The Danwei Department of Useless Information brings you buzz from online forums concerning the new slogan for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, "One World, One Dream."

First, though, an online poll. Sina is hosting a survey sponsored by CCTV asking viewers for their thoughts on Beijing and the new slogan. In answer to "What is your impression of Beijing?" 62% of 1742 respondents answered, "A city with a heavily political flavor." With regards to the slogan, just over half thought it was "Average," while just under a quarter thought it was "Excellent." CCTV also asked about underlying problems with the slogan, and just under half of respondents thought that it overly resembles "diplomatic language". More results below (the poll is still going on, so percentages may change in the future).

Reactions of commenters on the Sina BBS were mixed. Quite a few thought that it was not a bad slogan, or at least on par with those of recent Games. Some posters drew parallels with other popular slogans from advertising or entertainment - Dave Wong's song "A game, a dream" appeared often, as did Yao Ming's My World, My Dream (the Chinese title of his English autobiography Yao Ming: A Life Between Two Worlds). Others suggested possible improvements - apart from general linguistic playfulness, there were quite a few variations on "Democratic Olympics, Free Olympics." A sampling of forum posts can be found below.

Several netizens reacted differently to the announcement of the new slogan. Beijing Times reports that "oneworldonedream.com" and variants in other TLDs have been snapped up by IP squatters hoping to make a fast buck by selling them back to the Olympic committee.

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CCTV Poll Questions and Results (for 1742 respondents):

1. What is your impression of Beijing?
   • A city with a heavily political flavor: 62.28%
   • A big city with heavy pollution: 16.36%
   • A rising international metropolis: 11.19%
   • A warm and open city: 7.35%
   • Other: 2.81%
2. What should be the fundamental element in the 2008 Beijing Olympics slogan?
   • Suit viewers worldwide: 36.96%
   • Promote Beijing to the world through the slogan: 25.14%
   • Connote harmony: 23.54%
   • Simplicity: 11.19%
   • Other: 3.16%
3. What's the underlying problem with the 2008 Beijing Olympics slogan?
   • Too much diplomatic boilerplate: 47.19%
   • Too heavy of a political flavor: 12.69%
   • Too serious: 10.33%
   • Too provincial: 7.28%
   • Too limited in scope: 5.51%
   • Other: 16.99%
4. How pleased are you with the present Olympic slogan?
   • Average: 54.02%
   • Displeased: 23.25%
   • Very pleased: 22.73%
5. What do you think of when you read the slogan, "One World, One Dream"?
   • The dream of working together to pursue peace for humanity: 38.75%
   • The dream is too far off: 36.57%
   • Embodiment of a harmonious value system: 12.34%
   • The opening up of the spiritual culture and thought of the Chinese people: 7.52%
   • Establish before the world a Chinese brand: 4.82%

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Comments from Sina's BBS: While effort has been made to provide a balanced sample of comments, please do not take these as representative of the views of the Chinese population, the online population, or even the Sina BBS. At last count there were 847 responses, so the ones translated below make up just a small percentage of the total.

General Impressions

• Oh! Why does China always like this kind of slogan? First it was "New Beijing, New Olympics" [the Chinese version of "New Beijing, Great Olympics"], and now we have "One World, One Dream". It's always repeated characters and paired phrases. Nothing unique. Foreigners must be puzzled. Why do Chinese people have no creativity?
• Great! Chinese people look to the world to realize the common dream of "Peace, Development, Harmony".
• Objectively speaking, when I first heard the slogan I felt it was a little uncultured. But upon closer analysis, I think it's actually not too bad. It rides up high, not like "Olympic China" and other slogans people on the net were proposing. It has the perspective of the world, the perspective of harmony for humanity. After I read the explanation, I was even more amazed.
• I think it should be a bit less elite. It should show our hospitality. Everyone will be arriving from all over the world, so we want to show them friendliness. How about this: "Welcome! How many in your party?"
• Looking at the two, one can see that the English was written first, and then the Chinese. 5000 years of Chinese civilization, and alas, no confidence. How can we talk of a Chinese renaissance?
• The English is translated incorrectly; it doesn't convey the proper meaning. [This was a common observation, with people proposing "The Same World, The Same Dream." Other posters, more knowledgeable in English, tried to correct this impression.]

Other popular slogans

• Would it have anything to do with Yao Ming's My World, My Dream?
• This will make Lenovo happy: "One World, One Lenovo" [Lenovo, which will probably provide technological sponsorship for the Games, has the Chinese name 联想, which shares a character with "dream"]
• In my opinion, "One Game, One Dream" [title of a Dave Wong song] is better.

Other suggestions

• Beijing's Olympic Dream, the World's Shared Pillow
• [a number of people proposed the more classically-flavored 四海一家，五洲同梦 as the Chinese version, while keeping the English the same]
• "Gather in Beijing, Meet at the Summit" or "Peking, Peaking"
• Free Olympics, Democratic Olympics
• Barcelona, 1992, "Friends Forever"; Atlanta, 1996, "The Celebration of the Century"; Sidney, 2000, "Share the Spirit"; Athens, 2004, "Welcome Home"; Beijing, 2008, "i need democracy"
• "One World, One Dream": Democracy, Freedom
• "Unite the World, Unite the Dream" is nice - has a bit of a Mao flavor... ["the same" and "unite" sound similar]