A defective toy goes viral in China — and sums up a nation’s mood

BEIJING — A sullen red horse has become the surprise toy of the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, capturing the mood here better than any data point.

Embroidered with a Chinese phrase wishing for quick riches, the plush toy was meant to kick off the Year of the Horse with a gallop and a smile. But a worker’s sewing error turned that phrase on its head — and turned the toy into a national emoji for an economy that has recently been more whinnily than yes.

In an era of slowing economic growth and dwindling job prospects for many workers, the toy was adopted as the “crying horse” and became an Internet sensation.

“The economy has not been great and life has been difficult for many people in recent years,” said Zhang Ziqi, a 24-year-old teacher from Hebei province. “That expression of crying is really what most people feel: stressed, anxious, kind of depressed.”

“It’s about allowing yourself to not be okay, admitting that you’re in a down period,” she told NBC News in an interview this week.

The horse’s story began when a worker sewed its mouth the wrong way, said Zhang Huoqing, owner of the Happy Sister store in Yiwu, a wholesale hub in central Zhejiang province.

Zhang said she offered a refund when a customer reported the error, but the horse was never returned. Soon, photos were published online and quickly spread across social media.

“A lot of customers liked it, and then it started selling really well,” she told Reuters. “So we continued to produce them.”

Since then, Zhang’s store has rushed to fulfill orders for the “accidental edition,” including from overseas, and fakes have proliferated online. According to media reports, the worker who first made the mistake was rewarded with an annual bonus of 8,888 yuan ($1,280) for the next 12 years.

Zhang, who declined an interview request from NBC News, said in a social media post that the media attention was exhausting but that she felt “grateful and humbled” by the response.

The horse, which sells for around 25 yuan ($3.60), “really corresponds to the reality of modern workers,” she told Reuters.

Slowing growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy, has left stressed office workers struggling to get ahead despite working long hours and feeling overall disillusioned.

It doesn’t help that 2026 is not only the Year of the Horse but also the Year of the Fire Horse, which according to the Chinese zodiac signifies opportunities for growth, bold action and rapid change, but also greater intensity and risk of burnout.

The combination of the horse, cute and sad, “seems relevant,” said Pu Daiwang, a 23-year-old university student in Shanghai.

He said he noticed that many sellers on Taobao, a Chinese shopping platform, had associated the “crying horse” with the usual smiling horse, “which really corresponds to my own ups and downs in my studies and in life – sometimes I am happy, sometimes I struggle.” »

Michelle Du, who works in public relations in Hong Kong, said the horse “fits the mood that people are in right now, this kind of random, absurd humor.”

It’s the latest in a series of sardonic trends in China, where “ugly and cute” Labubu dolls have disappeared from shelves and a check-in app that asked lone users “Are you dead?” went viral.

These are “people who are dissatisfied with their current lives and don’t know how to change things in the short term,” Du, 24, explained. “So they get away with making fun of themselves.”

Du said that even if the horse is funny, she wouldn’t buy one.

“I’m a little superstitious,” she says, “and I want good luck in the new year.”

Janis Mackey Frayer, Erin Tan and Dawn Liu reported from Beijing and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.