The British delegation used the Chinese character "UK" during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. Why?

The full name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is expressed as British in English. When translated into Japanese, it is actually the same as the Chinese characters, which is the word "British". In fact, it is the same as the Chinese characters, which are the two characters "UK".

Japanese has always used Chinese characters. Between 270 and 310, someone traveled to Japan from Baekje and spread Chinese characters there. According to ancient Japanese historical records, the Japanese was subsequently revised and used. It was not until 1946 that a new font was reformed, but many Chinese "traditional characters" were still retained. So there comes, Chinese UK.

According to statistics, there are 2,136 Chinese characters borrowed from Japanese. Although their pronunciation has been changed by the Japanese, the meaning expressed can often be understood by Chinese people.

The British version of China that everyone sees is actually the British version of Japanese translation. In fact, many Japanese writing methods are the same as Chinese characters, and the meanings are the same. For example: youth and earth in Japanese are written in the same way as Chinese characters, and the meanings are also the same. Therefore, the Chinese characters for British appear in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which means that the British in Japanese and the Chinese characters for British are the same.

The meaning of the Tokyo Olympics mascot:

The mascot of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is consistent with the emblem, integrating the traditional Japanese "Ushi pine pattern", and is named "miraitowa", which means "Mirai" and "Towa". The pink Paralympic mascot is named "someity", which combines the representative Japanese cherry blossom "Somei Yoshino" with the English "so mighty".

Both "miraitowa" and "someity" are set as characters living in the digital world and can freely communicate between the digital world and the real world using the Internet. Among them, "miraitowa"'s special skill is teleportation, and "someity" can use super powers.

The mascots for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were decided by a vote of Japanese elementary school students, including about 16,000 Japanese schools overseas. According to the Olympic Organizing Committee, it is the first time in the history of the Olympics that primary school students will decide the Olympic mascot. The purpose is to allow children to personally experience the arrival of the Olympics.

In August 2017, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee organized a public call for mascots. 2,042 proposals were received in one day, and 3 voting candidates were finally selected. The designer of the selected mascot will receive a bonus of 1 million yen and the opportunity to be invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The first time a mascot appeared in the Olympic Games was at the Grenoble Winter Games in France in 1968. The first time a mascot appeared in the Paralympic Games was at the 1980 Summer Paralympic Games in Arnhem, the Netherlands.