BEIJING, Dec 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – China is set to mark the Year of the Pig
with a film starring “Peppa Pig,” the popular British cartoon character that
fell foul with its censors earlier this year.
A government document listing upcoming movie projects shows a new film in
the works titled “Peppa Pig celebrates Chinese New Year” to be released in
February 2019 during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The film includes Chinese New Year customs such as a dragon parade and
fireworks, state-run China Daily reported.
Co-developed by Alibaba Pictures and Canadian media company Entertainment
One — which currently produces Peppa Pig — the film includes the entire
“Peppa Pig” cast and two new characters named Dumpling and Glutinous Rice
Ball, two popular Chinese new year delicacies.
The series, introduced in the mid-2000s in China, has become extremely
popular through episodes dubbed into Mandarin.
This fervour intensified at the end of 2017 among a young adult audience.
Many internet users including stars sported temporary “Peppa Pig” tattoos in
selfies, and cups, watches and clothes appeared bearing the image of the
heroine Peppa.
A Chinese internet platform in May gave “Peppa Pig” the chop as state
media lamented the series had become a “subversive” icon for slackers and
anti-social young people.
At least 30,000 clips of the British cartoon were removed from the popular
Douyin video-sharing platform, while the #PeppaPig hashtag was banned from
the site.
People who upload videos of Peppa Pig tattoos and merchandise and make
Peppa-related jokes “run counter to the mainstream value and are usually
poorly educated with no stable job,” state-run Global Times said after the
ban.
“They are unruly slackers roaming around and the antithesis of the young
generation the [Communist] party tries to cultivate.”