The origin of Niu Fu Lele.

On the evening of September 6, 2006. The Badaling Great Wall, which symbolizes the long civilization of the Chinese nation, is brightly lit at its feet. As night falls, Beijing has entered the second anniversary of the countdown to the 2008 Paralympic Games. At this important moment, the mascot of 13 Summer Paralympic Games finally appeared.

At 20: 20, Zeng Qinghong, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and vice chairman, touched the switch on the release device with his hand, and five gorgeous fireworks flashed across the clear night sky. The outline of the mascot was outlined on the big screen at the scene, and an innocent calf image was fixed on the big screen. At the same time, two 2-meter-high inflatable mascots came onto the stage from behind the big screen-this is the long-awaited mascot of the 13 Summer Paralympic Games-Fu Niu Lele. Its birth is the crystallization of the wisdom of countless people.

Looking forward to-

Just like expecting the birth of Fuwa, the mascot of the 29th Olympic Games, people once again expect Beijing to show the world the feelings and understanding of the Chinese nation for the Paralympic Games, and expect the concept of the Paralympic Games to continue in the ancient East.

1972 At the Munich Olympic Games, a puppy named Valdi first appeared as a mascot at the Olympic Games. Since then, mascots have become one of the core images of many Olympic Games and an important carrier to convey the Olympic spirit and concept. In 2000, Lizzy, an iguana, began her journey as an image ambassador for the Paralympic Games. From Sydney to Turin, the Paralympic mascots all show the concept of the Paralympic Games.

In recent years, the design of mascots for Paralympic Games is mostly based on the local rare animals in the host country. Among them, the snowflake image of Astor, the mascot of the 2006 Torino Paralympic Winter Games, is an exception. These mascots have a strong regional color, and more importantly, they all convey the spirit of self-improvement and healthy progress of disabled athletes to the world through their own display. Ritz, the mascot of the Sydney Paralympic Games, is one of them. Designing mascots based on animals has gradually become the trend of designing mascots for Paralympic Games.

Will the mascot design of Beijing Paralympic Games continue this trend? Under the background of China traditional culture, how to embody the concept of transcendence, integration and enjoyment? Can such a choice and design touch the world again like "Fuwa"? After the appearance of "Fuwa" on June 5438+065438+1 October1day, 2005, BOCOG began the examination and revision of the Paralympic mascots.

Choose-

Is the mascot of Beijing Paralympic Games based on virtual image or in the real world? Is it based on animals or gives life to objects like snowflakes like Turin? The mascot jury faces a choice.

The collection of mascot designs for the Paralympic Games began on August 5, 2004, which was synchronized with the collection of mascot designs for the Beijing Olympic Games. February, 2004 1 day 17: 30, and the deadline for soliciting activities is. During this period, BOCOG Cultural Activities Department, which is responsible for the collection work, became the busiest place, and consultation calls, letters and emails flocked from all over the world. In the past four months, BOCOG has received 87 valid works.

On June165438+1October1day, 2005, the hard work of breeding "Fuwa" was completed, and the examination and revision of the mascot of the Paralympic Games was put on the agenda. On February 30th of the same year, 65,438,87 works were presented in front of a jury composed of experts and scholars, disabled artists, disabled representatives and others. These works are not only based on animal images, but also based on the design of beasts or characters in China mythology. After judging, two mythical figures, the Monkey King and Nezha, and three works by Baiji dolphin attracted the attention of the judges.

These three images preliminarily determined by the jury basically determine the creation and revision direction of the Paralympic mascot. However, in the end, is the mythical figure defeating the rare animals, or are the rare animals more popular, or both of them fail to meet the design requirements? With the revision, all these answers will surface.

Question-

With the confirmation of the three works, the expert revision work is also in full swing. However, unexpected problems pushed another image to the desktop.

The TV series The Journey to the West and the cartoon "Chaoting Heaven" made the Monkey King's image deeply loved by people in China and even the world, and Nezha's story was widely circulated among the people in China. It can be said that these two images "speak for" the Beijing Paralympic Games, and have great advantages in the recognition and representativeness of China culture. Baiji dolphin has won a lot of support for itself because of its endangered species status and lovely elf form. However, with the deepening of the revision work, these three images encountered unexpected "trouble".

The first person to join the revision work is Mr. Han Meilin, the main designer and famous artist of Fuwa. Subsequently, Mr. Han entrusted the revision work to another creator who participated in the design revision of Fuwa-Mr. Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts to continue the revision work.

With the deepening of revision and evaluation, Nezha needs to be constantly improved and revised for image reasons, while another image, the Monkey King, withdrew from the competition in advance for comprehensive reasons such as image and spiritual connotation. The jury found that it was difficult to make a big breakthrough in design because there were countless images of the Monkey King in China. Moreover, the Monkey King is a very individual and rebellious image, which is different from the slogan of "One World, One Dream" and the concept of transcendence, integration and * * * enjoyment put forward by the Beijing Paralympic Games. Therefore, in the creative scheme submitted by the founder in May 2006, the image of the Monkey King was changed to another animal-cow.

