They’re actually air blowers. If you don’t know what those are, the hand-operated types are often found in rural households, used for starting a fire on the stove. They typically cost under US$5 each on Taobao. But slap on Peppa’s good name and now they’re five times that price.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba -- the operator of Taobao.)

The promotional video became a sensation in its own right, because it features one adorable grandfather’s quest to decipher his grandson’s gift request: “Peppa”. He eventually finds out from his neighbor that, when an air blower is painted pink, it looks just like Peppa Pig.

(And so that’s why the grandfather who bought a small child a household appliance as a gift is actually an amazing grandfather and not a terrible one.)

That image became an instant meme and inspired many others to pair Peppa Pig accessories with street looks. Last year, Peppa was briefly banned as a search term on China’s version of TikTok, known as Douyin.    

TikTok, the viral short video sensation, has its roots in China

So the next time you see a Chinese thug carrying a little pink air blower down the street, you’ll know exactly why.

China spent two billion dollars on “lazy devices”

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