From Panpan, Fuwa, to Bing Dundun, “Talk about a day” to talk about a brief history of mascots – why human beings love “Dundun”
Shanghai Disney’s Lina Belle never imagined that her status as a “top female star” would be replaced by a “panda in a plastic shell”.
Everyone used to envy the medals in the hands of the Olympic champions, but now, looking at the athletes receiving the medals at the Winter Olympics, many people will sigh with envy – wow, the “Golden Legend” version of Bing Dun Dun!
During the Lantern Festival that just passed, there was much less historic debate about salty dumplings and sweet dumplings. The North and South reached a rare agreement: no matter sweet or salty, whoever can make Bingdundun dumplings is the best.
This scene with millions of fans can’t help but remind netizens of the Fuwa of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So, someone pulled out Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini from the bottom of the box, and was surprised to find that they could still make sounds.
From “Panda Panpan” to “Fuwa” to “Bingdundun”, our “Panda” food is getting better and better, it is “round” visibly to the naked eye, and it is becoming more and more cute.
The Birth of “Top Stream”
When Bing Dundun first appeared, he didn’t receive so much praise: “Besides pandas, isn’t there anything else that can be used as a mascot?” “How can this thing look ugly?”
Yishui’er’s bad reviews made people who started collecting ice dimples before the Beijing Winter Olympics silently hide their dimples in the bottom of the box.
From ugly to cute, of course, not only because of the Winter Olympics.
Just like Ugly Nezha in the first new version of the movie, before watching the movie, people couldn’t accept the image of an urchin with a grin and two big dark circles under his eyes.
Of course, the essence of human beings is the law of true fragrance. As soon as the Beijing Winter Olympics kicked off, Bingdundun began to turn around, and the official Bingdundun was sold out within 15 minutes.
Good content will give a halo blessing to the image. Just as the movie “The Devil Child of Nezha Comes into the World” tells a good enough story, Nezha’s image begins to be accepted and loved by everyone.
The same goes for Bingdundun. The world-shaking performance of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics made the world see China’s creativity and romance once again. At this time, when everyone looks at Bing Dun Dun, it is naturally attached with a layer of national pride.
However, one of the biggest contributors to Bing Dun Dun’s popularity has to be “Tap Water” Japanese reporter Tsujigang Yoshido.
“I don’t like interviews, I only love Bingdundun”, “I bought more than a dozen Bingdundun badges at my own expense in China”… As soon as these popular search terms are arranged, Bingdundun will naturally have a row. A reporter from a country rich in animation images is convinced by the Winter Olympics mascot designed by China. What reason can we have not to love it? What’s more, when I look at Bing Dundun again at this time, it seems to be a lot more pleasing to the eye: in the animation, it’s shaking buttocks, and the snow on his body is shaking, how cute it is. After I checked it out, I wanted to buy a Bingdundun collection again, and found that the official website had long been sold out.
At this time, the person who started hoarding Bingdundun can finally lift his eyebrows. They took out the ashes at the bottom of the press box again, realizing the superiority of “if others don’t have it, I have it”, and then sighed a wave of their own foresight.
“Blessed” panda
At the same time that Bingdundun became popular, many netizens also came to a wave of “nostalgia killing”: Do you still remember the mascot “Panpan” of the Beijing Asian Winter Games 32 years ago?
The giant panda with a gold medal in his hand, with a red belt around his waist, shows a somewhat toned figure. The 3D Panpan stands on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and there is always a temperament that a picture does not match the real thing.
Folk Panpan is even more outrageous, with various designs. Panpan, who loves sports, is obviously more slender and powerful than the pandas in life, and can do all kinds of sports, so its surroundings were also very popular at that time. At that time, Coca-Cola and Panpan also launched a joint cans, which was the most sought-after IP of the year.
Panpan was so popular back then, not only because of its mascot, but also because of its prototype, Bass, which was originally a rare and athletic panda. This is a giant panda rescued by humans. It has learned to hold a baby, walk upright, lift weights, and even shoot a basketball. In the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Bass will also put his arms around Guangzhou’s Asian Games mascot.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, five Fuwas made a heavy appearance. Although the five dolls were all drawn from the traditional Chinese New Year picture tiger-headed dolls, they still lost weight. At that time, we urgently needed to use a grand Olympic Games to prove ourselves to the world and let the world know about Chinese culture and history, so each Fuwa had a complex pattern on its head, which was taken from China’s Neolithic and Song Dynasty porcelain. , Dunhuang murals, Tibetan ethnic decoration and traditional kite patterns.
Now, more than ten years later, we have not only let the world see China’s tremendous development, but also established our own cultural and national self-confidence. At this time, the mascot has also become self-confident and has become a person who dares to laugh at himself. , A chubby panda without a waistline.
The times have created the shape of the mascot, but we love Bingdundun, it seems that it is not only because of that.
The “cute” gene
If you compare the mascots of the Winter Olympics over the years vertically, you will know why netizens love Bingdundun so much.
The 100-year-old Winter Olympics actually didn’t have its first mascot until 1968—a skier.
It is really difficult to associate such an image with good looks. In fact, for a long time, the mascots of the Winter Olympics have looked a bit “scrawled”, such as the mascot of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan. If you don’t tell you, you may think that this is a sketch of a primary school student.
If the Nagano Winter Olympics still have animal prototypes, then at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in Canada, a new image was directly designed that nature does not know – the mascot Kui Teqi, which is said to be inspired by the spread in Canada The legend of Sasquatch among the native peoples of the West.
But in fact, if you let the people choose for themselves, no matter which country they are in, the aesthetics of the mascots are generally the same – they should be cute, non-aggressive, and preferably represent their own culture to a certain extent.
At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the three auspicious treasures voted by 1 million Russians were snow leopards, polar bears and rabbits.
Compared with the early days, the mascots have become more and more “round”, including the white tiger of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which retains the simplest tiger pattern and turns the tiger into a fat figure, which makes many netizens like it.
It is not difficult to find that large eyes, short hands and short legs, and a completely disproportionately large head, are particularly suitable for infants. It is these non-aggressive features that make the mascot look innocent and cute.
Konrad Lorenz and Nico Timbergen, winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, once described characteristics that people find cute or endearing, summarizing them as “baby schemas” – round eyes, Fat cheeks, high brow bone and small chin, the proportion of the body is biased towards a large head and a small body. These characteristics in the evolutionary history of human beings will automatically identify them as weak babies, and give them attention and care.
The love for cuteness engraved in human genes constitutes everyone’s most basic goodwill towards Bing Dun Dun. Compared with the previous Panpan and Fuwa, the image of Bing Dundun is simpler and can be outlined with a few simple strokes.
We can’t predict how long Bing Dun Dun will be popular, or know who the next “top trend” will be, but we will always need such cute things to add a touch of embellishment to ordinary life.