbing at the Olympic torch during the relay, and now Chengdu has had an earthquake, with tens of thousands dead!
Recently this little passage has been spreading around online and through SMS:
One Fuwa has a kite on its head, representing Weifang, and then something happened in Shandong;
One Fuwa is a Tibetan antelope, and then something happened in Tibet;
One Fuwa is a torch, and then something happened to the Olympic torch;
One Fuwa is a panda, and then something happened in Sichuan;
Now there's still the fish left…
对于中国目前的现状，国人是担忧的，这很能理解！
但我们不应该把奥运会与这些祸事相联。毕竟，奥运会是中国的光荣，是我们中华民族的光荣，是我们经过了很多努力之后才得来的荣誉。奥运福娃的设计是有突破的，是第一个以五个形象，以图组的形式出现在公众面前的。
奥运福娃的象征与这些祸事也许有些许巧合，但非要把这些事情联系在一起来说就是迷信了。
But we should not associate these disasters with the Olympic Games. After all, the Olympics are China's glory, the glory of the Chinese people, and the honor we've earned after all the hard work we've been through. The design of the Olympic Fuwas was a breakthrough, it's the first time that the public has seen it come in a series of five figures.
There are some coincidences between the symbols of the Olympic Fuwas and these disasters, but determination to put these two together is just superstition.
Then there were other evidence points, such as January 25 (01/25) being the day the heaviest snowfall in 50 years fell, paralyzing a large part of the country's transportation and electricity networks, and 1+2+5 adding up to 8; the Tibetan riots broke out on March 14, so 3+1+4; the Shandong train collision occurred on April 28 (4*2=8), and the Sichuan earthquake on May 12. Then to top it all off, 8pm on August 8=888, sign of the Fuwa.
Most recently, the supposed curse has come full circle to bring Beibei into this, with torrential rain across large parts of the country which began on May 26 (2+6), setting records in Hong Kong, swallowing cars whole in Beijing, and flooding rivers from Jiangxi to hundreds of thousands displaced in Guangxi, which as Blogspot blogger Griffin Lee writes, only comes as the country is still left recovering from last month's earthquake:
earthquake's problem hasnt solve yet n now flooding all over places in southern China,
this is a tragic scene , imagine u're one of the victim or ur family or relaives r there.
142 comments
The Huan-Huan Fuwa does look like a little devil.
Forest fire coming soon?
@Eric Hu Uh-huh, thanks. I’ll make the effort to bring more substantive Olympic-related posts in the future. Just don’t pop up then saying my posts are putting you to sleep. More (in a sense) on China and superstition here.
@Joel Fascinating post, goes deeper than I was able, limited as I am by what I can find on Chinese-language blogs. Thanks a lot!
@Chan I used the title ‘Curse of the Olympic mascots’ because this is the kind of language that Chinese netizens now drawing a connection between what each of the Fuwas represent and a corresponding coincidental major tragedy themselves are using. Ie., these and these search results.
JK,
Are you slapping yourself ??
I heard about this from a Chinese friend several days after the quake. I was wondering about what people would say the fish one represents. Guangdong? Lots of fishing there. Maybe that “Fuwa curse” was all the people stranded at the train station.
Not that I BELIEVE this stuff, but I am starting to get spooked. Then there are all the earthquakes – the US midwest, Sichuan, Iceland, Taiwan, Japan …
since the full circle of curse has happened, it makes me wonder what will happen next?
“sign of the Fuwa” made me laugh. I think that could be a good movie.
Despite the number superstition, adding everything up just amounts to a really bad year for any country. And the year is only half over.
Hey Karma, MF, timur, you guys can join Karze, and Shitty Stone, you guys are meant for each other .. . ;-)
JK, CNN, Globalvoicesonline, and Jack Cafferty are manmade curses to CHina, ;-)
Sorry I forgot to include some other parties in the man-made curse group to China
-The biggest curse of all is our infamous half monk and half politician, Dalai,
-Bush, Brown, Rudd, et al
-Paid human-rights activists
Hey my friends et al,
Premier Wen JiaBao’s facebook almost got 60,000 voters, but it got deleted by facebook. The big CIA boss has given an order to take out anything related to CCP eh?
I now pronounce Facebook a member of CNN, BBC, GVO, JC, JK, media/blogsphere propaganda machine.