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A frowning horse plush has become a viral bestseller ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the horse in China.<\/p>\n
The sad-looking soft toy was originally made in error after a worker sewed a smile on the horse upside down, the owner of Happy Sister – a shop in the eastern city of Yiwu – told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
Zhang Huoqing had expected to have to issue a refund to the customer who bought the toy, but after an image of it started circulating online the horse began selling out.<\/p>\n
Zhang said the animal’s gloomy expression was resonating with young workers in China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“A lot of customers like it, and they said it makes sense: that it suits the spirit of today’s corporate slaves,” Zhang said.<\/p>\n
“This crying horse really fits the reality of modern working people,” she added.<\/p>\n
“People joked that the crying horse is how you look at work, while the smiling one is how you look after work.”<\/p>\n
Zhang’s factory has surged production to meet demand – including from other countries, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
One buyer, known online as Tuan Tuan Mami, was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying: “This little horse looks so sad and pitiful, just like the way I feel at work.<\/p>\n
“With this crying toy in the Year of the Horse, I hope to leave all my grievances at work behind and keep only happiness.”<\/p>\n
The newspaper says the horse is about 20cm (7.8in) tall and costs 25 yuan (\u00a32.62). It is red for good luck, with a golden collar and bell around its neck, and has the phrase “money comes quickly” embroidered on its body in golden letters.<\/p>\n
Another shop owner in Yiwu, Lou Zhenxian, told Reuters she thought the toy was ugly, but “it’s the kind of emotional value young people look for these days”.<\/p>\n
She described young people going to work in the kind of state like the crying horse, and when you get off work “being immediately happy”.<\/p>\n
“But actually if everyone chases that kind of sentiment, the young people’s way of thinking, it’s not quite right. I believe you should work hard when at work and be happy after work, it shouldn’t be two extreme opposites,” she said.<\/p>\n
Lunar New Year will be celebrated in February to usher in the year of the horse – one of 12 animals repeated in a cycle under the Chinese zodiac calendar. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n