This year's Spring Festival Gala mascot "Si Sheng Sheng" won the love of many audiences as soon as it debuted. Its naive appearance is full of beautiful Chinese meanings and hides many innovative ideas.
CCTV reporter exclusively interviewed the design team of the Spring Festival Gala mascot "Si Sheng Sheng", teachers and students from the School of Future Design of Beijing Normal University in Zhuhai. Let us learn about the story behind the design.
This year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Snake has the theme of "Si Si Ru Yi, Endless Life". The word "Si" also means the continuation of offspring and inheritance. The mascot design team referred to the shape of the whole little snake as the word "Si" in oracle bone script. Gao Peng, the team leader, recalled that when he first received the design task, he and the team felt that how to design a mascot with the element of "snake" was a big challenge.
Gao Peng, Dean of the School of Future Design at Beijing Normal University: Our first idea was to make the shedding of the snake look like the blooming of spring flowers, bringing with it infinite vitality; the second image was the snake's winding form, which looks particularly like a Ruyi. In fact, both of these are intended to simplify people's inherent fear of snakes.
After submitting the first draft design, the Spring Festival Gala director team affirmed the "Ruyi" shape and "Spring Flower" design, but what meaning should be conveyed through the mascot? The design team decided to look for inspiration from traditional Chinese culture.
The head outline and the spiral blush on the face of "Si Sheng Sheng" are based on the gilded silver ruyi with cloud-shaped Buddha pattern unearthed from the underground palace of the Tang Dynasty in Famen Temple, Fufeng, Shaanxi, which has a history of more than 1,000 years. The "bat" on the head is homophonic with the "happiness" in "Fu", which can be said to be a blessing on top of a blessing. The tail of "Si Sheng Sheng" also has a blessing bonus. The shape of a ruyi plus a long knot with the word "shou" means "blessings start from the head and follow the ruyi". Begonia, magnolia, peach blossom, peony, the winding branch pattern carved by cloisonné craftsmanship on the body of "Si Sheng Sheng" is just like a spring garden, implying "spring is back to the earth".
Gao Peng, Dean of the School of Future Design at Beijing Normal University: Because 2025 is actually the Year of the Wood Snake, also known as the Year of the Green Snake, we actually want to take the image of spring green and present it with green, a classical Chinese color.
The mascot's head and body are rounded, with lively expressions and a smiling mouth that conveys happiness and friendliness. The feather pattern and the eyes of the character "臣" (minister) are taken from the bronze snake-shaped vessels unearthed from the Sanxingdui ruins in Guanghan, Sichuan. These are the eyes that have been modified the most in the design. The size of the eyes and the position of the highlights will affect the whole mascot's demeanor.
Gao Peng, Dean of the School of Future Design at Beijing Normal University: It took us a long time to polish the eyes. Every time we finished drawing, we would zoom in and out to see the relationship between the eyes and the entire face.
After several discussions and revisions with the Spring Festival Gala director team, the 2025 Spring Festival Gala mascot "Si Sheng Sheng" was finally released. Gao Peng and his team members were very happy.
Students from the School of Future Design, Beijing Normal University: When I see my own children coming out, I feel a little touched but also a little worried. Will they really like it? We will check some social media, analyze and review it, and hope to do better next time.