How a factory error in China created a viral "crying horse" Lunar New Year trend
CBSN
Do not turn that frown upside down. A horse plush toy has gone viral in China thanks to a serendipitous mistake by a factory worker. Laura Doan contributed to this report. In:
Do not turn that frown upside down. A horse plush toy has gone viral in China thanks to a serendipitous mistake by a factory worker.
The mouths on a batch of the toys were mistakenly sewn on the wrong way around, creating a small army of sad-faced "crying" toys that have captured hearts as a mascot for the Lunar New Year.
The horses were designed as happy-faced toys to mark the upcoming holiday on February 17, the start of the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac.
A customer who received the defective product decided to keep it, posted about it online, and from there, the "crying horse" found fame.
The "crying horse" hashtag had been used on Douyin, China's domestic version of TikTok, more than 200 million times by Wednesday, and garnered more than 100 million views as a trending topic on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
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