Lyu Bin / Xinhua
A manufacturing error that gave a stuffed horse a sad expression instead of a smile turned a Lunar New Year toy into an unexpected popular symbol of work exhaustion.
On February 17th, China celebrates the beginning of Year of the Horsethe zodiac sign that in the country symbolizes great energy and hard work.
But the recent resounding success of a defective teddy suggests that many Chinese are not feeling that vibe.
The toy, a red horse produced by Happy Sisterfrom Yiwu in western China, should show a wide smile.
However, one factory error made the stuffed horse arrive in stores with a grimace of despair. With the smile turned upside down, the horse’s nostrils can be interpreted as tears.
Despite the manufacturing error, the toy became an unexpected success among consumers, after going viral on Chinese social media and capturing the spirit of a time marked by business fatigue and the exhaustion of workers, says the .
The toy is also part of the recent trend of so-called toys “ugly-cute”popularized in recent years by , doll with evil air but good heart da Pop Mart.
“People joked that the crying horse is what we look like at work, while smiling is how we look after work”, said the owner of Happy Sister, Zhang Huoqing.
By mid-January, Happy Sister was receiving daily orders of more than 15,000 units of the sad little horse, says Zhang, which led the factory to open 10 additional production lines.
Many Chinese office workers support the famous 996 systemwhich requires employees to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
The practice is praised by technology entrepreneursincluding Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, but has been increasingly criticized since, in 2021, an employee at an e-commerce company died suddenly after finishing a night shift. Practice 996 was banned that yearbut long overtime continues to be common.
“The little horse looks so sad and poor, just like I feel at work“, says Tuan Mami, who bought the toy online, at . “With this toy that cries, in the Year of the Horse, I hope to leave all my sorrows behind at work and only keep happiness.”
As I said Jacob CookeCEO of an e-commerce consulting firm, consumer products and internet memes can function as exhaust valves to discuss work pressure, especially on platforms like Xiaohongshu, where consumer culture and emotional expression are closely intertwined.
Meanwhile, orders for the “crying horse” are already coming from retailers in South Africa, East Asia and the Middle East, and its image is expected to appear on a new range of items next year.
Zhang Huoqing I would like to know who sewed it the horse’s nose backwards, but he never discovered it. You don’t exactly intend to punish your employee — on the contrary. “Since we can’t figure out exactly whose mistake it was, let’s just give everyone a bonus“, he stated.
