Why It's The Year Of Peppa Pig In China
February 5, 20196:09 PM ET
Maureen Pao, photographed for NPR, 17 January 2019, in Washington DC.
MAUREEN PAO


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It's the Year of the Pig — Peppa Pig, that is. The popular porcine British cartoon character is being boosted to new heights — in part thanks to an unusual movie trailer that's become a runaway viral hit in China.

A British import, the Peppa Pig TV show debuted in China in 2015 and follows the exploits of plucky piglet Peppa, Mummy, Daddy and brother George Pig, and her menagerie of friends. Kids have gone crazy for her; her likeness gracing toys, watches, backpacks, temporary tattoos and, eventually, memes that temporarily sullied her reputation in China (more on that later.)

And now, in the Year of the Pig, Peppa is on her way to becoming a full-fledged movie star. Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year opened in China on Tuesday, the first day of the Lunar New Year.

But for now, people are talking about the promotional trailer more than the film.

Titled "What Is Peppa?" the five-minute live-action trailer tells the story of a grandfather in rural China and his quest to find the perfect gift for his city-dwelling grandson to celebrate Lunar New Year. It's the most important holiday in China, and one that is, above all, about family. For some, it is the only time of year they are able to travel back to their hometown.


People walk past a Peppa Pig pop-up shop in the Yu Yuan gardens, a popular tourist spot in Shanghai.
Matthew Knight/AFP/Getty Images

"What is brilliant about this video is that it changes Peppa into a certain feeling, of bringing people together," says Manya Koetse, an Amsterdam-based Sinologist and editor-in chief of What's on Weibo, a website that reports on social media trends in China. "More than just the pig being the film or a toy or a commodity, it shows the gap between the Chinese urban areas and rural areas."

The trailer opens on a hillside with an elderly man, Li Yubao, talking on his cellphone with his 3-year-old grandson about the upcoming New Year visit. The man's simple clothes immediately signal that he's one of China's more than half-a-billion rural citizens. The grandfather wants to know what the boy wants as a present. He answers, "Pei Qi" — before Li Yubao's outdated phone cuts out when the antenna — yes, antenna — falls off.

Thus Grandfather Li's quest begins: What is Pei Qi? (That's Peppa's name in Chinese.) His devotion to answering this question is at the emotional heart of the trailer.
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