|
Olympic emblem encounters parody
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-01-12 17:16
The Beijing 2008 Olympics emblem suffers parody and has been transformed to washroom signs by mischievous netizens Beijing Legal Evening reports Friday.
The pranked version of Olympic emblem was originally posted on a domestic well-know sports online community and the emblem, namely "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing", has been changed into male and female rest rooms nameplates respectively.
The entangled five rings embodying Olympic spirit, the symbol of "Beijing 2008", was cleaned away from the bottom in both of the redesigned ones. The Chinese characters for the two genders stand instead.
The color of the sign for male turns to be gray, not red like the original, while the Chinese calligraphy character for "Jing", standing for the city of Beijing in the prototype was redesigned as a female toilet sign looking like a girl dressed in a skirt.
The paper said by now the emblems has been widespread on the Internet. Web users can easily find them on famous search engines such as Google and Baidu.
The original version of Beijing Olympic emblem, "Chinese Seal,Dancing Beijing". [BOCOG/File Photo]
 |
The prank mischief evokes netizens' backlash, who criticize it's unacceptable to see these originally beautiful emblems fiddled with into such ugly signs; while supporters said prank that amuse netizens is just a prank, but without any vicious intentions.
The director of that online community said in the interview with the paper they won't remove the poster from their website since it didn't violate laws.
"Any position of netizens didn't represent that of the website as well as the editors, but I admit the poster is eye-catching and brings into high amount of hits," she added.
An official with the Beijing Olympic organizer, BOCOG, condemned the mock "indeed improperly", warning its spread online is likely to do harm to Beijing Games and the image of the city.
BOCOG published a regulation in 2003 on the protection of intellectual property rights concerning the Beijing Games' emblem. It prohibited actions from setting apart, distorting or juggling the emblem by any organization and individual in any case. Making the emblem part of other incorporated logos is also banned.
Fang Yu, however, a lawyer of Beijing Dadi Law Office, said the juggle did not violate the BOCOG regulation for it only spread online without any attempt for commercial purposes.
Fang also claimed the BOCOG regulation doesn't bear any legal force.
In a similar online mischief recently, the Beijing Olympic mascots, the five Fuwas, did not escape from the mean-spirited zeal of netizens either. The heads of the five mascots kids were replaced with famous Chinese comedians, like Zhao Benshan and Ge You.
Embodied traditional Olympic spirit, filled with Beijing's hospitality and hopes, carrying out the city's commitment to the world, 'Dancing Beijing" was unveiled for the Beijing Olympics on August 3, 2003.
The emblem originates from inspiration from traditional Chinese calligraphy art, and the character "Jing" from the city's name is developed into the form of a dancing human being, reflecting the ideal of a "New Olympics." The words "Beijing 2008" also resemble vivid shapes of Chinese characters in handwriting, voicing in concise strokes the countless feelings Chinese people possess towards the Olympics.
|
