A Mascot Star Is Born: Bing Dwen Dwen’s Rise from Obscurity

A person poses for pictures in front of an installation featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot amidst a snowfall on a street in Beijing, China February 13, 2022. (Reuters)
A person poses for pictures in front of an installation featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot amidst a snowfall on a street in Beijing, China February 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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A Mascot Star Is Born: Bing Dwen Dwen’s Rise from Obscurity

A person poses for pictures in front of an installation featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot amidst a snowfall on a street in Beijing, China February 13, 2022. (Reuters)
A person poses for pictures in front of an installation featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot amidst a snowfall on a street in Beijing, China February 13, 2022. (Reuters)

The mascot Bing Dwen Dwen has been an unexpected star of the Beijing Olympics but the roly-poly panda's fame may prove fleeting after the Feb. 20 closing ceremony.

Bing Dwen Dwen, which translates to "Ice Panda", made little splash when introduced about two-and-a-half years ago, eliciting a collective yawn from social media over yet another panda character for a big Chinese event.

It was propelled to stardom on Feb. 2, when Japanese television journalist Gido Tsujioka showed Bing Dwen Dwen-themed items during a broadcast, a clip of which went viral.

Related topic views that day reached 300 million on China's Weibo social media platform, from 760,164 a day earlier. They doubled again on Feb. 4, the day of the Olympics opening ceremony, and have averaged 400 million since.

Games organizers were caught unprepared, with thousands of fans lining up in sub-freezing temperatures to buy merchandise - from magnets and key chains to bags and stuffed toys - and factories scrambling to make more.

Chinese media fueled the frenzy, showing footage of soldiers marching in front of a Bing Dwen Dwen figure at the base of Mount Everest, while an officially licensed store was selling a limited edition version encrusted in fake diamonds for 2,022 yuan ($315).

Many people wrote online that queuing up for and buying the merchandise is their way of engaging with the Games. Because of COVID-19, no ordinary spectators have been allowed to watch the sports and the torch relay was shortened to three days and off-limits to spectators.

Organizers have not disclosed sales figures but some analysts estimate revenue from Beijing Olympic licensed products could reach 2.5 billion yuan ($395 million).

Bing Dwen Dwen's turn in the spotlight has not been without incident.

State broadcaster CCTV was criticized on social media after a male reporter conducted an interview in a Bing Dwen Dwen suit. Weibo users complained that it ruined the mascot's cuteness by speaking and violated the International Olympic Committee's guideline that mascots are gender neutral. The segment was later removed from the broadcaster's website.

Scalpers were punished for selling merchandise at inflated prices and on Monday, the China Youth Daily reported that a woman selling pirated Bing Dwen Dwen merchandise was jailed for a year and fined 40,000 yuan.

While scarcity has contributed to Bing Dwen Dwen's appeal, organizers have promised to boost supplies. Reports on Sunday of new merchandise arriving in Beijing led to speculation the frenzy would soon cool.

One Weibo user said Bing Dwen Dwen gear would become like masks - in hot demand when COVID started, cheap and plentiful now. Others posted photos of their neglected 2008 Beijing Games memorabilia.

"I don't know how long Bing Dwen Dwen can maintain its fame. I cannot get one now, but I guess it will soon be two-for-one once it's over the hill," one person wrote.



Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
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Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)

Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.

A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka.

“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press Sunday. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish.

Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door.

Weasels are known to stash items and people who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.

The weasel scattered shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned Nov. 11 to steal one more shoe. The camera footage of that theft was seen the next day.

The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas, likely because they’re light to carry.

“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.

The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.

Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safe at the kindergarten with nets installed over the cubbyholes.

The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.