A Chinese woman takes a picture of Peppa Pig painted on a wall in Shanghai, China, on December 12. Photo: VCG

 

What is Peppa? A trailer released Thursday afternoon for the upcoming Peppa Pig film, which is also the first film of the series to be released in Chinese mainland theaters, has received wide applause from Chinese audiences, industry insiders and even celebrities. 

Different from common film trailers which focus on lead characters, the 5.30-minute long short video uses Peppa only as a clue and focuses on how an old Chinese man tries to figure out what is Peppa and preparing a New Year's gift for his grandson, as the little boy is a fan of Peppa. 

Living in a remote village, which is far away from his son and grandson who live in the city, doesn't allow for many family reunions except on the Chinese Lunar New Year. This story resonates with a number of today's Chinese. 

After posting the video on the film's Sina Weibo account on Thursday, it has been viewed nearly 20 million times and forwarded over 100,000 times as of Friday morning.  

"It is a warm clash between Chinese people's pure emotions and current pop culture," MoriatyBQ, a netizen, commented on the video.

"It is a bit moving yet sad. The Lunar New Year is coming and we should go back to visit our parents," Dexing stronger, another netizen, commented. 

Set for a nationwide release on February 5, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Peppa Pig film is co-developed by China's Alibaba Pictures and Canada's Entertainment One, the latter being the producer of the BBC TV series. 

As it will be the Year of Pig, the release of a pig-themed animation is quite a smart commercial move, not to mention that the Peppa Pig TV series has been quite popular not only among Chinese children but also adults since entering the Chinese market in 2015.

On December 31, a video about twin sisters expressing their New Year dream of being invited to the British palace, similar to an episode in Peppa Pig, also went viral on Chinese social media platforms. Later, Barbara Woodward, British ambassador to China, posted a video on Sina Weibo and sent out an invitation to the twin's family. 

As China has become the world's second largest film market, trying all methods to attract Chinese audiences' attention has been the common application of foreign IPs. Just a few days ago, Once Upon a Deadpool also released Chinese culture related promotional posters to enforce people's image of the character. 

Given that such promotional materials usually focus on the lead character, what Peppa Pig did this time in its trailer is unique, and turned out to be worth it.