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2019: THE YEAR OF THE (PEPPA) PIG By Philippa Tonkin
‘Peppa Pig,’the British preschoolers cartoon, was released in 2004 and since then has taken the world (China, in particular), by storm.
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he pink pig with the hairdryer shaped head has racked up over 34 billion views since its release and its popularity is continuing to grow.
However, like any other celebrity, Peppa hasn’t shied away from controversy. The popular meme of Peppa savagely hanging up the phone after discovering that her friend Suzie Sheep could whistle while Peppa could not quickly broke the internet and catapulted Peppa away from toddlers and into the spotlight, transforming her into an unlikely rebel icon here in China.
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First introduced in China on state broadcaster, CCTV, in 2015, ‘Peppa Pig’ has quickly become a household name and icon.
She became a ‘shehuiren,’ slang term for ‘gangster,’ a symbol for those wanting to live a life free of constraints and societal pressures. In May 2018 on Weibo, the hashtag #societyperson’speppapig had been viewed nearly 30 million times. Peppa’s increasing popularity as a gangster has even sparked a new tattoo craze through a short rhyme roughly translated to ‘get your Peppa Pig tatt, shout out to your frat.” In March 2018, a series of pictures appeared on Weibo, one of China’s biggest social
