"On 17 February China will celebrate the start of the year of the horse, the zodiac sign symbolising high energy and hard work. But the runaway success of a defective stuffed toy suggests that many Chinese are not feeling the vibe. A red horse toy produced by Happy Sister in the city of Yiwu in the west of China was meant to wear a broad grin, but a factory error meant it hit the shops sporting a despairing grimace."
"Because the smile was placed upside down, the horse's nostrils could be interpreted as tears. Despite the manufacturing error, the toy has become an unexpected success with shoppers after going viral on Chinese social media and capturing a zeitgeist of corporate fatigue and worker burnout. It also taps into a broader trend for so-called ugly-cute toys, popularised in recent years by characters such as Pop Mart's toothy monster Labubu."
"People joked that the crying horse is how you look at work, while the smiling one is how you look after work, Zhang Huoqing, owner of Happy Sister, told Reuters. By mid-January she said she was receiving daily orders of more than 15,000 units, prompting the factory to open up 10 additional production lines. A crying horse and a cheerful horse Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock"
A red plush horse produced by Happy Sister accidentally received an upside-down smile that makes its nostrils resemble tears. The flawed toy went viral on Chinese social media, resonating as a symbol of corporate fatigue and worker burnout and fitting a trend for 'ugly-cute' characters like Pop Mart's Labubu. Consumers joked it represented being miserable at work versus cheerful after work. By mid-January Happy Sister received daily orders exceeding 15,000 units and opened ten additional production lines. Many Chinese white-collar workers face long overtime under systems like 996 despite criticism and some regulatory changes.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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