In this submitted scheme, both Nezha and Baiji Dolphin were preserved, but both of them were greatly modified, but these two preserved schemes were also lost to the newly joined cattle in the final competition. When discussing this round of revision scheme, the expert group found that although "Nezha" has been greatly improved in appearance after revision, it is not typical enough, and foreign countries don't know much about this well-known mythical figure in China, lacking representativeness, and a little rebellion in character also prompted him to withdraw from the competition. Although Baiji dolphin is a "national treasure" endangered wild animal in China, it is not only representative, but also of practical significance in promoting animal protection. However, in recent years, baiji and similar images have been used as mascots for many times in some important sports meetings and festivals. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish baiji as a mascot from these existing and registered mascot images, and there will be many difficulties in intellectual property protection.

At this time, all the experts and representatives who participated in the evaluation turned their attention to the cows that had never appeared in 87 entries.

Advantages-

In the case that the first three images are not easy to modify, is it only the second best choice for the expert group to choose cattle? If not, what are its advantages?

After the revision began, the creators encountered such problems, and the jury decided to jump out of the limitations of the original three works and find another creative direction. After repeated argumentation and practice by many judges, experts and disabled artists, the jury decided to take the image of the cow in the design submitted by Wu Guanying in May this year as the direction of creation and revision.

The calf that first appeared in front of the jury was not lively and lovely, even a little rigid. However, the characteristics of cattle, which coincided with the concept of Paralympic Games, quickly won everyone's love. Wang Tao, director of the China Photographers Association and judge of the Paralympic mascot, recalled seeing this image for the first time and said, "The cow was not in the first three schemes, but when this image first appeared in front of me, I felt that I finally saw a representative image that could reflect the spirit of the Paralympic Games."

As we all know, since the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, almost all the mascots of previous Paralympic Games have chosen the most distinctive local animals as their creative prototypes. Why did an ordinary calf "beat" so many "players" in China? After repeated discussions, the jury thought that cattle, the most common animal around us, can just reflect that disabled people are equal ordinary members of our big family. This popular image of cattle is more in line with the present situation of disabled people and also reflects their desire to integrate into society. The most important point is that the image of cattle can best reflect the Olympic spirit and the concept of Beijing Paralympic Games.

The image creation of cattle is inspired by ancient farming civilization. As the oldest friend of mankind, cattle are down-to-earth, hardworking and tenacious, and never give up. The good image of cattle contains the spirit of self-improvement and tenacious struggle of disabled athletes, which is consistent with the spirit of hard work and enterprising of Paralympic athletes and the concept of "transcendence, integration and enjoyment" of Beijing Paralympic Games.

Cow, simple, optimistic and diligent, embodies a positive attitude towards life. The Olympic Games advocates a positive philosophy of life, while the Paralympic Games advocates that physically disabled people have the same competitive rights as healthy people, and this spirit will continue into their lives, strengthen themselves in life, and add strength to social progress.

Cattle is one of the closest animals to human beings. It is friendly, frank and full of affinity. In the long river of world civilization, pastoral is people's yearning and praise for a harmonious life. The image of cattle widely appears in the natural, soothing and poetic pastoral life depicted in literary and artistic works, which reflects people's yearning and hope for the harmonious coexistence between man and nature and embodies the concept of "green Olympics and humanistic Olympics" in Beijing Olympic Games. In addition, in the traditional culture of China, cows also have the meaning of praying for good weather, abundant crops, peace and harmony.

The image of cattle is widely recognized in the world. Cattle are the earliest animals of human beings, such as the frescoes of Lascaux in France and the rock paintings of mountain streams in altamira in Spain. The positive image of cattle is widely recognized internationally. Choosing the most familiar animal image as the mascot of the Paralympic Games is different from the traditional idea of choosing rare animals and has certain innovation.

The image of cattle has won many praises because of its high spiritual fit with the concept of Paralympic Games. However, how to show this image perfectly? Since then, the evaluation team and experts have conducted numerous demonstrations and revisions day and night.

Born-

The combination of the concept of cattle and Paralympic Games excited the experts and creative personnel of the jury. It is the next work of experts to show this fit more perfectly. In August, a lovely calf was born. Its name is "Niu Fu Lele".

On June 30th, 2006, the 68th Executive Committee of BOCOG reviewed and approved in principle the design based on cows. The creation and modification of this image has also continued. The design concept of the Paralympic Games mascot is the same as that of the Beijing Olympic Games mascot, which belongs to China and the world. How to express the integration of China characteristics and modernity has become the focus of discussion in the early stage of creation. In order to highlight the characteristics of China, the original design absorbed many kinds of folk art forms, such as paper-cutting, New Year pictures, printmaking and woodcut, but the designed calf was more national than international.

