Olympic mascots: Creative, cartoonish, at times contentious

The popular panda mascot of the Beijing Games got into a minor controversy last week when horrified fans by speaking with a grown man's voice on Chinese TV

BEIJING -- The panda mascot of the Beijing Games has been a huge success here in the Chinese capital, where fans have lined up for hours to buy plush dolls of the round cartoon, Bing Dwen Dwen.

Then last week, the character appeared on Chinese TV — and horrified viewers by speaking with a grown man’s voice.

“I don’t think it’s cute anymore,” one commenter said on Chinese social media. “It's just an old man.”

The incident was a minor blemish on the character’s popularity; by week's end, with the close of the Games approaching, the cult of Bing Dwen Dwen — one of the more ubiquitous Olympics mascots of recent years — was still going strong and drawing long lines for purchases. But it marked the latest comic mishap in the pantheon of Olympic characters.