Who came up with the idea of "Fuwa"?

December 15, 2004, according to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascot design selection rules, the Olympic Organizing Committee invited 24 experts and scholars with outstanding achievements in the field of art and culture at home and abroad, based on the requirements of the design of the mascot, all the valid entries in the selection of art. On that day, in the 16th floor conference hall of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, 662 pieces of work were placed flat on the table - the judges had to select 10 pieces of work that they thought were satisfactory.

Pang Bangben, the painter and executive vice president of the Chinese Oriental Culture Research Association's comic strip and cartoon branch, recalled that the choice was difficult, and that many of the images that they had loved and enjoyed might be similar to thousands of others, and thus be in trouble in future intellectual property rights searches. Due to the special nature of the mascot, the design also had to reserve space for the future production of materials, mascot animation filming and extensive market development work. Therefore, there were many factors to be considered in the initial evaluation.

On December 17, 2004, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) held a working meeting of the mascot selection committee. Famous artists Jin Shangyi, Chang Shana and other 10 recommended selection committee to enter the recommended selection phase of the 56 pieces of work for review and comment. Among them, 50 works were selected by the Art Selection Committee and 6 works were nominated by the Recommendation and Selection Committee. After fully analyzing the selected works, the Recommendation and Selection Committee recommended that the Panda, Tiger, Dragon, Monkey King, Rattle Drum, and Ah Fook 6 works as the direction of modification of the Beijing Olympic Games mascot.

What made the modification team struggle was that each piece was difficult to meet the requirements of the Olympic mascot. There is no way out, but there is a village in the dark. China Fuwa surfaced.

Despite determining the direction of modification, but can the mascot from the six pieces of the final product? Who have no idea. March 11 this year, by the famous artist Han Meilin as the leader of the 9 people modification team, focused on Huairou Yanqi Lake. Their task is to come up with six works of modification program.

The modification team immediately entered the intense work. Around the six pieces of work, flipping back and forth out of a lot of graphics. 500 sheets of a pack of A4 photocopier paper, a morning to use up. They also went through a lot of reference materials to modify the 6 pieces of work from different angles. However, the fun is not good, good and the same with the past, how do not feel appropriate.

At the beginning, the recommended jury was very optimistic about the rattle. We think it can play a very good role in creating the atmosphere, but also very fun. However, the rattle has no feet, lack of movement elements, in the application of a great obstacle. After checking and re-checking, it was also found that the mascot chosen by the China Consumers' Association for a major event was the rattle.

The tiger's image is good, but as a single mascot, it has been used in the 1988 Seoul Olympics; the panda is an image praised in China and abroad, but due to the use of too much, the margin for re-creativity is very limited; the Monkey King is a household name in China, but it is also difficult to get a breakthrough in styling; the concept of the Chinese dragon is very hard and fast, but it has the characteristics of kingship and royalty, and has a lesser degree of affinity, and the image is not a good choice in the eyes of some Westerners. some Westerners' eyes the image is not very good either. The Afu Daitouwa consists of a bunch of rounded little clay figures, also without feet, and shows a strong concept of regionality. The revision team also made a combination of six works, such as the panda, the Monkey King and the tiger together, but the form and color combination are not very good.

One of the important issues in the revision process was that the experts felt that a single piece of work was not enough to meet the design requirements for the mascot to have a comprehensive meaning. The modification process was in a quandary. The government-supported campaigns in various parts of the country made the members of the revision team feel that they had a great responsibility.

The leaders of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), while comforting and encouraging them, suggested that they could break out of the framework of the six works and boldly try to redesign the design.

This idea inspired the members of the revision team, who looked at the finalists again and found that a work consisting of five animals had conceptual merit. So, around the "five", the group began to think. The Olympic Games have five rings, China has five lines, the world has five continents, the orientation has five, "five blessings", "five sons," and so on, a mouthful of more than a dozen and "five" related to speak.

It was on this day - March 22, 2005, a group of five mascot creation of ideas first set down. The Chinese Fuwa took shape.

Han Meilin's studio is almost entirely filled with mascot graphics. Several mascot shapes were competing, and in the end, Jingyan surpassed the dragon.

After a brief moment of rejoicing, the group moved to Han Meilin's studio at the China Artists Association in the Tongzhou district.

What image would make it into the "five"? This is really difficult to adjust, some want antelope, some want monkeys, some want Sichuan panda, and want to add the elk, albino dolphins, dragons and so on. The Olympic mascot history does not have five, even if there are five can not accommodate so many people hope. Who better to choose has become a difficult question.

