Eileen Gu in short film A Date with Snow and Ice Photo: Sina Weibo

A Date with Snow and Ice, a short film about passing the Olympic torch for the upcoming 24th Olympic Winter Games, recently premiered in Beijing to popularize ice and snow sports in China through the social influence of popular sports and entertainment stars. 

The short film stars two celebrities, young super idol Jackson Yee, who has nearly 90 million followers on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo, teaming up with Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old US born skier who became a naturalized Chinese citizen in order to compete in the Games. 

Aimed at celebrating the upcoming 24th Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in Beijing in February 2022, the film tells a story about a young winter sports fan (Yee) who meets a young girl (Gu) and they both decide to go to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games together.  

In the two short days since its premier on Friday, the short film has become a hot topic on Sina Weibo, earning more than 100 million views as many of their fans posted to express their excitement and anticipation. 

"It was a great crossover collaboration between my two favorite young idols. As a Jackson Yee fan, I'm proud of him for being so positive all the time," posted one netizen on Sina Weibo. 

Some netizens pointed out that the participation of popular stars is "necessary" to promote the sports industry and can inspire more people, especially young people's passion for sports and the upcoming Beijing Games. 

"The 'idol effect' is transmissible. It is becoming even more necessary to have idol power in less popular industries, such as winter sports because stars like Ye can get fans to pay attention to whatever he does while also promoting a new image of a young person today who develops both his mind and body, loves adventure and can bring positivity to society," Xu Xiao, an educator in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

The short film is not only dedicated to celebrating the 2022 Beijing Games, it also aims to popularize winter sports in line with the implementation of an outline which the General Administration of Sport of China published in 2018 to get 300 million people involved in ice and snow sports. 

"The message behind the initiative not only says that China is aiming to be more competitive in winter sports, to lessen the gap with countries where these sports are more mature such as the US and Canada, but also, more importantly, it shows we are focused on getting more people involved in winter sports. In other words, getting involved in these sports can help people become fitter, especially the young generation," Zhu Ling, a sports insider, told the Global Times.