Peppa Pig trailer strikes a chord with Chinese ahead of Lunar New Year
- Five-minute clip tells story of the British cartoon character from perspective of old Chinese man living in mountain village, and it’s winning hearts in China
- Grandson wants ‘Peppa’ for the festival
A trailer for an upcoming film starring Peppa Pig, co-produced by a Chinese company, has taken the country’s social media by storm with its bittersweet story about family bonds.
Telling the story of the British cartoon character from the perspective of an old Chinese man living in the remote mountains whose grandson in the city has asked for a present called “Peppa”, the five-minute clip has won the hearts of hundreds of millions of internet users in the country.
It is co-produced by British media company Entertainment One and Alibaba Pictures, which is part of the Alibaba Group that owns the South China Morning Post.
Peppa Pig, a preschool animated television series that has been a hit globally since it first aired in 2004, has been gaining attention in China since last year as it became a subversive symbol of a Chinese online subculture.
The character has been taken on by shehuiren, which translates as “society people”, and refers to young adults who are anti-establishment and reject mainstream values.
The trailer – which encourages people working away from home to visit their families often – went viral on Thursday night on WeChat, China’s most popular social media platform. A topic about the clip on microblogging site Weibo had attracted some 380 million views and 377,000 comments as of Friday afternoon.
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The short story begins with a man named Li Yubao living in a mountain village asking his grandson on the phone what he wanted for the Lunar New Year. He just hears the word “Peppa” because of a poor mobile signal and embarks on a journey to find out what it is.
The man finally makes a metal model of Peppa using his imagination, based on a description from one of the villagers who had worked as a nanny in Beijing.
The video strikes a chord when Li, eagerly anticipating seeing his son and grandson, is told they will not return home for the festival.
It turns out the son has arranged a reunion at his home instead, and Li ends up spending a happy holiday with the family in the city – and eventually discovers Peppa is a cartoon figure.
“I’m so touched … I miss my grandparents so much,” wrote one Weibo user.
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Zhang Dapeng, who directed the film, said both the trailer and the movie aimed to promote family values.
“Besides drawing attention to the movie, what I wanted to do through this trailer was to share the same values that are highlighted in the movie – family, reunion, harmony and love,” Zhang told news website Btime.com on Friday.
“Many older people even in urban China may not know about Peppa, so there is this generational gap too which I think is very interesting.”
Besides Peppa and her family and friends, the movie incorporates a number of Chinese elements such as dragon dancing and making dumplings.
