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

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

Embroidered with a Chinese phrase wishing swift wealth, the stuffed toy was supposed to kick off the Year of the Horse with a gallop and a smile. But a worker’s stitching mistake turned that expression upside down — and turned the toy into a national emoji for an economy that has lately been more neigh than yay.

At a time of slowing economic growth and dimming job prospects for many workers, the toy has been embraced as the “cry cry horse,” and become an internet sensation.

“The economy hasn’t been great, and life’s been tough for a lot of people these past couple of years,” said Zhang Ziqi, a 24-year-old teacher in Hebei province. “That crying expression really matches how most people feel — stressed, anxious, kind of down.”

“It’s about allowing yourself to not be OK, to admit you’re in a low period,” she told NBC News in an interview this week.

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

Zhang said she offered a refund when a customer pointed out the mistake, but the horse was never returned. Soon, photos of it turned up online and quickly spread across social media.

“Many customers liked it, and then it started selling very well,” she told Reuters. “So we just kept producing them.”

Since then, Zhang’s shop has been rushing to keep up with orders for the “accidental edition,” including from overseas, and knockoffs have proliferated online. According to media reports, the worker who first made the mistake has been 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 about 25 yuan ($3.60), “really suits the reality of modern working people,” she told Reuters.

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

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

The horse’s combination of cute and sad “feels relatable,” said Pu Daiwang, a 23-year-old university student in Shanghai.

He said he’d noticed that a lot of sellers on Taobao, a Chinese shopping platform, had paired the “cry cry horse” with the regular smiling one, “which really matches my own ups and downs in study and life — sometimes I’m happy, sometimes I’m struggling.”

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

It’s the latest in a series of sardonic trends in China, where “ugly-cute” Labubu dolls have been flying off the shelves and a check-in app that asked isolated users “Are You Dead?” went viral.

It’s “about people being dissatisfied with their lives right now and not knowing how to change things in the short term,” said Du, 24. “So they cope by poking fun at themselves.”

Du said that while the horse is funny, she wouldn’t buy one for herself.

“I’m a bit superstitious,” she said, “and I want good luck for the new year.”

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