"I nearly sang 'Let It Go'!" The New York Times quoted YouTube user Zeta Fera, who just listened to "The Snow and Ice Dance" on the video-sharing site. With more than 100,000 views as of writing time, the post is gaining a growing number of comments (mostly in Chinese) that point to one thing -- China "plagiarized" the popular Disney song "Let It Go" for its 2022 Winter Olympics bid.

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The Snow and Ice Dance or "Bing Xue Wu Dong" is one of the 10 official songs used in Beijing's campaign to become the host country of the Winter Games in 2022. According to reports, it was when the city coveted the privilege against the Kazakhstan city of Almaty on Friday that the onslaught of criticisms surfaced. Chinese business magazine Caijing Online was the first to run the story of netizens comparing many aspects of the promotional anthem with the theme song of the 2013 blockbuster movie "Frozen." However, the said report has already been taken down, CNN cited.

The song in question was performed by male-female duet Sun Nan and Tan Jing who, according to CNN's report on the mash-up videos, "sounded remarkably harmonious together" with Idina Menzel's singing of Queen Elsa's song. Some of the similarities noted by The New York Times from Caijing's comparison charts include the use of "piano as the major instrument, same prelude chords and eight-beat introduction, and almost exact tempo."

However, there were listeners who denied being reminded of "Let It" Go when they heard Beijing's Olympic theme. A netizen who goes by the name "Shouguobuluo" defended the Chinese song by saying, "Don't toss around accusations of plagiarism so casually. If you listen to Western pop music, there are plenty of Chinese elements in it as well." Another expressed sadness over the alleged copying when China does not lack creative people.

The New York Times tried corresponding with the Beijing Games committee through fax but its spokesperson Xiao Junfeng refused to give a statement unless authorized. Disney's vice president for corporate communications David Jefferson also declined to make a comment.

Beijing's win in the Winter Olympic bid sparked negative reactions from the public, mainly due to the city's natural lack of snow. In an article by The Economist, China will reportedly shell out US $90 million just to import water for the production of artificial snow.

TagsThe Snow and Ice Dance, Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing 2022, Winter Olympics 2022, Let It Go, Beijing Let It Go, Let It Go copycat, Sun Nan, Tan Jing, Bing Xue Wu Dong