Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

China’s Crying Horse Doll Shows a Generation Is Losing Faith

February 1, 2026 at 9:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

A sign of the times.
Source: CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

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China is running out of ideas to address falling birth rates, weaker job prospects and rising burnout. So it’s no surprise the nation’s latest viral hit is a crying horse doll whose permanently downturned mouth has become a symbol for a disillusioned generation.

These issues pose a troubling dilemma for President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, whose legitimacy rests on raising living standards: What happens when a growing number of young people fear they won’t do better than their parents?