Blog of the day: Oddly enough, Curse of Olympic mascots or the Curse of
Beijing Olympics?
China: Curse of the Olympic mascots?
Monday, June 16th, 2008 @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
20:05 UTC
by John Kennedy
Post-Thumbnail
http://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/griffint.jpg
Global Voices Olympics 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 ….
China, what troubled times 2008 has been for you!
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。
With the state that China's in now, people are worried, and this is very
understandable!
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 trans****tation 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:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/griffin.jpg
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.
Posted by John Kennedy
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58 Responses to
“China: Curse of the Olympic mascots?”
1.
June 16th, 2008 at 23:06 pm
my_mother:
1
Hey Kennedy,
This numbers crap is totally stupid!!! So freaking dee dee dee!
God damn! Anybody could pull the vaguest connections out of thin
air or their backside to justify all sort of things.
A case in point is my assertion that John Kennedy (you, not the
other one) is the devil!
What’s my proof? Well, it is just that you “chose” June 16th,
2008
to start this thread. And what’s the significance of this?
First, June (06), so 0+6 = 6. Second, 16th, so 1*6 = 6. And
finally, 2008, so 8-2 = 6. God damn, 666. that proves it. You are the
devil!!
Well, not really. I don’t think you are the devil. It’s just that
I think the numbers thing is stupid. With the logic we see here, it kind
of makes you wonder whether or not Iowa is the new Sodom or Gomorrah (or
the victim of some unfortunate curse), given the tornados and flood that
had visit it in quick sucession.
The thing is, crap happens all the time. Aside from the
earthquake, stuff like floods happens every year in China (and in the
States for that matter). FYI, it is monsoon season. And this year’s
flood is nowhere near as bad as the one in 2005.
What the heck makes it so special? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The
olympics is just around the corner. Maybe that’s what all the fuss is
about. For a second, I thought it was just like the END OF DAYS.
Anyhow, John, why don’t you translate stuff that is more
substantive, like things about the labor movement in China. There’s
something that is going to change China (maybe the world).
Best
Kain
2.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Joel:
2
I agree that the numerology is basically nonsense, but there is
still some significance to this story, if for no other reason than that
every Chinese person I know is talking about it (the numbers, the bad
luck, etc.).
In our area people have been setting off an unusual amount of
firecrackers for weeks now, and it’s said this is partly because people
are losing confidence regarding the Olympics and their trying to get rid
of China’s bad luck.
3.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:31 am
chan:
3
Evolution is growth or expansion, while involution is decay or
contraction. Nature continues to evolve or expand by contracting and
creating new goods and beings. The combination of expansion and
contraction results in vibration. This is why everything is vibrating in
the universe. Decay is as im****tant as growth. For example, old cells in
our body must die so that new cells can be born. In order to rise into a
new or higher state of consciousness, our old state of consciousness
must decay and die.
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Significant Floods in the United States During the 20th Century -
USGS Measures a Century of Floods
During the 20th century, floods were the number-one natural
disaster in the United States in terms of the number of lives lost and
property damage.
What curse is that in US ????
4.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:58 am
China Journal : Best of the China Blogs: June 17:
4
[...] the recent floods across China, the “Fuwas of doom” theory
appears to have come full circle. Meanwhile, China’s Internet censors
are ru****ng to delete posts [...]
5.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:01 am
John Kennedy:
5
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
are you asking for my personal opinion? I don’t believe in
curses, so I can’t really answer that. What you’re describing is
something along the lines of what Sharon Stone was talking about, no? I
think cursing someone in the verbal sense is an emotional response to a
feeling of injustice, physical, legal or economic helplessness or
vulnerability, and an alternative to violence or other immediately
injurious actions. In that case it might help others better understand
what one is feeling, when words or patience fail.
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
let me know if you notice your fingers suddenly curl up and
fall off sometime within the next week.
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
that’s really interesting. I can’t imagine that in the face
of all this loss and destruction there is any explanation that makes
sense, like all the talk of earthquake predictions. Better they blame
the Fuwas I guess than Beijing and corrupt institutions around them. Or
not?
6.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:19 am
chan:
6
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I am asking your opinion, by putting a question “What curse is
that in US ????” and surely I am not cursing anything. Don’t put your
remark that I am cursing like Sharon Stone. I believe it is all nature
work.
So how about you yourself when you put the title of this blog
“China: Curse of the Olympic mascots? ” Do you really see yourself after
you have given remarks on me ???
7.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:01 am
John Kennedy:
7
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I see. Okay, again, I don’t believe in curses. This post
comes after having seen this Fuwa meme floating around online for a
month already and while I’d like to believe that most people aren’t
taking it that seriously, unfortunately all the posts Google found for
me that looked like sharp mockery of the whole idea have already been
deleted, so it looks to me that online at this point in time
superstition is lingering and probably thriving given the cir***stances.
And, not believing in karma or curses, I don’t have much to say
about Katrina, if that’s what you’re getting at. From what I understand,
it was a horrible tragedy that was handled horribly. This might be more
what you’re looking for.
8.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Eric hu:
8
Kennedy, you have a remarkable talent of “gouzaidui”, go for it.
9.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Joel:
9
sorry i don’t know how to leave a trackback. Linked to you here:
[...]And in case you were wondering what the 2008 Olympics are really
about, that translated blog post from Global Voices Online is quite
revealing:[...]
10.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:17 am
chan:
10
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I don’t believe in Karma and curse also. So no point for you to
put the title for this Blog “China: Curse of the Olympic mascots? ”
And, I have already put my comments that it is natural evolution.
“This” recommended by you, is not what I want.
I am asking why you are putting this blog title “China: Curse of
the Olympic mascots? ”
Since you already have remarked that “I think cursing someone in
the verbal sense is an emotional response to a feeling of injustice,
physical, legal or economic helplessness or vulnerability, and an
alternative to violence or other immediately injurious actions.” This
curse subject is really not suitable for me. It seem more meaningful for
yourself as you are the one putting the title ??
11.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Karma chameleon:
11
The Huan-Huan Fuwa does look like a little devil.
Forest fire coming soon?
12.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:25 am
John Kennedy:
12
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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.
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fascinating post, goes deeper than I was able, limited as I
am by what I can find on Chinese-language blogs. Thanks a lot!
13.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:36 am
John Kennedy:
13
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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.
14.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:39 am
chan:
14
JK,
Are you slapping yourself ??
15.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:38 am
MF:
15
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 fi****ng 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 …
16.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:55 am
timur:
16
since the full circle of curse has happened, it makes me wonder
what will happen next?
17.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Chinamatt:
17
“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.
18.
June 17th, 2008 at 13:30 pm
Knights:
18
Hey Karma, MF, timur, you guys can join Karze, and ****y Stone,
you guys are meant for each other .. . ;-)
JK, CNN, Globalvoicesonline, and Jack Cafferty are manmade curses
to CHina, ;-)
19.
June 17th, 2008 at 13:58 pm
Knights:
19
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
20.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:22 pm
Knights:
20
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.
21.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:23 pm
carryanne:
21
Knight, what logic is that???
What did those people do to China that is worse than the Sichuan
earthquake? Do you think the victims of the earthquake and other crazy
disasters would agree with you that mr. Rudd is a bigger problem than a
storm killing their children? Really, what did these people do so wrong
to China? They talk about human rights? Annnnd?? Do they kill your
innocent Chinese people? Do they censor the information Chinese people
read and watch, making the population retarded? Do they violently squash
differing opinions making a homogenized mob of a once great empire? Did
they eradicate 5000 years of cultural civilization replacing it with
ridiculous German, Russian fascism and absolute materialism?
The party killed thousands or millions of Tibetans and tries to
castrate them spiritually, so I understand why the Tibetans or Dalai
does not appreciate CCP regime, but why you think Dalai Lama or rights
activists did something to China, I dont understand.
22.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:33 pm
Knights:
22
Sorry for going off topic, but CHINA and US are signing off 30
some deals. Very cool. I am happy, because CHINA is my mom, and U.S.A is
my aunt. I would love these two to get along. :-)
23.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:36 pm
carryanne:
23
Who can say what is the intention of a storm or an earthquake? I
mean, we can all have our interpretations, but no one can say it
definitively. We can’t exactly know these things, it’s not like you can
just ask the flood or the earthquake what it’s intention is or where it
came from…
Personally I think all natural entities are living intelligent
things. People talk and think, do animals talk and think, do they have
souls? Is an ocean any different?
My favorite movie is ‘Spirited Away’. Yeah those things are
superstitious, but actually those things are some ancient wisdom and you
know, I think that the idea that everything is nothing,like dead, no
soul, no thought, no intelligence, no meaning, well, from my background
of understanding nature, that is totally superstitious and implausible.
I think things in the world are so magical, life, death, thinking,
growing, plants, feelings, it is all very mystical, none of it (to me)
fits with the belief that the world is one dimensional and meaningless.
So what does the year of disasters in China mean to me? Well all I
can do is interpret from my perspective. In Buddhism there is a thing
called stick warning or stick wake up, I dont remember which its called
or if its two different things. The Master would hit the student on the
head with the stick if the student was not enlightening to something
(something like this)…
So if I was to guess at why these things are happening to Chinese
people, I think I would say that it might mean WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!
24.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:47 pm
carryanne:
24
Did someone say now theres still the fish left?
1 Million Homeless in China Floods
Guanzhou: “Raging rivers have collapsed tens of thousands of
homes, damaged crops across more than two million acres and causing more
than an estimated $1.5 billion in economic losses.”
Farmers ditched their plows and waded into the neck-high waters
with nets to catch fish.”
I never looked at the mascots before, its hard to tell what they
are…
I hope the CCP will be in prison by August so the Chinese people
can have a nice Olympics.
25.
June 17th, 2008 at 16:57 pm
Knights:
25
Carryanne, you misunderstood my message. Let me clarify it for you.
I do NOT think the victims appreciate Karze, PK, JK and stone the
****hole et al comments either.
The Sichuan earthquake is the most tragic, and my message states
that on top of that, these parties that I have mentioned above, are
adding salt to injury.
interpret however you like, it’s your free speech right?
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