In Chinatown, Batman rises up from the ice

George Li (right) stood with his sculpture of Batman on Beech Street in Chinatown. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

In the wake of the winter storm, a new superhero walks the streets of Boston. That is, until he melts.

For George Li, the man who sculpted Batman in the snow outside of his Beach Street office in Chinatown on Tuesday night, the work was about making his son happy.

“I’ve got a 6-year-old kid and so my life pretty much revolves around him,” Li said Wednesday in a phone interview. “He watched the new Lego movie, and so Batman is his favorite superhero again.”

Li said that once the worst of the storm was over, he went out Tuesday night and worked for about 2½ hours.

“I didn’t have special tools or anything,” he said. “Just a shovel for the heavy lifting, my keys for the eyes, and my son’s sand shovel for the lines and what-not.”

Li, who has done other snow sculptures before, acknowledged that he was looking forward to people’s reaction to the work.

“People were talking about how bad this storm was going to be, so I thought, ‘Why not go and make some light out of it?’” Li said. “It’s great to see the smiles it puts on people’s faces.”

In 2015, Li made headlines by carving “B STRONG” into a snow mound on the Common. He also drew attention in recent years when he sculpted an Easter Bunny in a snowy Public Garden.

Li credits Ted Cutler, the philanthropist who organizes the “Outside the Box” preforming arts festival, as his inspiration.

“I saw what he was doing with his festival and how happy it makes people, totally for free,” Li said. “If he can pour millions of his own dollars into making people happy, I can shovel some snow. My son loves [the sculptures], other people seem to like them. So what’s the harm? I love to watch people’s reaction, to see the smiles on their faces.”