Olympic Keepsakes Stir Lifelong Memories

9 categories and 510 varieties of Olympic-licensed merchandise had been brought to the market by August 8, 2005.

The Olympics is about more than sports competitions; a Games also features cultures, especially the diverse cultural experiences of a host country.

One easy way to experience the cultural side of the Olympic Games is to collect Olympic souvenirs, which can provide long-lasting memories. So the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) began selling Olympic souvenirs shortly after they unveiled their emblem for the Games: “Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing.”

“It was not easy for China to win the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games; so I wanted to get some Olympic pins and keep them as reminders of the great event,” said a Mr. Wang. Wang, a collector of Olympic pins, was buying some new pins featuring sports events for the Beijing Games at a special section in a Beijing Gongmei Group store, one of 13 stores across the city authorized to sell Beijing Olympic Games souvenirs. 

Lingering in the merchandise store, surrounded by caps, bags, sports suits, shirts and ties, one may well find themselves lingering before counters displaying small metal, crystal or porcelain souvenirs. The glitter of gold—main colour of key chains, necklaces and clips—catches the eyes. With a bit of study, one soon realizes the souvenirs exude the spirit of the Olympic Games but also reflect the culture of the Chinese nation.

The ancient Chinese culture and the modern Olympic Games mutually enhance the beauty of the carefully designed souvenirs. The logo of the Beijing 2008 Games is artistically used in key chains featuring huabiao or a Huabiao Pillar (a traditional Chinese icon typically found as a decoration in front of grand buildings such as the one in front of the entrance to the Tian’anmen Rostrum), bianzhong (ancient Chinese percussion instrument comprising a set of high and low-pitch bronze bells hung from a wooden stand and struck with a small wooden stick), zun (a kind of wine vessel used in ancient times), jue (wine vessel with three legs and a loop handle), denglong (Chinese lantern). In another novel design, several pins are pieced together to form the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), one of the World Heritage List cultural sites in Beijing and iconic of China.

Several sets of pins available reproduce scenes of competitions. Football, diving, disc throwing and table tennis were the first sports featured. To mark August 8, the beginning of the three-year countdown to the opening of the Beijing Games, several more were added to this group, including cycling, archery, handball, basketball, the triathlon, fencing and pole vaulting. Each set is composed of several pins displaying different Games scenes. Together, they epitomize the essence of an event. To make the actions more vivid, the group of pins is displayed against a backdrop of the ground of play. For example, there are seven pins in the football game, each of which shows the action of taking the service, dribbling, passing, block tackling, a flying header and pulling down the ball.

More than 40 sports experts and a dozen art professors have contributed to the pin-design effort—45 of them in this group, featuring 37 events of the 28 sports that the 2008 Olympic Games will stage.

“I will try to collect all of them and use them to decorate the walls in my sitting room,” a middle-aged pin collector said. “It’s an amazing idea.”

Another pin collector, a Mr. Liu, said, “I like the sailing set best because its design is quite modern and internationalized. It is said that the designer is the one who designed for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games; they make me feel very cool. At the first sight, they gave me the feel of standing by the seaside, braving the sea wind and I imagine I’m among sailing athletes competing on the sea.” He added, “I learned a lot about the sailing events which I have never had the chance to learn before.”

Olympic Gold is a favourite of high-end consumers. Soon after the first set of Olympic Gold pieces appeared in merchandise stores, they are sold like hot cakes. It is said that the Olympic Gold is composed of five different colours of gold that commemorate the Olympic emblem, mascot, main stadium, torch and the opening ceremony. Each set can either be independently collected or treated as one part of a whole set. Obviously their release to the market will keep pace with the progress of preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Yuan Bin, director of the BOCOG Marketing Department, said that 9 categories and 510 varieties of Olympic-licensed merchandise had been brought to the market by August 8, 2005, including casual apparel, pins, arts and crafts, stationery, gold products and silk products. Souvenir stamps, coins and mascots are currently being planned. To make the merchandises more collectable, serial keepsakes of great athletes will be designed to enrich the market.

To commemorate the three-year countdown to August 8, 2008, two sets of pins—the “Scene of Summer Palace” and the “Beijing Cultural Heritage of the World” were launched to show the essence of the “People’s Olympics.” Six representative scenes of the Summer Palace and five international cultural heritage sites were chosen.

There are production limits on some products, such as the pins, ranging from 10,000 to 80,000. The prices range from several yuan to thousands yuan, catering to different consumer needs or desires.

Though some consumers complained that the prices of some products were a bit higher than expected, they still bought them, a salesman said. But tourists mostly purchase licensed merchandise for their collections or as gifts.

Ten percent of the income from merchandise sales will be used to fund preparations for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

As of early August 2005, 19 authorized merchandise stores had been set up nationwide. Thirteen of them are in Beijing, including the Beijing Wangfujing Department Store, Beijing Artistic Mansion (Gongmei Dasha), the Summer Palace Store, as well as three in the Beijing Capital International Airport. For the convenience of non-Beijing residents, the Beijing Gongmei Group provides purchase-by-mail services.

The best way to avoid buying counterfeit junk is to buy all Olympic merchandise at licensed stores. Inside each package of a licensed product, there will be an anti-counterfeiting label. Further information can be obtained by dialling the toll-free telephone of the licensed merchandise stores: 800 810 0010. 

       There is a 3 mm-wide hologram security thread with the emblem of the Olympic Games in the middle part of the label’s front side.

       The latent figure “Beijing 2008” can be observed on the lower part of the label’s front side.

       This label’s design has been embossed which will be apparent when touched.

*Information about the purchase-by-mail service

Address: Room 708, Beijing Artistic Mansion, 200 Wangfujing Dajie, Beijing, China, 100005

Tel: +86 10 6528 8866