Overview
- The plush red horse was intended as a smiling Lunar New Year decoration, but an upside‑down stitched mouth turned it into a frowning novelty that shoppers embraced.
- The Happy Sister shop in Yiwu kept the flawed version in production after it sold out, reflecting online jokes that the gloomy face matches workers’ on‑the‑job mood.
- Sales jumped from about 400 units a day for the original smiling model in October to tens of thousands daily for the frowning version, according to local sellers.
- Factories have added more than ten production lines, yet supply still trails demand and wholesale orders are queued through March 2026.
- The trend, boosted by the ‘ugly‑cute’ aesthetic and reported to have surpassed a billion views online, has drawn growing bulk orders from the Middle East, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.