DISQUS

AMERICAblog: How Beijing came up with its 2008 Olympics logo

  • tlsintx · 1 year ago
    which came first? logo or video...
  • John Aravosis · 1 year ago
    Hey, I may post on this in a bit, but Disqus, the comments company, made some tweaks and I'm now told that the logging in problem that many people had should be addressed, or at least much better. Let me know. Thanks.
  • Comrade Rutherford · 1 year ago
    The Bush Administration has removed China from the list of Human Rights abusers. This happened about two weeks ago.

    Obviously, since Bush is the best president in the universe (which is 6000 years old), this must mean that China is now completely different. I can only assume that China respects all citizen's rights, and that this so-called 'crackdown' on what used to be called Tibet is a lie made up by the Liberal Media in America.

    Bush wouldn't say it if it wasn't true!!!
  • GayAsXmas · 1 year ago
    You know, as crappy as that logo may be, it's still better than the atrocious London one for 2012 - http://www.spoiledmilk.co.uk/blog/wp-content/up...

    Makes me ashamed to live in this city!
  • houstonray · 1 year ago
    GayAsXmas, that's the first time I've seen the London logo, WTF? What is that? I guess I can see '2012' in the graphics, but that IS pretty bad. Makes me tense up when I see it for some reason. It's very harsh, and primitive.
  • Abbey · 1 year ago
    What's the video from?
  • John Aravosis · 1 year ago
    It was a powerpoint, in French, that Chris received from a friend. I turned it into a video so I could post it on YouTube.
  • Ken Clark · 1 year ago
    China probably did realize it but didn't think any of the rest of the world would notice. China probably got a lot of laughs out of what they thought was an inside joke.
  • sput · 1 year ago
    Call me somewhat politically disconnected after a brutal and (seemingly) endless primary season, but I'm way more excited about the new season of Weeds this summer than I am about the Olympics. Tibet is important and all, but I demand to know what happens to Nancy Botwin!
  • jr · 1 year ago
    Is Mugabe getting the Olympics next?
  • wicked · 1 year ago
  • LoneTree Coyote · 1 year ago
    I am tired of language like "murderous thugs". Please elevate the language a bit. Have you read any of the long history of USA involvement in the Tibet matter? And if so, do you believe there is any basis for the line of reasoning that puts CIA involvement in the middle of this mess?
    Which came first, the logo or the video? In any event, I happen to like it from a purely graphics standpoint.
  • houstonray · 1 year ago
    I thought I had read somewhere that the Chinese logo was supposed to of course look like an "athlete" running, and that it was a stylized Chinese language character or word, but yeah, after that vid John, it takes on a whole new meaning...
  • S_in_Tokyo · 1 year ago
    The logo looks to me (as someone who is more or less literate in Chinese characters) like a slight variation of a very traditional way of writing the character for JING of BEIJING, which means 'capital (of a country)'. I don't think the Chinese would have imagined what has been done to it in this video/powerpoint. The use of ideographs brings about a very different system of associations.
  • Cathexis · 1 year ago
    Tsk. I think that association is really pushing a correlation. Let's not go the way of the Bush camp and try to demonize those with whom we have disagreements, lest we too fall into the "propaganda camp."
  • Indigo · 1 year ago
    I love it! The Beijing government has no idea what it looks like to others. Vampires cannot see themselves in a mirror. Could that also be true of the Bush Administration?
    Beijing. Vampires. Bushistas. A triangulation of evil?
  • Fanby · 1 year ago
    John challenges "...then at the video below, and tell me that this wasn't obvious." John, it isn't obvious. If it was obvious, the video clip wouldn't be necessary. You'd automatically look at the the logo and think, "My god, it's a bloodstain pattern from an execution!" Did you think it was that before you saw the video? My initial reaction was that it looked like a written Chinese character of some kind, and that it also looks like someone running. You know, like in the Olympics. Having said all that, I think the disruption of the Olympic torch by protesters, and the coverage of it, is great.
  • nicho · 1 year ago
    I'm assuming the next US logo will be a prisoner, hooded, with electrodes attached, being attacked by a dog.

    I would, of course, settle for a stylized drawing of Dubya and Cheney sitting in the prisoner dock at the Hague.

    This is a clever video, and maybe it works in France. As long as the Bush Crime Family remains unindicted, no US citizen has any moral high ground from which to criticize China. We are all murderous thugs.
  • Mister Wu · 1 year ago
    HAHAHA RED CHINA LAUGH AT YOU AMERICAN LATTE SIP HIPPIES NOSE DEEP IN TIBET BOOK OF DEAD WHILE YOU COMMIT EVERY CRIME OVERSEA FAR FROM PRYING EYES OF LITTLE JOHN AND JANE IN GAS GUZZLE SUV ALL AROUND WORLD SEE HYPOCRISY OF GREAT AMERICAN DO AS I SAY NOT AS DO HYPOCRISY WHILE FALUN DAFA THUGS TAKE DOLLAR TO MAKE 'PROTEST' OF OLYMPICS WAKE UP SMELL GREEN TEA.
  • scitz · 1 year ago
    I find the Latte drink classification funny seeing as how McDonald's, Dunken Donuts, most convince stores, and road side coffee huts sell Lattes now. This saying is so 4 years ago.
  • nicho · 1 year ago
    Mister Wu -- wake up and unlock the caps on your computer. Or cut back on the green tea a little Maybe you'll stop screaming.
  • Ruslanchik · 1 year ago
    The logo is a modified version of the Chinese character "wen" which means culture or literature. In China, red is the color of all things good and auspicious.

    I agree that China is doing some evil things and that the IOC made a huge mistake by granting them the Olympics, but this post is asinine. Talk about the issues, don't name-call and poke fun like a child.
  • S_in_Tokyo · 1 year ago
    Ruslanchik: I have found fairly conclusive evidence that backs up my impression that the logo is based on the character JING of BEIJING. WEN lacks the legs that the character would need to run! Unless you turn the body into (crossed) legs.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Beijing_Olympics
  • Freakaloin · 1 year ago
    i laffed...
  • PeachtreeJoe · 1 year ago
    I find this post to be non-productive. Focus on issues and solutions, not name calling. If the USA were scheduled to hold the Olympics, would we not be worthy of the same calls for boycotts, name calling, and derision due to our abysmal behavior in Iraq?
  • Jenius · 1 year ago
    I happen to think this cartoon is right on target.

    Even though Reagan defeated Communism, hello.
  • Clive · 1 year ago
    I am glad John is not one of those pandering to the Chinese. For me it is simple. The Olympics are politicized, ever since Hitler introduced the torch to give the Nazi party historical prescience during the Berlin Olympics. Beijing thinks brutalising Tibet and bullying Taiwan and funding war in Africa will not be noticed. The government of China is a brutal regime and will use violence and oppression to have its own way. It's not racism or hysteria....just fact.
  • PlaneCrazy · 1 year ago
    The London logo looks like something falling to pieces and the first thing that came to mind was the child's rhyme, "London Bridge is Falling Down"

    I agree this is a rather silly and unhelpful post. As a former student of Chinese archeology, it looked to me like a modified version of a pseudo-seal-script character for Jing, or capital. It was visually clever and very Chinese. But then, I'm able to separate the culture and people from the current administration, just as I hope the rest of the world does for us.

    Plane