Comments on: Overdetermined

By: Keywords » Pictograms

Keywords » Pictograms — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 03:27:59 +0000

[...] While I earlier made fun of the The Five Friendlies, the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics, I really like the pictograms they have chosen to represent each of the sports. Found via the increasingly prolific Pinyin News (this summer has been chock full of great posts), here are the pictograms, along with the ancient seal script characters which inspired them: [...]

By: chiru Beijing Olympic-QQ

chiru Beijing Olympic-QQ — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 13:38:39 +0000

[...] Keywords [...]

By: passer-by

passer-by — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 10:28:13 +0000

tf,the five elements(a.k.a as “wu xing”) of China (and their each representing color,less commonly known) are:metal(white),wood(green),water(black),fire(red) and earth(yellow).It’s the basics of Fengshui theory and many other beliefs.Due to my limited knowledge I have not heard of their traditional symbolic animals.Ancient Chinese people believed these five elements formed the world.In Japan however,they put wood before the other four.So the website isn’t being very accurate about the order.I’m guessing Pandas eat bamboo and they rely heavily on the natural environment,thus “forest”(the Chinese character for “wood” also means “forest”).And as you may have already know,Huanhuan as fire represents the Olympic torch.

However,according to the designer,Five Friendlies represent the five elements merely because the number Five is symbolic(“wu” in “wu xing”,mentioned above,is “five”).He used the fish as the East,the panda as the South,the Tibetan antelope as the West,and the swallow as the North.The fire is in the middle,meaning the sparkles of the meeting between China and the world.

By: tf

tf — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:39:00 +0000

I meant ontology, of course, rather than epistomology. According to the Friesian School website (scroll down), the Chinese have historically categorized many things by fives. However, the five classic Chinese elements are: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These are represented by: dragon, phoenix, caldron, tiger, and tortoise. Once again, a non-animal figures among four animals.

By: tf

tf — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:16:24 +0000

Is fire the odd-friendly-out, or is it the panda? Just as fire is not an animal, forest is not an element… or is it? The other friendlies represent water (the fish), fire, earth (the antelope), and air (the bird). But, according to the Beijing Olympics web site, there are five elements, including forest, which is reprsented by the panda.

Is this something the Beijing Olympic organizers made up, or does Chinese epistomology admit five elements, as opposed to the four traditionally recognized in Western epistomology?

In a related question, can we call the ’70s R&B group Earth Wind and Fire, the Three Represents?