Han Meilin recalled: "I think, China's big-headed doll is not quite good, hat is not also quite good? On the hat and mascot associated with it, so that both can wear a tiger hat, but also panda hat. Later, we worked on that and sketched out a first draft. Five dolls came out. It represents the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, incorporating the water patterns of Chinese colored pottery, bronze culture, etc., and the fire is using the graphics of Dunhuang murals." Han Meilin remembers this very well. He said that morning he took a cool bath, took two heart pills in one day, is to do a big job, come up with ideas.

In those days, there were heated discussions and even arguments; a moment of silence and work. Every part of the graphic, have looked through a lot of information, as much as possible to add Chinese cultural elements. Wu Guanying, deputy director of the Department of Graphic Design at Tsinghua University's School of Fine Arts, said that the information looked around at the time, with ordinary book bags more than 70 packages, enough to fill a van. In order to find information, ten days he ran from Haidian to Tongzhou more than 50 trips.

After three months, painted tens of thousands of sheets, modified sixty or seventy times, April 5, 2005, the five models are basically finalized. Olympic organizing committee leaders saw this work said, we have seen the light. With these words, the hearts of the members of the revision team, which had been hanging in the air for a long time, fell to the ground like a stone. This is everyone's credit, this is the result of brainstorming, this is the crystallization of collective wisdom. Han Meilin said that modification is a process of re-creation. If there are no 662 shortlisted works, no 6 works of modification experience, Fuwa will also be very difficult to come out.

On April 29, the 53rd executive committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games on the mascot modification program for the validation, that the "China baby" (the sacred fire, panda, fish, Tibetan antelope, dragon) concept has Chinese characteristics, the selection of a group of representative images of Chinese culture as the Beijing Olympic Games mascot, can meet the expectations of all walks of life on the mascot. The choice of a set of representative images of Chinese culture as the mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games can meet the expectations of all circles for the mascot. During the "May 1" period, HAN MeiYi was the first Chinese artist to have a mascot for the Beijing Olympics. First" period, Han Meilin according to the spirit of the Executive Committee and all sectors of the revised opinions, the "China baby" program for further modification and improvement. Considering the fact that the image of the dragon is divided in the West, he proposed to replace the dragon with the traditional Beijing kite "Jingyan". In terms of presentation method, combining the brush strokes of the Olympic bid emblem and the style of the Chinese seal of the Olympic emblem, boldly adopting the hand-painting technique of traditional Chinese ink painting, the five dolls were re-sketched, highlighting the mascot's lively character traits, and making a significant breakthrough in the artistic expression of the overall image. So far, the mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games has basically completed the positioning of the basic image.

An old friend of the Beijing Organizing Committee, Verbruggen, President of the IOC Coordination Commission, chose August 18th. He knew that this is the day that the Chinese consider auspicious, and he rushed to send a letter of confirmation of the mascot to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games on this day.

On June 9, the 54th executive committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games considered and approved the revised mascot program, giving the group of mascots a general name: China Fuwa.

On August 17th, a working group of the IOC Coordination Commission heard a report from the Beijing Organizing Committee on the design of the mascot for the Beijing Olympic Games, and on August 18th, the President of the Coordination Commission, Mr. Verbruggen, wrote a letter confirming the IOC's approval of the design of the mascot for the Beijing Olympic Games. The design of the mascot has been formally recognized as a "household".

Because the mascot is the core image of the Olympic Games, but also the image of the Olympic Games landscape elements of the core elements, but also has a huge commercial development value of the image. So it is necessary to carry out legal protection work. This protection in addition to the completion of the domestic, but also in the International Olympic Committee, with the assistance of overseas, especially in several major countries one by one for registration and implementation of legal protection measures. During the pre-validation process, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) conducted a large number of industrial and commercial registrations and legal inquiries. This work was successfully completed at the end of October.

The mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games is innovative, it has been widely praised by all walks of life, and has become a good friend of children.

In the mascot throughout the process of creation and modification, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games is not a closed-door work. In order to understand the children and teenagers on the Beijing Olympic Games mascot candidate program recognition and degree of love, April 22, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games to questionnaire survey on Beijing Yucai Primary School 49 elementary school third-grade students and Beijing happy time kindergarten 22 kindergarten in the middle class children for interviews and tests. The results showed that 98% of the children thought the five dolls were very cute and considered them to be good friends or family. Many children even gave them names, and some immediately asked "where can I buy them?"

