Bing Dwen Dwen: a candied-hawthorn shell turns a panda into China's sellout mascot

Beijing 2022 needed a mascot that said 'winter sport' for a host with little snow culture. A global design call drew roughly 6,000 entries; a Guangzhou team that admitted it had 'no concept of winter' entered anyway.

Put the panda inside the sugar shell of a tanghulu — the candied-hawthorn snack — so 'ice' reads as sweet, with a colored halo borrowed from the Ice Ribbon oval.

Cao Xue's 14-member Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts team spent about ten months and 21 rounds of major revisions: they kept the snack's glossy sugar shell, swapped the fruit for a baby panda, wrapped it in translucent 3D-modeled ice, and added a five-color halo from the National Speed Skating Oval's ribbons plus a heart on the left palm.

The breakout star of the Games: store restocks sold out in 30 minutes, blind-box sets listed near ¥700 were resold above ¥2,000, more than 280 people queued before the Beijing flagship store opened, and the Weibo topic passed 2.5 billion views. Prince Albert II of Monaco asked for a second doll — for his twins.

When Beijing won the 2022 Winter Games it needed a mascot that said 'winter' — yet the winning design team, in Guangzhou, admitted it had 'no concept of winter.' The answer was a childhood memory: team lead Liu Pingyun grew up in Jiangxi imagining the north as bingtanghulu, candied hawthorn on a stick. The team kept the snack's glossy sugar shell, swapped the fruit for a panda, recognizable everywhere, and named it Bing Dwen Dwen — 'ice' plus 'chunky child.' Unveiled on 17 September 2019 after ten months and 21 rounds of major revisions, it beat some 6,000 other entries.

Three years later the shell paid off in a way nobody stocked for. As the Games opened on 4 February 2022, mascot merchandise sold out 'overnight' in licensed shops and online — the design team could not buy one either. In Zhangjiakou, restocks vanished within half an hour; a blind-box set priced near ¥700 was resold above ¥2,000 ($315); more than 280 customers lined up outside the Beijing flagship store before it opened. The Weibo topic passed 2.5 billion views. Athletes posted good-night photos with the plush, and Prince Albert II of Monaco asked for a second doll — he has twins.

The design is a study in reusing recognition. A panda had already carried the 1990 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympics, so the shell made the third panda feel new: translucent 3D ice rather than ink, a five-color halo drawn from the 'Ice Ribbon' speed-skating oval, a heart in the left palm, a bulk many read as an astronaut suit. The committee blamed the shortage on the Chinese New Year factory lull meeting demand it had not forecast — and the scramble became part of the Games' story, not a footnote.

The sugar shell makes an abstract brief — 'winter sport' — tangible, sweet and universally legible, even in a city that rarely sees snow.

The panda carries instant global recognition; the shell keeps it from feeling like a rerun of 1990's Panpan or 2008's Beibei.

The face halo is lifted from the Games' own Ice Ribbon oval, tying the character to real new architecture.

Soft 3D rendering made the character plush-ready before it was famous — the mania happened in merchandise, not just media.

Ten months and 21 major revisions; the team says the moment they nearly gave up was the moment closest to success.

A blind spot can be the concept: designers with 'no concept of winter' took a street snack's sugar shell and made ice feel sweet. Borrowed recognition — a panda, a candy — beats invented iconography.

During the Games the committee said it was coordinating with licensed factories to raise supply after the Chinese New Year slowdown collided with demand. Bing Dwen Dwen ended Beijing 2022 as its defining image: a Japanese reporter wearing six mascot pins earned the nickname 'Gido Dwen Dwen,' IOC games executive director Christophe Dubi declared it part of his collection, and medalists received dolls crowned with pine-bamboo-plum wreaths — the 'Three Friends of the Cold.' IOC president Thomas Bach praised how the design pairs Chinese tradition with an international style.