Defective ‘crying horse’ toy from Yiwu goes viral in China

A red stuffed horse made by Happy Sister in the city of Yiwu, intended to wear a broad grin, went on sale with an upside-down smile that gives it a despairing look and has since gone viral in China ahead of the Year of the Horse on 17 February. The factory error left the horse’s nostrils looking like tears.

The toy’s unexpected popularity on Chinese social media has been linked to feelings of corporate fatigue and worker burnout and to a wider trend for “ugly-cute” toys, such as Pop Mart’s Labubu. Owner Zhang Huoqing told Reuters people joked the crying horse reflected how they look at work, and she said that by mid-January she was receiving daily orders of more than 15,000 units, prompting the factory to open 10 additional production lines.

An online buyer, identified as Tuan Tuan Mami, told the SCMP the toy “looks so sad and pitiful, just like the way I feel at work,” and Jacob Cooke of WPIC Marketing + Technologies told Business Insider that consumer products and internet memes can act as outlets for discussing work pressure on platforms like Xiaohongshu.

Wholesale orders have come from South Africa, east Asia and the Middle East, and the horse’s image is expected to appear on new merchandise in the coming year.