bing dwen dwen, the panda mascot, continues to be a smash hit at the ongoing beijing 2022 olympic winter games.
by monday afternoon, topics related to the chubby giant panda cub in a hard, transparent body suit had generated 2.58 billion views on china's twitter-like social platform weibo.
determined to get hold of soft toys and other decorations featuring bing dwen dwen, people queued for hours in cold weather outside a licensed merchandise store on commercial wangfujing street in downtown beijing. some shops have set a limit of one mascot souvenir per customer.
according to a report by the e-commerce giant alibaba, as the games kicked off on friday, over one million people flooded the official olympics online-store on tmall to buy bing dwen dwen mascots and other merchandise.
bing dwen dwen was created by a 14-person design team led by cao xue from the guangzhou academy of fine arts. the bear's name connotes purity, strength and liveliness.
according to cao, the initial version of the design was inspired by sugar-coated haws, a traditional chinese snack that is popular in northern china. the sugar coating looks like a layer of ice, suggesting the world of ice-and-snow sports.
the design team tried various images including deer, tigers and rabbits in an ice shell, before finally settling on the giant panda, china's national treasure, which enjoys widespread popularity around the globe.
