(Photo/Hangzhou 2022)

The mascot is the symbol image of the international large-scale event, carrying the historical heritage, spirituality and cultural charm of the host country and the host city. It has been more than two years since the birth of the mascots of the Hangzhou Asian Games, namely Chen Chen, Cong Cong and Lian Lian. Today, their images can be seen everywhere and are known to millions of people.

As the Hangzhou Asian Games is approaching its first anniversary of the countdown, we visited the studio of Zhang Wen and Yang Yihong, the designers of the Hangzhou Asian Games mascot and also young teachers from the China Academy of Art, where there are dotted with all kinds of Asian Games mascot derivatives. "After the postponement of the Asian Games, we did not stop our work, but spent more time on excellence." Zhang Wen said while pointing to several thick manuals around him: "The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Organizing Committee Mascot Project Sport Styling Design Specification Manual" "The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Organizing Committee Mascot - Specification Management Manual" "The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Organizing Committee Mascot - Application Design Guidelines"... ...In order to ensure that the mascot can appear in front of the public with high quality, these manuals are their important guidelines during this period.

At present, the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games mascot has hundreds of derivative products, including Muppets and badges, which are important carriers to show the image of Zhejiang and require high standards of quality control. Zhang Wen said: "In addition to design, I and my team members often go to the factory workshop to communicate and grind. Take plush toys or doll clothes as examples, they have to achieve satisfactory results and form production specifications from the choice of fabrics to the fine-tuning of expressions.

In Zhang Wen's view, the Asian Games postponement gave them one more year of preparation time, and also gave the mascots one more year of "growth" experience. He has always regarded the three mascots as his own "children", each with a unique character and "persona" - Cong Cong represents the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, favouring strength and Lianyin represents West Lake, which is more artistic; Chen Chen represents the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, which is more pioneering in spirit. He said, "In this next year, we are going to think about how to make the images of the mascots more deeply rooted and deepen the public's awareness of them."

Zhang Wen elaborated their series of ideas to reporters, such as creating more animations related to the mascots to give them a sense of spiritual and lifelike growth; linking technologies such as metaverse to bring into play the concept of running the smart  Asian Games and giving the mascots interactive features to make them a special cultural memory of the Asian Games.

Since the new date of the Hangzhou Asian Games was set, Zhang Wen has been going to the Asian Games Organizing Committee almost every week for communication and docking of related preparatory work. "Designing souvenirs for award-winning athletes, refining the mascot application specifications, creating the mascot atmosphere in different Asian Games competition venues, and designing and quality controlling mascot derivatives are all things we are doing and will continue to do." Zhang Wen said.

In preparation for the Asian Games, he and his team have been working hard on the road. To meet the upcoming countdown to the first anniversary, Zhang Wen hopes that the "Jiangnan Yi" combination can continue to shine in the following "Asian Games time" so that the three mascots can enthusiastically take friends from all over the world to appreciate the beauty of the Asian Games and the beauty of Zhejiang.

Translator: Qian Yingchao

Editor: Qian Yingchao