Beijing Winter Olympics mascot in the motif of a panda, "Bing Dwen Dwen," is booming in popularity in China, raising expectations that the total sales of the official goods will top 2.5 billion yuan ($392.90 million) during the period of the games.

China, which has been criticized by some democratic nations for using the Olympics for political gain, may be hoping the mascot will help dispel the negative of the games that kicked off last week amid a "diplomatic boycott" initiated by the United States, observers say.

On Sunday afternoon, a 300-meter line was moving slowly in front of a licensed flagship merchandise store on Wangfujing, one of the most famous shopping streets in the Chinese capital, to buy Olympic souvenirs including the mascot, the Global Times reported.

People form a long line to enter a Beijing Olympic official merchandise store inside the Winter Games' media center in Beijing on Feb. 6, 2022. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The flagship store was quoted by the tabloid of the ruling Communist Party as saying that its daily sales hit a record high of nearly 3 million yuan on Friday, when the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was held.

The mascot has drawn attention not only in Beijing but in Japan, after an announcer from the country's commercial network NTV boasted about his collection of goods of Bing Dwen Dwen to the Japanese audience, according to the newspaper.

Gido Tsujioka, who calls himself "Gido Dwen Dwen," has received a special gift -- a cartoon of himself and Bing Dwen Dwen -- from Cao Xue, head of the Beijing 2022 mascot design team.

In an attempt to resolve supply shortage of goods featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing Olympic organizing committee has pledged to boost production of them in the wake of Sunday's end of the weeklong Lunar New Year holidays.

During the holidays, factory operations to produce the mascot goods were suspended, as many Chinese people took off from work and returned home to celebrate the Spring Festival with their families.

One of the certified manufacturers of the official Olympic souvenirs in China's southeastern Fujian Province has received an additional 500,000 orders while offering airplane tickets for some employees to return to work early, Chinese media reported.

Bing Dwen Dwen wears "a suit of ice, has a heart of gold and a love of all things winter sports."

Dancers perform in the pre-show for the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony at the National Stadium on Feb. 4, 2022, with the games' official mascot Bing Dwen Dwen. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

In 2018, a competition was launched to design the mascot for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Around 5,000 works were submitted and those designed by elementary and junior high school students were included on the shortlist.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, is believed to be keen to successfully complete the Beijing Olympics to increase his status at home ahead of the ruling party's twice-a-decade congress in fall, at which he is set to secure a controversial third term as leader.

The United States and a number of its close allies, however, have staged a diplomatic boycott of the games in response to human rights abuses in China's far-western Xinjiang region, withholding attendance by their government officials but not their athletes.

The Communist-led government has also been lambasted by some Western media for politically using the Olympics, as it tapped a Uyghur cross-country skier from Xinjiang as one of the final torchbearers at Friday's opening ceremony.

Xi's leadership may be expecting that the growing popularity of Bing Dwen Dwen will contribute to providing a positive image of the Beijing Olympics across the globe, a diplomatic source said.


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