In the following months, the group created the fire-dragon. they thought about using the red -crowned crane and a magpie instead, but decided they were not suitable.

Chen Nan, from 2008 Olympic Mascot Group member, said, "I think the swallow of Beijing is much better. We have a popular children's song called 'small swallow'. Every spring and summer, many children in Beijing fly kites on the currents of wind that blow through the capital. The swallow can represent Beijing."

So the new swallow mascot was born. The group began to design its characteristics.

Han Meilin, 2008 Olympic Mascot Group leader, said, "This is the first one I drew, it looks very nice and then five lovely mascots worked together well."

Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice-president, said, "This is the fire-dragon, he is a boy. He combines both the image of flame and the dragon."

Compared to the plans from last September, the swallow was a new edition, but organisers thought that if the fire-dragon was chosen, the mascot couldn't represent the characteristics of the flame. So the plan was dropped.

Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice-president, said, "In some countries a dragon represents evil. A dragon mascot wouldn't therefore spread the spirit of the Olympics to the world."

In June, the group began working on the final designs of the five figures. Professor Wu Guanying of Tsinghua university drew thousands of versions of the candidates.

Wu Guanying, Olympic Mascot Embellishment Group member, said, "The candidates not only need to be designed with the sports in mind, but also should have a marketing value that can be easily attached to different Olympic licensed products, such as souvenir badges, stamps or stationery. they have to be attractive."

Finally they named the mascots the "Friendlies", carrying a message of friendship to the whole world. When these names are put together, they say Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni, which means "Welcome to Beijing".

Han Meilin，Olympic Mascot Embellishment Group leader, said, "We tried our best to embody all the characteristics of our country. But it's a pity that we didn't use Chinese calligraphy in the design of the mascot. "

Sun Lijun, from Beijing Film Academy Animation Department, said, "All the judges agree that the final five figures best represent Chinese culture."

Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice-president, "The reason that we chose five mascots is that our Chinese culture is very rich, we have too many things to represent, and we have too many things to tell the world."

Chen Hanmin, professor from School of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, said, "The five mascots all have their own characteristics, they all represent luck. I hope that China likes them."

Han Meilin, Olympic Mascot Embellishment Group leader, said, "I cherish the five mascots just like I cherish my own children, so I hope the people in our country, and even the whole world will love them."

(The end)

 

Editor:Liu Fang