A few days later, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games organized a mascot evaluation meeting, inviting the National People's Congress, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Municipal People's Congress, the Municipal People's Consultative Conference, the democratic party members, experts in Olympic research, as well as representatives of athletes, representatives of the design industry and other people from all walks of life, the mascot candidate works for evaluation. The evaluation of the representatives of the mascot design collection of the organization gave a high evaluation, that the organization is tight, reasonable operation, confidentiality at the same time pay attention to listen to the views of all parties.

The vast majority of the delegates to the mascot candidate program to be affirmed that the group of works of creative novelty, clever ideas, vivid shape, distinctive, choose a group of images rather than a single image as the mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games ideas, to meet the expectations of all walks of life of the Beijing Olympic Games; candidate program has a strong flavor of Chinese culture; in the creativity and modeling is more complete, reflecting the Chinese style, national sentiment, modernity, reflecting the Chinese style, national sentiment, modernity, reflecting the Chinese style.

The candidate program has a strong Chinese cultural flavor; it is more complete in creativity and shape, reflecting the Chinese style, ethnicity, modernity, and the harmony between human beings and nature; and there is a certain breakthrough compared with previous Olympic Games.

The mascot of the 29th Olympic Games has made a breakthrough in the design of Olympic mascots, and has won the unanimous praise of Chinese and foreign experts.

A person in charge of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games believes that, compared with previous Olympic Games mascots, China Fuwa has several innovations and breakthroughs. First of all, in terms of design thinking, the first time the perfect combination of animals and people. China Fuwa for the first time the people themselves and animals combined, emphasizing the concept of humanistic Olympics, highlighting the people-oriented.

Secondly, it is the first time that the elements of the Olympic Games are directly integrated into the mascot in the design concept. Because every Olympic mascot to show the Olympic spirit, and we directly refer to the Olympic elements, such as fire baby, from the Olympic flame.

The third breakthrough is in the mascot design application, highlighting the extension of the use of personalization. The mascot consists of two parts, headdress and body, is a complete image, but the headdress part can be taken down, separate development and production. Every adult and every child can put their favorite "hat" on their head and dress up as a mascot. This kind of application is not in the past, people and mascot interaction has increased.

Finally, Beijing is the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, the mascot into five, is the most. This is because Chinese culture is so profound and has so much to express.

Sun Lijun, dean of the Animation School of the Beijing Film Academy, said that the Beijing Olympic Games mascot has several characteristics, one is that its shape comes from life, from the people. It must be lovely, small to preschool children, adults and even the elderly to like. The second is to have Chinese characteristics. Thirdly, it should be suitable to do a variety of derived things, can do cartoons, can do toys, can be modeled, can be active, can be used in large-scale scenes. In addition, every Chinese people love good luck, mascot should represent the Chinese people's heart, different levels of the people like.

662 effective works, each is a fine line, and five groups of Chinese Fuwa produced, is a thousand fine line twisted into a rope. Beijing Olympic Games mascot, is the crystallization of collective wisdom.

Han Meilin said, although the judges set the direction of the revision of the six works, but the revision team has been very attentive to the shortlisted works and even all 662 valid works of creative thinking, from which to draw the essence. Although they thought that the creativity of a single panda, tiger or monkey would be difficult to achieve a good result, they still studied and revised the content repeatedly as the revision direction. In this process, the lines of the work pattern, the colors, the elements of Chinese culture contained in itself. In the end, it provided useful help for them to create Chinese Fuwa.

When making modifications to the rattle creation, Han Meilin told a few close friends about the idea. Within a few days, Han collected more than 200 rattles at once, almost a complete collection of all kinds of rattles in Chinese folklore.

Jin Shangyi, often Shana and other experts in the art world, not only to do as a recommended selection committee members should do their duty, and, despite the age and poor health and other factors, as long as the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games have asked, they must respond. Whenever the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games held a jury meeting, they would arrive at the meeting place early. In the mascot modification process, many old artists are personally involved in the modification of works, put forward very innovative ideas and opinions.

A valid work of the author, after sending his own work, wrote to the parties concerned many times to indicate that he did not care whether his work can be selected, however, because of the creation of the mascot, in the mascot of the field has been carried out in the research, discussion, he hoped to be able to share with the parties concerned the results of the research for the Beijing Olympic Games mascot to contribute to the birth of the mascot.

From the five Olympic rings to the application of the five rings of color, from the prototype of the Chinese Fuwa to the final draft, not only through dozens of experts back and forth demonstration, all walks of life, including children and teenagers are also involved. The mascot has incorporated the opinions, efforts and wisdom of many experts and scholars from all walks of life, and the relevant departments have also done a lot of work for the collection, selection, release, production and publicity of the mascot. Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascot process shows that it is the crystallization of collective wisdom.