Chinese designer reveals meaning behind cultural elements featured on clothes worn by children’s choir at Beijing 2022

At the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, clothes featuring Chinese cultural elements wore by the children of a choir have captured the attention of Internet users across China.

Ding Jie, the clothing designer for the choir of 44 children from a mountainous area in Fuping county, north China’s Hebei Province, revealed the story behind her clothing items.

A children's choir sing the Olympic Anthem during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at the National Stadium in Beijing, Feb. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Cao Can)

“For the clothes featuring a pattern of a tiger-head cap on the front that the children wore at the opening ceremony on Feb. 4, I drew inspiration from Yuxian paper cutting, a provincial intangible cultural heritage of Hebei, and applied embroidery on their clothes,” Ding said.

While maintaining the same overall design of the clothes for the choir, which was invited back for an encore at the closing ceremony on Feb. 20, Ding and her team readjusted the main color and patterns used. Ding chose blue as the main color and replaced the pattern of a tiger-head cap with two fish, which means “prosperity in the New Year” in Chinese culture.

Photo shows a pattern of a tiger-head cap on clothes for the children’s choir at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Feb. 4., 2022 (Photo/CCTV News)

Besides, Ding designed clothes featuring the patterns of snowflakes and Chinese knots, with white and cyan as the main colors. She also featured patterns of children enjoying winter sports on the clothes, symbolizing the concepts of cute innocence, vigor, and longing for a bright future.

“I hope that people will find out the ‘secrets’ behind the designs for the clothes and will develop a thing for ice and snow sports. I also want to show Chinese-style romance to the world through my designs,” Ding said.

Children wearing clothes featuring a pattern of two fish sing at the closing ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Feb. 20, 2022. (Photo/CCTV News)

“I will continue to explore the culture behind traditional Chinese costumes in the future and try to make eastern aesthetics and Chinese elements popular across the world,” Ding added.

Combo photo shows a pattern of two fish (R) featured on clothes worn by the children’s choir during the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Feb. 20, 2022, and a Yuxian paper-cutting work. (Photo/CCTV News)

Photo shows patterns of children enjoying winter sports. (Photo/CCTV News)

Photo shows Ding Jie and children wearing clothes featuring a pattern of a tiger-head cap. (Photo/CCTV News)