Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
At Yiwu International Trade City, China’s largest wholesale market, customers crowd into a small shop searching for an unlikely bestseller ahead of the Lunar New Year.
They are looking for a red plush horse with a downturned mouth, a gold bell around its neck and eyes that appear to shy away from a viewer’s gaze. The toy has gone viral on Chinese social media ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, which this year marks the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac.
Called the “crying horse” by online users, the toy was designed as a happy-faced Lunar New Year decoration, but a manufacturing mistake turned its smile into a frown.
“A worker sewed the mouth on upside down by accident,” said Zhang Huoqing, owner of the Yiwu-based shop Happy Sister.
Zhang said she offered a refund after discovering the flaw, but the customer never returned the toy. Not long after, she discovered photos of it circulating online.
“People joked that the crying horse is how you look at work, while the smiling one is how you look after work,” Zhang said.
