When artist Bai Ming visited Guimet Museum in Paris in 2009, he saw a Buddhist sculpture from Cambodia. The sense of quietness and the smooth lines of the work moved him, reminding him of mei ping (a type of vase popular in ancient China), and inspiring him to create a vase later.

In 2020, Bai, who is also a professor at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, was invited to create something to commemorate the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics. He altered the original Wenjun vase and created new types of it for the events. His works were then selected as a licensed product for the Games by the Beijing Organizing Committee.

The series of Wenjun vases was released in Beijing in January.

Each has two patterns for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics respectively. Both are white vases, symbolizing the characteristics of sports related to ice and snow. On the vases there are emblems of the two Games, and lines extending to the bottom of the vases form the shape of a lotus seen from the bottom up.

"I believe nothing can behave better than an artifact to render beauty in an implicit and poetic way," says Bai.

He chose white ceramics made in Dehua county in East China's Fujian province to make the vases. According to him, the white ceramic of Dehua was transported overseas in ancient times, and has long been known as a top-grade Chinese porcelain. It once delighted Western people, and was praised by the French in the 19th century as Blanc de Chine, namely "white of China".

The jade-like appearance is also related to Chinese people's appreciation of jade. An idiom in Chinese says a person of virtue is just like jade. "Chinese people naturally appreciate jade, and connect it with something bigger, like the morality of a person. Jade seems to be pure, but it is believed to contain many things," says Bai.

Speaking about the name of the vases, Bai says Wenjun is a simplified form of wenrenjunzi, which means "literate of virtue" in Chinese.

"I hope the vase looks like a literate standing there, healthy, well-educated and polite."

That seems to have a connection with the image of China that Bai wants to render to the world. "We don't need to use expensive materials, lavish decorations to show how rich we are. Instead, I want to display a more confident China, especially the unique elegance and poetic flavor of us.

"Moreover, I want to reflect a modern aesthetic value that stresses minimalism. With as few languages as possible, we express the most wishes we can."

Bai's idea seems to echo that of Zhang Yimou, head director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, who designed the ceremonies also in a concise way.

"It may be a consensus without discussion. We both try to show the warmth of China and our wishes for the future in a relatively economical, environment-friendly and low-profile way," says Bai.

He refused to add more colors besides white to even emblems on the vase as usual, since he tried to avoid any element becoming the center of attention.

"I didn't want to make any element of the vase too obvious that it would catch too much attention, but hoped to see the vase in its entirety. It is just like the fact that good Games are made through the efforts of the host country, athletes from all over the world, volunteers and many others. All of them form an entirety, and none of a single one should become the center."

Differences of the two patterns mainly lie in the lines on a vase. That of the Olympics has 24 concave lines, symbolizing the 24th Games this year, while the vase for the Paralympics has 13 convex lines, symbolizing the 13th Games.

"In my eyes, athletes of the Paralympics show the Olympic motto "faster, higher, stronger－together" in a spiritual way, and I believe that is a more romantic and powerful display of human power. The convex lines are more powerful visually, so I put them on the vase for the Paralympics," says Bai.

"Moreover, the convex and concave lines form an understanding of the Games from the Chinese perspective. Convex and concave lines are complementary, and can become one when they are put together, symbolizing yin and yang in traditional Chinese culture," he adds.

According to Chen Lihua, former deputy director of the Palace Museum, "Wenjun vase is a perfect combination of traditional Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit. It is about innovation while keeping elements of the past, showing the elegant beauty of the East, and offers us an enjoyment of beauty visually."

Bai made the general design not long after he received the task. Then he spent a long time adjusting details of the work, and communicating with the producing factory to ensure that the final product fully reflects his design. Some parts of it required manual work for perfection. It's not the first time Bai designed for the Games. In 2015, when China bid to host the 2022 Winter Games, Bai designed a porcelain plate that was later used as a gift for the International Olympic Committee.