Chinese Netizens are buzzing about a cheeky interpretation of the five Olympic mascots, known as fuwa. "Five Fuwa, Five Disasters" is the title of one Web commentary making the rounds. The story goes like this: the five mascots are animals or symbols seen as highly auspicious by Chinese. Their simplified nicknames strung together create the phrase "Beijing Welcomes You!" or Beijing Huanying Ni!.

     But a string of tragedies during the Olympic year make the mascots seem like harbingers of of bad luck instead, so this argument goes. Mascot Ni Ni, for example has a bird-shaped kite on its head; the Chinese "kite capital" is Weifang in Shandong province, near where two trains collided head-on early this year, killing close to 70 people in one of the country's worst train wrecks in recent history.

    Mascot Ying Ying represents the endangered Tibetan antelope, a favorite target of poachers during the 90's because of the luxuriant, costly shahtoosh shawls made from its precous fur. These days the protected Tibetan animal is also seen as a symbol of the Lhasa riots which erupted on March 14, triggering a security clampdown and waves of unrest in many Tibetan communities.

    Then there's Huan Huan, symbol of the Olympic torch. It represents the emotional protests -- by critics of China and the Tibet crackdown -- which erupted when the Olympic torch relay passed through London, Paris, San Francisco and other cities shortly after the Lhasa riots.

      The pro-Tibet demonstrations triggered a virulently nationalist Chinese backlash against the West -- and especially the Western media -- that began to subside around the time of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake. This particularly horrific tragedy is represented by Olympic mascot Jing Jing, the giant panda, whose natural habitat is mostly in Sichuan province. There the Wolong Giant Panda preserve was badly damaged during the quake. (Newsweek.com was the first Western media to report on and show the destruction in exclusive photos.)

    Finally the fish mascot Bei Bei is seen as an icon of water, which Netizens say symbolizes the extensive flooding experienced in southern China recently. (An alternative interpretation, according to at least one Netizen, is that "Bei" stands for Beijing -- and therefore this mascot portends a disaster yet to come.)

    Even if you don't believe in such superstitions, you've got to admit 2008 has been full of catastrophes for China. Their reverberations continue to be felt. Tomorrow the Olympic torch passes through the Tibetan capital. Sadly, Lhasa remains in lockdown.

     It's extremely difficult to talk candidly with Tibetans in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas to assess the true situation on the ground. Foreign media and diplomats have not been allowed to enter Tibet on independent trips since March 14. (Several extremely brief, tightly orchestrated group trips have been organized by authorities.) Internet communications -- and even some mobile-phone conversations -- have been monitored heavily, according to Lhasa residents who've managed to get messages out.  More than three months after the riots, the extent and timeline of the Tibetan unrest remains shrouded in opacity, which is yet another tragedy for this Olympic year.