Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Olympic Mascots Linked to Tragedies

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=0b5b91d688de9110VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News

South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
16 May 2008

Online doomsayers say signs point to worse to come
SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE

Martin Zhou

Cyberspace gossip mills have being grinding away to produce a stream of superstition-related stories, reflecting growing public unease over a turbulent five-month spell marked by natural and human disasters.

The latest explanation for several recent tragedies links them to the five Beijing Olympic mascots.

Referring to four of the five Fuwa, a viral message widely circulated over the past few days says "antelopes [Yingying] pointed to the Tibetan riots in March; the kite [Nini] indicated the Shandong railway crash; the flame [Huanhuan] foretold the troubled torch relay; as for the giant panda [Jingjing], what does it conjure up in your mind except Sichuan?" [...]
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPEK15196420080619

Reuters
19 June 2008

"Curse of the Fuwa" fulfilled by floods

By Lucy Hornby and Alfred Cang

BEIJING (Reuters) - Floods sweeping southern China seem to have fulfilled the final stanza of an Internet curse involving Beijing's Olympic mascots, but censors have been quick to remove postings that might fuel the superstition. [...]

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