Fu Niu Lele
Fu Niu Lele ( Chinese 福 牛 樂樂 ) was the official mascot of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing .
description
Fu Niu Lele is a comic-like cow designed in various bright colors . The colors used come from traditional drawings and toys for the Chinese New Year . The motif of the cow was chosen because of her meek character as well as her affection for the people who care for her. The name means something like “(much) luck” (Fu), “cattle” or “cow” (Niu) and “joy” (Lele).
Fu Niu Lele is also supposed to represent the spirit of the Olympic Games, Chinese culture and the strength and willpower of the Paralympic athletes, their character showing the essential traits of the Paralympic ideal, namely transcendence, equality and integration.
Emergence
After the official mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics were announced, the search for a mascot for the 2008 Paralympics began in December 2005. On December 30, the jury in charge had a total of 87 designs, from which they selected three: one, a Chinese river dolphin and two characters from Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong and Nezha . For the selection and further processing of the final mascot, the three suggestions were submitted to a group led by Wu GuanYing, an art professor at Tsinghua University . He revoked the three designs on the grounds that the dolphin and the figure of Sun Wukong were already too often used as symbols and that the character of the figure Nezha did not fit the Paralympic Games. Thereupon Wu GuanYing, who grew up in the country himself, brought the motif of the cow into play, which finally prevailed in coordination with experts and disabled athletes. On August 28, the International Paralympic Committee named the cow its official mascot.
On September 6, 2006, exactly two years before the opening of the Paralympics in Beijing, Fu Niu Lele was officially presented to the public.
Others
Fu Niu Lele was used to entertain the audience during many halftime and competition breaks in the Games. In addition, volunteers dressed in costumes and offered the audience small dance performances. The volunteers, who also appeared in Fuwa costumes during the Summer Olympics , completed a special course in the run-up to the Games in order to be able to perform convincingly in the oversized costumes. Fu Niu Lele's costume was so big that the wearer could only look out through the nostrils; an air conditioning system was installed inside to protect the helpers from overheating.
For the Games in Beijing, two-meter-tall sculptures were made of both the five mascots of the Summer Olympics and Fu Niu Lele. These were no longer used after the end of the Games and were placed on the unfinished construction site of a shopping center that was originally to be built for the Olympic Games and left to decay. For some observers, this fact reflects China's handling of the billions in investments in the area of the games, some larger new buildings or construction projects were never completed or remained unused after the games.
During the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro , Fu Niu Lele performed with other Paralympic mascots such as Tom (Rio de Janeiro 2016), Mandeville ( London 2012 ) and Sumi ( Vancouver 2010 ).
Web links
- Fu Niu Lele on the official website of the International Paralympic Committee
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The Paralympic mascot. German Disabled Sports Association, March 10, 2008, accessed on November 2, 2016 .
- ↑ 'Lele' embodies nature and athletic triumph. People's Daily Online, September 8, 2006, accessed November 2, 2016 .
- ^ Tabitha Messick: The faces behind the Paralympic mascots. china.org.cn, September 14, 2008, accessed November 2, 2016 .
- ↑ AFP: China's 2008 Olympic mascots: where are they now? Daily Mail, July 28, 2016, accessed November 2, 2016 .