Originally conceived as a Canadian bounty hunter named "Frostbite" who encased her targets in ice, she was changed due to the developers feeling a light tone was necessary for the character, and redesigned her as a cute, Chinese scientist.

Voiced by Yu "Elise" Zhang, Mei is stationed in Antarctica as part of the efforts of "Overwatch", a global peace-keeping force, to monitor climate change.

In 2019, due to the Blitzchung controversy involving Blizzard, Mei's image was used to express support for Hong Kong during protests occurring within the country, pushed as a "pro-democracy" symbol on social media platforms and displayed by protestors outside the BlizzCon 2019 event.

Game director Jeff Kaplan suggested making the character possibly Chinese, wanting to avoid nationalities stereotypically associated with chilly environments such as Canada or Norway, and Tsang took inspiration from China's Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival to flesh out this aspect.

[8] Lead writer Michael Chu after considering her intended abilities suggested making her a "plucky, nerdy scientist kind of character" that manipulated ice to get to hard to reach locations in the field,[9] much to the development team's delight.

A sentient drone, Snowball, was added to give her a fun "sidekick" to interact with, with Zhang creating several designs, including one resembling a rabbit, in an attempt to find something "endearing but not overly expressive" that wouldn't be distracting during gameplay.

Additional influence came from Yomiko Readman of the anime Read or Die at Tsang's suggestion, with Gibson adding an aversion to fighting but being forced to do so to Mei's character.

[15] Prior to the launch of the 2021 Overwatch League season, a new skin for Mei was released based on a mixed martial arts (MMA) outfit, named "MM-Mei".

Mei is the only survivor among them after help arrives a decade later, and with Overwatch having disbanded during her absence, she elects to carry on their work on her while accompanied by her sentient drone, Snowball.

[21] In related media to the franchise, Mei appears in the Overwatch animated shorts Rise and Shine in 2017, an expanded retelling of her origin story,[22] and Zero Hour in 2019, which shows her helping to fight against "Null Sector" and bringing down their massive 'Titan' robot.

[34][35] A toy of Snowball was released in 2018, utilizing a magnetic field to make it levitate a short distance while its eyes would change expression based on interaction.

He further added that through gameplay, these stereotypes instead became camp due to her "bubbly voice and cheery lines" acting as a form of psychological warfare in the eyes of players who saw her instead as "a psychopath who takes pleasure in binding and slowly torturing her victims."

[38] On the other hand, some such as Matthew Rodriguez of Kotaku criticized the handling of this aspect as the games have progressed, through some of Mei's in-game dialogue but also particularly in regards Overwatch 2 where she seems to have been made visibly slimmer.

[42] TheGamer's editor-in-chief Stacey Henley elaborated further on the latter complaint, noting that while this was also a factor of several alternate skins in the original Overwatch, "in a game full of slim and slender feminine ideals, Mei was doing it for the big girls."

However, with the sequel, her coat and body had been made visibly slimmer while her face had become more defined with sharper features in Henley's eyes, who further stated it ruined her aesthetic appeal.

[43] A hashtag "#Meisupportshongkong" trended on social media websites such as Reddit and Twitter, while protesters appeared outside of BlizzCon in 2019, giving out shirts showcasing Mei holding the Hong Kong flag.