China’s Olympic Mascots: Cute or Cursed?

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  06.23.08 | 12:31 PM ET

imageThose adorable Beijing Olympic mascots—known in Mandarin as “fuwa,” or good luck dolls—may not be so lucky after all. Superstitious Chinese say the five cartoon animals are responsible for a string of calamities that has befallen their nation this year. Perhaps this means a discount on mascot-laden souvenirs come August?

Photo by Andrew Currie via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Asia, China

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


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