I wanted to share with you possibly my favorite character. His name is “Hodori”, in Korean, “호돌이”.
I first encountered this character around 1988. I was in Portland, Oregon, USA, my hometown, and a Korean-Canadian friend of mine recently returned from South Korea where he attended the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. He had a large bath towel hanging on the wall with Hodori on it and I thought it was quite cool. He showed me pictures from his trip to Korea and I was quite impressed. One with seeing a far away land which I have grown up hearing about, eating its food and hearing its language. In addition the girls he had taken pictures with were quite fascinating to say the least :)
Here are some pictures of Hodori and some Olympic memorabilia:
According to Wikipedia:
Hodori was the official mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. The stylized tiger was designed by Kim Hyun as an amicable Amur tiger, portraying the friendly and hospitable traditions of the Korean people.
"Ho" (Korean: 호) is derived from the Korean word for tiger ("horangi", Korean: 호랑이), and "dori" (Korean: 돌이) is a diminutive for boys in Korean. The name Hodori was chosen from 2,295 suggestions sent in by the public.
There was also a female tiger named "Hosuni" (Korean: 호순이), but she was seldom used. "Suni" (Korean: 순이) is a diminutive for girls in Korean.
I lived in Korea for many years later in life and every time I would see Hodori I would think back to those days in High School when I saw my friends towel on his wall, and wondered what Korea was like. Little did I know at that time that I would live in Korea for over a decade when I was an adult and learn the Korean language. I also ran the Seoul Marathon where it started and finished in "Olympic Stadium" in Seoul.
If you want to purchase a Seoul Olympic T-Shirt here is one I bought. If you wear this T-Shirt around Koreans you will be sure to get looks of shock! As they would never guess that you know about the 1988 Olympic and for sure who "Hodori" is, but now you can shock them even more with the little bit of knowledge you have gained here.
Peace from China,
BigLance
http://www.youtube.com/biglance