Am I the last person to know this? (Fuwa dept)

We all know and love the Beijing Olympic mascots, the five Fuwa, right?

And I've known they had names. Bei-Bei for one, I think. Maybe Pan-Da for the black and white Fuwa? I haven't been quite sure...

It turns out, thanks to my wife the linguist, that there is a very easy mnemonic way to memorize their names -- easy if you're hanging around Beijing these days. Their names, in proper order, are:

Bei-Bei
Jing-Jing
Huan-Huan
Ying-Ying
Ni-NiAnd the first syllables of those names, put together, spell out Beijing Huanying Ni ! -- "Beijing Welcomes You!" which is not only one of the official sentiment of the Games but also the refrain of a can't-get-it-out-of-your-head Flintstone-type song playing all over the place these days. So now I know! It's like that "Aha!" moment when you understand the master code at the end of The Name of the Rose or The DaVinci Code or perhaps Citizen Kane.

If there were two more Fuwa, perhaps they could be called Jia-Jia and You-You.  Just a thought.

James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which has been a New York Times best-seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.

Twitter Email