In China, Peppa Pig Is a Street Couture Icon

Cartoon pig is a lady in the sty and a thug in the streets.

Chinese audiences have loved Peppa Pig, a British cartoon character with a face shaped like a hair dryer, since the animated series first screened in the country in late 2015. But it’s not just children who are swooning over the swine.

Since last summer, the young pig has become the topic of countless memes, jokes, and short videos — especially since she was jokingly cast as a shehuiren, a slang term for a gangster. In the last month, Peppa mania has reached new viral heights, with many millennial celebrities showing off their Peppa Pig merchandise and even tattoos.

The hype around the porcine heroine is huge right now: On viral short video platform Douyin, more than 30,000 videos appear under the Peppa Pig hashtag. The series is rated an astronomical 9.2 on review platform Douban, and its fifth season, released last October, has been viewed over 14 billion times on video platform Youku. Peppa Pig theme parks are even slated to open in Beijing and Shanghai next year — just in time for the Year of the Pig in 2019.

Some say the craze may soon die down, as celebrities increasingly exploit Peppa Pig as clickbait, and even state media outlets append her image to pork-related stories for viral flair. But in the meantime, here’s a quick look at some of the most popular Peppa Pig memes and merch. Continue to read the full article here.

This is original content by Sixth Tone and has been republished with permission.