China’s Year of the Horse Comes Saddled With Upside-Down Tears

KEY POINTS

•A toy maker in Yiwu city produced upside-down snout horse plushies ahead of Lunar New Year 2026 by mistake.
•The sad horse toy, costing about $3.60, became a viral symbol for Chinese 996 work culture anxiety.
•Experts called the mistake savvy marketing, comparing it to Pop Mart’s popular ‘ugly-cute’ collectible toys.

Ahead of the 2026 Chinese Lunar New Year – obviously the Year of the Horse – a plush toy factory in Yiwu accidentally turned its usually cheery horse into the plush embodiment of corporate existential crisis by sewing its snout upside down. This tragicomic $3.60 red horse, champion of ‘national-level emo doll’ status, became a viral symbol for workers drowning in the infamous 9-9-6 juggling act (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week). Quoting RedNote users like He Qingshan, this ‘healing’ horse comforts the soul better than happy faces ever could. Meanwhile, China Skinny’s Mark Tanner suspects Happy Sisters just had a marketing masterstroke, likening it to Pop Mart’s Labubu’s ugly-cute vibe. The horse’s botched stitching, praised by CTR Market Research’s Jason Yu for being arguably more emotional than perfect toys, signals Chinese consumers' ironic embrace of workplace despair wrapped up in plush sadness.