An anthropomorphised frog has joined celebrity live-streamers and social media commentators among China’s ranks of influencers, as a trend that began with street sellers in Chinese cities takes on a new life online – and raised questions over who, if anyone, owns the intellectual property rights to a dancing amphibian.
Alternatively known as a “frog seller” or “frog influencer”, the meme involves a person in a frog suit with a blue neckerchief selling frog-themed products such as balloons and toys.
The magic ingredient for going viral on social media, though, is dancing. One video posted online in November showed a frog seller doing the worm in a gym. In another instance, a frog seller flosses – among other dance moves – to a disgruntled traffic police officer before riding off on a scooter.
I can’t 🤣 Over the past year, frog sellers in China have emerged as a social phenomenon, and their numerous interactions with local police and security officers have formed a distinct short video genre of its own💯 pic.twitter.com/YQWqAHfNTq
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) November 19, 2023
The trend is thought to have begun in September 2022, when a woman in Nanjing, surnamed Tong, wore a frog costume to sell frog balloons to passersby. When a video of her stunt was posted online, it quickly spawned imitations.
On Chinese Valentine’s Day, in August, an elderly man in Beijing put on a frog seller suit to give his partner a giant teddy bear, prompting comments about “true romance” when the video was posted online.
The trend has also triggered a rather less humorous debate about intellectual property. Tong was accused of stealing the design for her frog suit from Calabash Brothers, a popular 1980s Chinese cartoon series in which one character, Red Toad, is a frog wearing a distinctive red neckerchief.
“I modified the colour, body shape, pattern and head size, but the overall image of the toad in nature is there. No matter how I modify it, it does look very similar at first glance,” she said in an interview with China Intellectual Property News.
Commentators have weighed in about who owns the rights to a dancing frog. Long Wenmao, a professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, in Shanghai, said Calabash Brothers’ Red Toad and Tong’s frog seller were clearly different. Red Toad has an “evil and mischievous air”, while the frog seller has a “cute and innocent image”, Long said, according to China Intellectual Property News.
Wu Yunchu, one of the original creators of the Calabash Brothers cartoon, said he had no interest in pursuing Tong for a copyright violation.
Other commentators have taken a more philosophical approach. In an essay for China Youth Daily, the journalist Yang Xinyu wrote: “In a sense, the frog costume is an actor’s mask and a warrior’s armour. While it gives the person outside the mask laughs, it also shields the person inside the mask from the bitterness and sweetness of life.”
Additional research by Chi Hui Lin