I went to Beijing on the 11th to cast my vote on the mascots (er... sorry I mean I was in Beijing at the time and watch the events on CCTV).
They were justly saying on CCTV9 (in English) that China ought to choose mascots that look international so as to please everybody, and maybe could learn from mascots of previous Olympics. Yet, my impression is that the chosen mascots are very Chinese or East Asian in sensibility. We can see that modern China is going in the footsteps of Japan and South Korea, favouring cute, colourful and a bit childish characters. But I like them.