An unexpected breakthrough star at the Beijing Winter Olympics...

Gordon Dumoulin
Feb 8, 2022
1 min read

𝘈𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘫𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘖𝘭𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴

𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 😊

The Beijing Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen ((冰墩墩), the dewy-eyed panda in an icy body shell, has become so popular in China since the opening ceremony of the games that many Bing Dwen Dwen souvenirs were sold out within hours. Daily sales of Bing Dwen Dwen, including miniature figurines and lapel pins — reached 3 million yuan ($470,000) within hours on authorized sales platforms as the Winter Games kicked off.

“As factories are closed for the Spring Festival holiday, there is currently a shortage of supply to handle the mascot souvenir demands,” Zhao Weidong, a spokesperson for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, said during a press conference Sunday.

Apart from a few media such as Eurosport and Sportnieuws (the Netherlands) generalizing on the few negative twitter remarks with Bing Dwen Dwen being an exceptional ugly panda, the disappointments of athletes getting first the panda and then the medal at ceremonies or panda diplomacy, the panda mascot has also won over many attending athletes and foreign journalists reporting on the Winter Olympics. Videos of Japanese journalist Gido Tsujioka showing off his collection of Bing Dwen Dwen items during a live broadcast have gone viral on Chinese social media sites these days.