Photo: Li Hao/GT

 

"OMG! It's so cute!" "I want one!" "Hello little guy…" When posts with such descriptions circulating on social media in recent days in which a fluffy and lovable panda waving and smiling, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games mascot Bing Dwen Dwen has become a star not only in the Olympic Villages, venues, and almost, everywhere.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games has rated Bing Dwen Dwen as the most trending topic on social media, like Chinese Sina Weibo. The chubby panda in fully body shell of ice looks like an astronaut has generated more than 250 million views by Thursday, and the netizens have shared the videos and pictures of fun moments with Bing Dwen Dwen, including images of the inflated Beijing Games mascot trying to squeeze through the door to enter the main media center, how a Japanese reporter bought many Bing Dwen Dwen badges and how much foreign athletes enjoy sleeping on Bing Dwen Dwen pillows.

"I almost cried seeing the mascot," Czech ice dancer Natalie Taschlerova told the Global Times in a recent interview, as she saw that the Olympic mascot was among the gifts athletes receive when they arrived at the Olympic Villages. She said that with her teammates, they had been talking about buying those panda-shaped keychains and pillows as they were so cute.

"I love it. The panda is very cute," Brazilian athlete Nicole Silveira told the Global Times on Thursday, as she also received the backpack full of Beijing 2022 memorabilia. In some photos of Silveira sent to the Global Times, the Brazilian athlete took photos with the mascot inside the village or selfies with the pillow.

"The panda? I did. I love it. I'm gonna bring it back home and give it to my grandmother. Because everyone likes panda, right?" Swiss snowboarder Nicolas Huber told the Global Times on Thursday. "Who doesn't like pandas? They're so nice. They really chilled animals."

The design for Bing Dwen Dwen was chosen from over 5,800 submissions from throughout China and 35 countries around the world as part of a global competition arranged by the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, according to official website of the Winter Games. The designs were reviewed by Chinese and international experts, with the final selections made by teams from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and Jilin University of the Arts.

The design team used Tanghulu as a prototype in its initial drafting, a traditional Chinese skewer of crispy candied fruit. However, there were concerns about the candy couldn't represent China so the design team replace the candied fruit inside but kept the ice crust. And now the outer shell represents technologies with a resemblance to an astronaut's suit, and the colored halo around the suit's face was inspired by a major venue for the Games - the Ice Ribbon.