Thousands of years of shadow dialogue with crystalline ice and snow

A group of shadow puppets originally designed by the people of Wulian, "The Dance of the Ice Shadows and Butterflies”, is a clever fusion of a thousand years of non-traditional heritage and ice and snow sports. Wulian's ice and snow-themed shadow lanterns are now in the Winter Olympic Village!

15 Winter Olympic sports in shadow form

Wulian shadow puppets is a county-level intangible cultural heritage project in Wulian County, under the Wulian Mountains, where the artistic heritage has been largely preserved despite centuries of hardship. The Wulian Long Zai Tian Shadow Players have developed this set of 15 ice and snow themed shadow lights based on the basic movements and character shapes of 15 sports such as ski jumping, bobsledding, figure skating and no alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics.

This set of works was awarded the "Best Winter Olympics Salute Award" by the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation, recognising their skillful integration of the millennium's non-traditional heritage with snow sports, and their use of folk art to express the spirit of the Winter Olympics from a folk perspective.

Wang Xi, born in 1973, is a fifth-generation inheritor of the "Beijing West Shadow", and is known as the "most promising shadow artist" for his comprehensive mastery of the art of shadow carving, performance, singing and percussion techniques. According to Wang Xi, these works are so popular that the Beijing Women's Federation has ordered 200 of them and will place them in the athletes' rooms in the Winter Olympic Village as a gift from Beijing.

The ice and snow themed shadow wall light 'Ice Dress Butterfly Dance' makes each sporting shadow shape into a frame fitted with LED lights, the frame comes with a USB light cable and can be used by plugging it in, the design is innovative and unique, technology and culture are fused together. The shadow wall light is hung on the bedroom or living room wall, which means it is a beautiful artwork and a loving wall light, safe and practical, very unique.