The two lovely mascots "Bing Dun Dun" and "Xue Rong Rong" have left a deep impression on people all over the world with their "futuristic sense" and "Chinese style".

As the image ambassador of the Olympic Games, the Olympic mascot is responsible for the important mission of embodying the Olympic spirit, disseminating the Olympic Games concept, publicizing the history and culture of the host city, and creating a grand atmosphere. International reach and dissemination should also be considered.

Different from the mascot "Fuwa" of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the foreign names of the mascots of the Winter Olympics "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Xue Rong Rong" are not completely Chinese pinyin, but written "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Xue Rongrong". Shuey Rhon Rhon".

　　As soon as the foreign language name came out, it immediately aroused great interest from the public, and netizens at home and abroad launched the "Challenge to Read Names".

"Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" have gained countless fans by virtue of the pronunciation of southern accent and northern accent and western accent.

But what is even more gratifying is that many people in China have also paid attention to the special spelling of names, and have conducted extensive discussions on the rationale for naming and the norms of Chinese pinyin.

Some people say that the foreign name refers to the old pinyin schemes such as Wetoma and Postal.

Some people say that this is a "foreign name" imitated by a foreigner's name; some people point out that this kind of foreign name takes into account the pronunciation habits of Chinese and foreign languages, but does not follow the Hanyu Pinyin spelling standard for proper names, which will make people at home and abroad feel Chinese. There is confusion about the relevant legal norms of Pinyin.

"Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" not only added joy to the Winter Olympics, but also showed the improvement of people's awareness of language norms.

　　"Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" are a combination of innovative foreign names in Roman alphabetic spelling.

Obviously, "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" are not completely pinyin, nor are they completely "English foreign names".

Through comparison, many scholars pointed out that they did not follow the Chinese pinyin spelling standard, nor did they fully conform to the early phonetic schemes such as Wetoma, Postal, and Mandarin Roman characters that were hotly debated on the Internet.

In terms of spelling form, some experts believe that "Bing" refers to the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme", and "Dwen", "Shuey" and "Rhon" can be seen in English, French, German, Italian and other languages. Similar pronunciations name letter combination.

In addition, the names are not written in syllables according to the syllables of Chinese characters, instead of word-partitioned according to the writing habit of English names.

It can be seen that "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" combine the syllable characteristics of Chinese characters, the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme" and the pronunciation habits of foreign languages, and are foreign names corresponding to onomatopoeia.

Similar foreign names are not uncommon in social life. For example, the foreign name of "Gree" is "Gree", and the foreign name of "Golden Dragon" is "King Long".

Some scholars believe that this type of name is just a foreign name for things, not the phonetic and spelling of Chinese names.

Regarding the rationale for the mascot’s foreign name, relevant experts from the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee pointed out that there are both Chinese and foreigners participating in the naming of the mascots of the Winter Olympics. The main consideration is to make it easy for both Chinese and foreigners to read. , can understand, and more importantly, can pass the trademark check.

A mascot is a created "character" whose name is protected by trademark law and intellectual property law.

　　Judging from the naming of the mascots of the previous Olympic Games, "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" are not the first names that take into account domestic and foreign habits.

The mascots of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, "Howdy" (Howdy) and "Hidy" (Heidi), are taken from the greetings commonly used by people in the Americas and Australia, meaning "hello".

The mascot of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympic Games "ソメイティ" is derived from a cherry blossom variety "ソメイヨシノ" ("Somei Yoshino"), and the Japanese command-style Roman character transliteration is "Someiyoshino", in order to combine the English word "So Mighty" and its meaning (meaning "omnipotent"), changing "yoshino" to the affix "-ty", resulting in the new Roman alphabetic spelling "Someity".

It can be seen that the names of Olympic mascots (including foreign names) are not necessarily drawn up in accordance with linguistic rules or specific normative standards.

The Olympic mascot is a cultural business card created by the host country in order to show the national image, promote the spirit of sports, and promote the characteristic culture of the host country.

The names of Olympic mascots often have both national culture, Olympic spirit and international characteristics.

Of course, as some scholars have said, Hanyu Pinyin is a cultural bridge for communication between China and foreign countries. As an important translation method, "Bingdundun" and "Xuerongrong" can also be used as a good naming scheme.

　　The mascot of the Beijing Olympic Games, as the image ambassador of the "City of Double Olympics", showed the world Chinese culture and the spirit of the global Chinese.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics "Fuwa" let the world know about China, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" more embodies China's courage to innovate, its shared and inclusive attitude, and its determination to open up to the world. The integrated development concept of "Together to the Future" of the Winter Olympics.

"Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" not only have the historical precipitation of Chinese Pinyin, but also provide a good international "integration" perspective, which is not only Chinese, but also the world, condensing the wisdom of the Chinese nation , showing the confidence of the Chinese people to go international.

(Author: Zhang Zhenda, postdoctoral fellow, Lecturer, Institute of Language and Character Application, Ministry of Education)