Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Doing PR for the Motherland


For my trip home, I brought back a big suitcase. And it was full of gifts.

There was hardly enough room for my clothes.

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee or BOCOG should give me brownie points for buying up all kinds of souvenirs, from the mascots in stuffed animal form, to T-shirts, mugs, cushions, slippers, crayons, notebooks, pencils, and fridge magnets.

Needless to say they were a big hit with family and friends who were more than happy to get a piece of upcoming Olympic history for a Christmas present.

However, some did ask jokingly if these were actually legit items or if they were fake.

It's interesting to note when I shopped for these items, especially the stuffed animals, to see out of the five mascots, the panda, called Jing Jing, was the most popular. That's because it was always missing from the shelves.

It's not surprising since most people equate China with the panda, and not really a fish-like creature or a thing with a fireball on its head. Jing Jing really is the cutest of the quintet.

So hopefully the Olympic souvenir shops will put out more of the pandas.

Otherwise it'll only be seen on the black market.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the chinese mascots -5 of them too many. one or two is aceptable. they all look about the same what is the point? also too much japanese influence-just like the japanese cartoon. dont know why they dont consider the traditonal chinese mascot like the bat, fu dog,dragon and the phenix?