Hangzhou-made Winter Olympics animation impresses world

The animated video of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. [Video/China Media Group]

A 90-second animated video of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games that features characters from traditional Chinese New Year paintings recently went viral on the internet, local media outlets reported.

Netizens were enchanted by the video's ingenious combination of winter sports and traditional Chinese characters, emphasizing their own unique characteristics and placing them alongside a wide range of sporting venues and cultural elements, including Chinese zodiac, New Year paintings, Peking Opera, ink-and-wash paintings, and calligraphy.

The video starts with a girl and a panda going to Beijing to watch the Winter Olympic Games together. All of a sudden, the bamboo in the panda's hands is turned into a bobsleigh that carries the girl while the panda speeds ahead. Snowflakes are created like magic, awakening characters often seen in Chinese New Year paintings, such as Guan Yu, a general during China's late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), waving his Green Dragon Crescent Blade to play ice hockey; Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong, two gods of the door, competing in alpine skiing, and Mu Guiying and Yang Zongbao, a couple as well as generals of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), engaging in pair skating.

Hangzhou AU Culture and Technology Co, an animation company that won the National Award for Scientific and Technological Progress in 2017, created the work.

"We hope that our animation can add some festive joy to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games so that viewers can learn about traditional Chinese culture," said Zheng Feihu, director of the video.