China gives the chop to PeppaPig

ACHINESE internet platform has given the British cartoon the chop as state media lamented that the series had become a “subversive” icon for slackers and anti-social young people.

At least 30,000 clips of whose heroine is a playful bright pink pig, were removed from the popular Douyin video-sharing platform, while the #PeppaPig hashtag was banned from the site, the

reported on Monday. According to a document quoted by the newspaper, the BBC children’s cartoon is on a list of content censored by Douyin, in the same way as men disguised as women, excessive nudity or “erotic behaviour”.

The series, introduced in the mid-2000s in China, has become extremely popular through episodes dubbed into Mandarin.

But this fervour intensified at the end of 2017 among a young adult audience. More and more internet users including stars sported temporary tattoos in selfies. Cups, watches and clothes appeared bearing the image of the main character.

The mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, sounded the charge last Thursday – denouncing the harmful effect of the commercialisation of

China’s communist rulers have launched a crackdown on content seen as deviating from the central values of socialism or criticising established social norms.