Panda 'phenomenon' surprises Beijing Olympics mascot designer

BEIJING: The man behind the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot jokes that he wished he had kept a few more of his cuddly panda creations after they became highly sought after in China.

Bing Dwen Dwen, the official mascot of the Games, has become the latest must-have item for keen fans with long queues at Olympic souvenir shops, and many willing to pay well over the official price to get their hands on one.

Cao Xue, who led the design team, said he was surprised by the craze.

"I thought ... that some people might begin to purchase some after the opening of Olympics, but I didn't expect it to be so hot overnight," he told AFP. "Bing Dwen Dwen has become a phenomenon."

"Each of us kept only one Bing Dwen Dwen as a souvenir, which we deeply regret now," he added.

While the name officially means "ice child" in Mandarin, the popular rotund mascot is more colloquially translated as "ice chubster".

However a supply shortage - attributed to production issues around Chinese New Year, which coincided with the start of the Olympics - has seen scalpers selling the toy for ten times its original price of 200 yuan (US$30), according to reports.

Police have also warned of scams surrounding Bing Dwen Dwen with online fraudsters pocketing the money and disappearing.

But with spectators largely banned due to COVID-19 restrictions, owning an "ice chubster" may be the closest most people get to the Beijing Games.

In the months designing the Games mascot, there were at least 16 versions and floor-to-ceiling drawings pasted around his office, said Cao, a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

"We drew tens of thousands of sketches, spent seven months in the process of designing and modification, and once gave up the idea of panda as there had been