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Peppa Pig, the sassy anti-whistling British pig of renown, is stirring up trouble in China. She's been dubbed a "subversive" figure associated with the gangster lifestyle of young Chinese adults, and banned from a social media platform there.
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More than 30,000 videos of Peppa that used the hashtag "#PeppaPig" have reportedly been deleted from the website Douyin ("Tik Tok" in English) because, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN, Peppa was "spreading negative social influence."。

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Since debuting to huge numbers on Chinese television, Peppa has become quite popular with younger Chinese adults in the "shehuiren subculture," according to the Chinese tabloid。 Global Times 。. This apparently includes people involved in organized crime and those who "run counter to the mainstream" — which, considering the country's strict laws, could be just about anyone. 。

This group has embraced Peppa as something of an ironic symbol, getting tattoos of the pig and popularizing the strange rhyme, “get your Peppa Pig tatt, shout out to your frat," per Australia's SBS News. 。

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Chen Nian, an analyst with Gsdata, a consultancy which monitors Chinese social media, said in a statement Peppa's streetwise reputation in memes and spoofs was a "massive nonsensical joke" that was a way for young people to rebel.。

"The contradictory traits of a 'thug' and the innocent Peppa Pig make people laugh," Chen said. "It's an act of subculture rebellion."。

Similar issues have cropped up in the United States, with organizations (particularly schools) banning clothing featuring otherwise innocuous symbols ranging from Looney Tunes characters to sports team logos to the California flag's bear symbol, for fear of gang associations.。

And it's an all-too-familiar instance in China, where Winnie the Pooh was banned from social media because of a meme that used the "bear of very little brain" as a stand-in for Chinese president Xi Jinping.  。

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Earlier this year, something as innocuous as a reporter's eye roll became a meme that was censored in China. 。It's also not the first time Peppa has found herself the object of scrutiny. One episode of the show has been pulled from Australian television for implying spiders are harmless, which, in Australia, they most certainly are not. And the cartoon pig was at the center of unfounded rumors that Muslims in Australia wanted the show pulled from air altogether.
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