Recently a monkey mascot has become an explosive topic on China’s largest social networking platform Weibo. And it looks like this:
Now do you know why it’s so popular?
This monkey is named Kangkang, meaning “healthy” in English. It’s the Spring Festival Mascot for 2016, the Year of the Monkey. Designing a new mascot every year is a proud tradition of the New Year Gala, a special show held by CCTV for China’s Spring Festival. The Gala has the largest audience in the world, with over 700 million people watching every year.
This mascot was designed by Chinese artist Han Meilin, who is also the father of Fuwa, the mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The original Kangkang was done in Chinese ink.
The artist denies having anything to do with the 3D version (can you blame him?).
Yet this hasn’t stopped imaginative Chinese netizens from making fun of this poor monkey (all photos below were created by Weibo users).
1. Kangkang the traffic light
2. Kangkang the firecracker (Weibo user @我的大几把岁了 thinks Kangkang’s colors resemble those of firecrackers)
3. Kangkang the fruit (a foodie designed the mascot with an almond, half a kiwi fruit, half a lemon, two apples, two cherries and two gourds)
4. Sci-fi blockbuster Rise of the Planet of Kangkang
5. Kangkang the monkey model with a perfect golden ratio figure (Kangkang’s official bio says it has the perfect 1:9 ratio figure of a model)
6. Kangkang in the eyes of anime enthusiasts
7. Kangkang the Emoji Package
8. Kangkang has taken down Lele, Yuanyuan and Haibao to top the list of ugliest mascots (Lele is the mascot of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, Yuanyuan is the mascot of the 2013 Asia Youth Games held in Nanjing and Haibao is the mascot of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo).
A Weibo user made a comic about it:
9. Other versions of Kangkang designed by netizens:
One question – do you still remember what does Kangkang looks like?
10. Netizens miss the image of Monkey King in the old good days
Let’s have a look at some monkey mascots designed by China’s tech companies:
