What are the origins of Olympic Fuwa?

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. "Fuwa" are five anthropomorphic dolls. Their prototypes and headdresses contain connections with the ocean, forest, fire, earth and sky. They apply the expression methods of traditional Chinese art and show the splendid Chinese culture. Each doll of the Beijing Olympic Games mascot represents a good wish: prosperity, joy, passion, health and good luck. The dolls bring Beijing's hospitality and blessings to all corners of the world, inviting people from all over the world to gather in Beijing to celebrate the 2008 Olympic Games. The five Fuwa dolls are named "Beibei", "Jingjing", "Huanhuan", "Yingying" and "Nini". One word from each of their names was taken in order to form a homophonic "Beijing welcomes you". The first five babies all had baby faces. They were cute, but they were lacking in how to embody the harmonious coexistence of humans and animals. After brainstorming, they finally made up for it with the naive panda. Shortcomings. The nine green leaves on the panda's head represent green nature in a broad sense. 5wa's creativity is based on the Chinese theory of the Five Elements. The original incarnation of "Gold" was an anthropomorphic brass-colored dragon child, but it was replaced because the dragon was not well recognized in the West. The five elements are indispensable, and Han Meilin thought of "fire overpowering metal". The integrated design of "Fire Baby" and "Dragon Baby" solves the problem easily. Nowadays, the yellow ornament in the center of the Fuwa's Huanhuan flame-shaped head is "gold". Who can fill the vacancy of Dragon? The red-crowned cranes and magpies proposed by all parties are not suitable. The former is slender and out of touch with the designs of other dolls; the latter is black and white and resembles a panda. In the end, the team chose the swallow with Beijing characteristics, which is a metaphor for Beijing's old name Yanjing. What kind of hat should the 5-year-old baby wear on his head makes experts take great pains. The first thing Han Meilin thought of was the tiger hat. It does look good when worn by the fifth child, but it is difficult to add connotation on this basis, and the design space is too small. Han Meilin opened the material collection. The material collection is slightly larger than an ordinary magazine, nearly 10 centimeters thick, and the patterns on each page were drawn by him himself. From a collection of more than 70 volumes of material, he selected the simple hat shape of three tiles from Northeast China. On the basis of this hat type, each of them added decorations with ethnic characteristics, forming the five children's current styles with different styles and a unique appearance. In this way, the overall image of Wuwa was revised five times, and more than 60 minor revisions. The design draft was more than 4,000 pages long, and it was finally finalized. Two color printers were specially purchased. Three or four color ink cartridges are used a day, and half a pack of printing paper is used at a time. For more than half a year, the team members endlessly repeated the design modification work. Every time Han Meilin came up with a new idea, Wu Guanying, the team member in charge of action styling, would design 38 sets of action graphics. If the main shape was changed a little, the 38 actions would have to be modified accordingly; Chen Nan then input the action patterns into the computer; Zhao Jinxin Create a silicone model. Repeated revisions and increased pressure make everyone feel irritable. In order to improve the working mood of the team members, Han Meilin often sang northern Shaanxi folk songs to them and told them jokes about characters. He said: "We are designing happy children. If we are not happy, how can the children be happy?" As the design work approached the final stage, the team moved back to the "Han Meilin Studio" in Tongzhou. The security work at this time is even stricter. The security guards at the gate have been replaced by soldiers from the Central Security Bureau, and the driver is from the Central Security Bureau. Han Meilin, who has many friends, refuses to accept guests behind closed doors. After work, he spends time with his pet dog. After more than half a year of "careful care", the fifth baby was recognized by the Olympic Organizing Committee. That day, someone suggested that the doll should be given a name. "It's essential to dress the child up beautifully, but the name is imaginary." Han Meilin smiled. He remembered that a leading comrade said that we are the descendants of Fuxi and Nuwa. "Let's use the pronunciation of "Fu" and "Wa" for the child. ." A voice said: "Just call it 'Fuwa'!" Everyone nodded. I don’t know who mentioned it again: “The five dolls are called ‘Beijing welcomes you’… and this is how Fuwa was born