Big Air Shougang

About

Big Air Shougang is a big air venue constructed at the disused Shougang Steel Mill in China for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The contrast between the ski slope and the cooling towers and other industrial buildings in the background resulted in the photographs being widely circulated online in February 2022, being compared to iconic photographs depicting results of industrialization and commercialism such as Breezewood, Pennsylvania. Many also mistook the towers for a nuclear power plant on social media during the Olympic games.

Origin

On February 2nd, 2022, the Winter Olympics began in Beijing, China. The big air events of the Olympics have been hosted at the Big Air Shougang,^[1] a slope constructed on top of a former steel mill of the Shougang Group that had been out of operation since 2008. On Monday, February 7th, 2022, the first Olympic competitions took place at the venue.^[2]

On that day, Twitter^[3] user @LeaMaric tweeted two still images from the Olympic broadcast showing a close-up and a bird's-eye view of the venue, captioning their post, "Hellscape." The post gained over 3,700 retweets and 31,800 likes on Twitter in one day (image and tweet shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the image received viral spread online, with more images of the slope also being posted around social media. For example, Twitter^[4] user @BullandBaird reposted the image, writing, "Honestly, what are we even doing here." The post gained over 10,100 retweets and 88,500 likes in one day.

Starting on February 7th, 2022, users made humorous comments about the venue, with some editing the image to include various pop culture references (example shown below, left). Additionally, the image has been compared against the viral photograph of Breezewood, Pennsylvania that depicts an abundance of shop signs and outdoor advertising. For example, on February 7th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @FuknSlammer posted an image combining the two photographs, with the post gaining over 270 retweets and 6,500 likes in roughly 24 hours (shown below, right).

Additionally, several news outlets published articles about the venue and the public's reaction to it.^[6][7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References