Postcard: Taking aim at the Fuwa

This is the first in what we hope will be a series of postcards sent to us by our far-flung correspondents and globetrotting readers. Lisa Margonelli (author of Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long Strange Trip to Your Tank) is in Shandong province to report for California on Berkeley-led efforts to help green China. She kicked things off with this e-card, writing:

Check out the olympic mascots.....nuttin' like a panda with a gun!! It's the
icon for the shooting event. -Lisa

The mascots, in case you're not yet acquainted with them, are formally known as the Fuwa, or "good luck dolls;" the five characters are: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Jingjing, the panda, is the one with the pistol.

Perhaps not suprisingly, the Fuwa have become a lightning rod for criticism. Amnesty International parodied the little guys with a disgruntled monkey named Nu Wa ("angry young man") and the Wall Street Journal reports that, after a string of natural disasters, including the Sichuan earthquake, many Chinese have taken to calling the little guys Wuwa, or "witch dolls."

Let's hope the curse wears off in time for the opening ceremonies on 8/8/08. PS: If you're going, be sure to send us a card.