BEIJING: The Organizing Committee for the 9th Asian Winter Games unveiled the official emblem, mascots and slogan on Thursday for the regional games scheduled for February 2025 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.
The mascots of the 9th Asian Winter Games — Siberian tigers “Binbin” and “Nini” — made their public debut amid cheers at an unveiling ceremony in Harbin.
They were created by a team from the Academy of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University, and symbolize the in-depth exploration and shaping of the unique natural and cultural heritage of the Northeast — the Siberian tiger culture.
“The archetypes of Binbin and Nini are two cute little Siberian tigers born in September 2023 at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin,” Zhang Qixiang, mayor of Harbin and vice-chairman and secretary-general of the Organizing Committee for the 9th Asian Winter Games, said at the ceremony. “Their names mean ‘Welcome to Harbin’, and show Harbin’s eager anticipation and sincere welcome to friends from Asian countries.”
Binbin represents the ice events as he shows off his winter sportswear and shares his joy of ice dancing, while Nini represents the snow events, wearing traditional Chinese clothes. In traditional Chinese culture, the tiger is a symbol of good luck and is endowed with many positive characteristics, among which integrity, strength and courage are highly consistent with the Olympic spirit.
Binbin and Nini integrate the cute image of the tiger with the unique characteristics of Harbin’s winter ice and snow and folk cultures.
The emblem of the 9th Asian Winter Games in 2025 — “Breakthrough” — was also created by the team from the Academy of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University, and expresses the beautiful pursuit of accelerating the construction of China’s sports power in the new era, making unremitting efforts to challenge the goal of higher, faster and stronger, and making new contributions to Asian ice and snow sports. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