It is not easy to make the original rigid design lively and lovely and give spiritual connotation. In the specific revision process, there are many details to be solved-whether the eyes of the calf are long or short, how to turn the nostrils of the calf, and whether there is a chin? These details are related to whether the design of the calf is concise and representative, and whether it can reflect the culture of China. The process of creative revision embodies the wisdom of all aspects. Jin Shangyi, Chang Shana, Han Meilin and other well-known artists have contributed valuable opinions to the creative modification: narrowing the nostrils and embodying aesthetics; The tail end is designed into a ball shape, which is outstanding and lovely; Adjust the high light spot of the eyes, reflecting the determination and confidence of the eyes. ...

Based on various opinions, Wu Guanying adjusted his design ideas and decided to adopt China folk New Year pictures and prints, combining the characteristics of modern animation modeling, and perfectly combining traditional national style, popular taste and the atmosphere of the times. The ingenious use of print lines and New Year pictures echoes the color system of the Paralympic emblem, making the overall shape of the calf bright and subtle; The use of transitional colors deepens the visual layering, and the integration of cartoon elements also increases the modernity of calves.

In the image design of the calf, the "spiral" on the head is the most characteristic of China. In Wu Guanying's thick manuscript photo album, the blanks beside the side, front, jumping, running, happy, simple and honest, naughty ... are densely marked with revision opinions. Pointing to the "whirlpool" on the calf's forehead, Wu Guanying said cheerfully that this is the most distinctive thing in China. "Xuaner" is a common feature of folk animal painting in China, and it is one of the manifestations of printmaking style. Coupled with the calf with "Xuan Er", it really adds a little cleverness and playfulness.

The design was inspired by the techniques of traditional printmaking and New Year pictures in China. The "whirlpool" on the head not only embodies China's style, but also makes the little guy "full of energy", smart and lovely. This "rotation" has another meaning. It looks like dandelion, and its indomitable and strong character in harsh environment makes it a symbol of disabled people in countless literary works.

The concise and lively design scheme of Mavericks has also brought him other benefits, that is, it is suitable for the development of various materials such as fluff and plastic, and it is suitable for the combination of sports modeling and Paralympic souvenirs. Mascot souvenirs can be made of a single material, or they can be made of different materials in combination with image characteristics. At this point, this little guy already has the characteristics that people like, and is ready to walk into thousands of households.

With a perfect image, of course, there must be a loud name. However, the little guy made a "bull temper" with his beautiful appearance, and it really took a lot of effort to give him a name. Many artists and representatives of disabled people were invited to listen to their opinions, and the advertising elite of Zheng He, the king of fairy tales in China, also made suggestions. First of all, everyone thinks that the calf should be named with overlapping words, because the name of "Fuwa" is overlapping words, and the Paralympic Games also use overlapping words, which can be more close to the people and more easily accepted by children and all parties. Secondly, if there is only a simple overlap, there will be too many names, especially some brand names of children's food, drinks and toys. Everyone agrees that using attributives before overlapping, just like the name of the mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games, "Fuwa Beibei", can minimize the duplicate checking rate and is easy to catchy. As a result, such auspicious names as "Niu Fu Lele", "Xiang Niu Lele" and "Niu Da Qiang Qiang" appeared.

After careful scrutiny of the pronunciations and meanings of a large number of candidate Chinese and English names, "Funiu Lele" and its Chinese pinyin "Niu Fu Lele" were chosen as the Chinese and English names of the mascots of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. This name not only meets the standard in the rate of duplicate checking, but also more easily reflects that the Beijing Olympic Games and the Beijing Paralympic Games are held by the same organizing committee in the connection with Fuwa, which meets the equally wonderful requirements of the two Olympic Games.

Praise-

On August 28th, 2006, the International Paralympic Games approved "Niu Fu Lele" as the mascot of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. The image and landscape experts of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee spoke highly of it, believing that it embodies the Olympic spirit and the concept of Paralympic Games, has strong affinity and will be recognized and loved by people all over the world.

The IPC requires that the image and name of the mascot of the Paralympic Games must be complete; Must have a natural connection with the color system of the Paralympic Games; Reflect the connection with the mascot of Beijing Olympic Games. In order to achieve the goal of "Two Olympic Games are equally wonderful", Niu Fu and Fuwa are obviously different in creative ideas, quantity and style. As far as the characteristics of China and the application of Chinese and English names are concerned, they have the same effect. It can be said that "Niu Fu" and "Fuwa" complement each other and have their own characteristics.

Joey-

On September 6th, the Beijing Paralympic Games ushered in the second anniversary of the countdown. From then on, "Niu Fu Lele" will, together with the five Olympic Fuwa, carry the rich cultural heritage of China and the pursuit of the Olympic spirit by the people of China. Together, they will send the message of "One World, One Dream" to the world. They will create two Olympic Games together, with the same beautiful promise. They will bring passion and joy, health and wisdom, good luck and prosperity to all parts of the world. They sent an invitation to the world-Beijing welcomes you to enjoy the Olympic Games. (Li Han, Zhang Yu)

Source: 29th Olympic Games website