The Guardian-Chinese dancing frog goes viral doing the worm
December 25, 2023 3 min 504 words
这篇报道反映了中国“卖青蛙”现象，一个以街头小贩为起源的趋势如何在网络上演变成一场引发知识产权争议的风潮。这个“卖青蛙”梗以一个穿着青蛙服装的人在社交媒体上进行表演和销售青蛙主题产品为特点，引起网民关注。然而，该现象引发了有趣而深刻的问题，即关于舞蹈青蛙的知识产权归属。文章提到了一名女性因涉嫌从1980年代的中国卡通《葫芦兄弟》中“红蟾蜍”人物处窃取形象设计而受到指责。在知识产权方面，专家和评论家对此发表了不同意见，引发了对于“谁拥有跳舞青蛙的权利”的争论。这一趋势的兴起不仅带来了娱乐，也引发了对知识产权界限的思考。这个现象的兴起凸显了在数字媒体时代，知识产权问题愈发复杂，需要更为细致入微的思考和规范。
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