PEPPA GOES VIRAL TO USHER IN CHINESE YEAR OF THE PIG

A4-year-old pink pig has become the hottest icon in China after a six-minute video called “What is a Peppa Pig?” went viral

online.

The video features an elderly man living in the countryside asking everyone he knows: “What is Peppa Pig?” so as to prepare a New Year gift for his grandson living in the city. Eventually, he makes a Peppa Pig himself based on a blowing machine. The video won 1,500 million clicks within 24 hours.

The message of family reunions and a grandfather’s love triggered many people’s tears, and the pink pig won wide favor as a mascot in the Year of the Pig.

Apart from the popularity of related products, Peppa Pig will also feature at the JS TV Spring Festival Gala to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

With its round belly and big ears, the pig has long been taken as a symbol for abundance, wealth and good luck in Chinese culture.

Legends suggest that the goddess Nuwa made one domestic animal a day with earth before she created humans on the seventh day. The pig was created on the third day, while horses, cattle, sheep, chickens and dogs were made on the rest. The Chinese character “Jia” (home,

is pictographically composed of a house (ᠴ)and a pig as the ancient Chinese considered a pig an important possession for a happy family. Images of a pig are often used in New Year pictures and decorations as wishes for wealth.

Though not as fast as a horse, as clever as a monkey, or as powerful as a tiger,

A pig with all its four feet show a favorable mascot for families candidates for an entrance exam said that the names of the No. 1 s ars in the imperial exams are alw listed in red. The Chinese idiom “z timing”(ዬԴ༶ఁ), literally na with red pen, indicates great suc in the exam. And the abbreviatio the idiom, “zhu ti,” just happen share the same pronunciation pig’s feet, which makes the feet l signs, too.

However, the image of the p traditional Chinese literature is all favorable. Gluttonous, stupid, and impetuous are among the la often attached to the animal, though research has shown tha to be the case.

“Zhu peng gou you” pig and dog friends, is an idiom gluttonous and lazy friends; “yi yi zhu” or a dragon a pig, is an expression to describe people with the same start, grow up to be tremendously different; “ben shi tu”(ળԦḛ཭), or run like a and barge about like a pig, is o used to picture the panic of ene running away.

Even Zhu Bajie, the powerful p Chinese literature classic “Journ the West” written by Wu Cheng’e the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), often dwarfed in comparison to o characters in it.

Being the “Tianpeng Yuansh (Marshal Canopy) in heaven, the used to command 80,000 Heav Navy Soldiers. However, he was ished for seducing the Goddess o Moon after getting drunk. He was to be reincarnated on Earth, w by mishap he fell into a pig well was reborn as a man-eating pig m ster, with a nine-toothed rake a weapon.

Guided by Guanyin, the pig jo the legendary Buddhist monk anzang as one of his three disc to the West. However, he still o gets himself and his companions trouble with his laziness, gluttony propensity for lusting after pr women. In spite of that, the pig his own good points, such as b tolerant, soft-hearted and optimi