Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — The mascot of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the playful panda in an icy shell, captured the hearts of the crowd… until she spoke.
Fans of adorable panda Bing Duen Duen expressed their indignation on social media after the Olympic mascot spoke in a deeply masculine voice during a program broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.
And one of the comments posted on the Chinese platform Weibo, similar to Twitter, said: “Bing Duen Duin started talking… and I was very disappointed.” Many agreed, describing the mascot’s voice as “”disgusting”, and saying they were unable to continue watching the interview.
One post complained about Bing Duen Duen’s voice, garnering more than 20,000 retweets on Weibo.
Ping Duen Duin, or rather a reporter in the inflatable Bing Duen Duin suit, was interviewing Chinese skater Yang Shurui. The content of the interview was lost amid the storm of anger that swept the Internet.
The violent and quick reaction surprised CCTV, which had previously promoted the program before its broadcast, but then deleted it from its website on Wednesday.
Censorship has tried to quell the protests, by banning hashtags on Weibo such as #ping_duen_dwin, but not before many have had a chance to share their disappointment.
One social media user wrote: “I was very sad.. When I opened (online shopping platform) Taobao to buy Bing Duen Duen Keychain, I was thinking about the voice of a middle-aged man.”
Another posted: “I don’t want to hear my uncle’s (or uncle’s) voice when Bing Duen Doyin talks. He’s just a cute little panda.”
And the round panda won the hearts of fans during these games, after it was seen dancing in the stands, arousing the enthusiasm and cheers of the Olympic fans. The Bing Duen Duin mini game was presented to the winning athletes, including figure skater Eileen Gu.
State media reported that pandas in the winter tracksuit were “sold like hot cakes”, and the Beijing organizing committee had requested that more be produced to satisfy fans.
But the recent outcry over the mascot’s “voice” may affect its popularity. Some netizens have even gone back to written laws and found that the Olympic mascot is not supposed to speak, according to guidelines from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in order to maintain a gender-neutral status.
The Beijing Olympic Committee, according to the state-run news newspaper Procuratorate Daily, had signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee preventing Ping Duen Duin from speaking.