10/02/2026

LYFE TUESDAY | FEB 10, 2026

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Two women take photos in front of a giant Lunar New Year poster featuring English actor Felton posing as Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies series, at a shopping mall in Shangqiu.

The current Draco obsession stems from the transliteration of his surname, ‘Ma Er Fu’, which contains the Chinese characters for ‘horse’ and ‘good fortune’.

A morose horse, rice cakes and a Harry Potter villain have become surprise hits in China ahead of the country’s Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. These viral trends play on Chinese traditions and young workers’ anxieties as millions head to their hometowns to welcome in the Year of the Horse, which begins on Feb 17. Here they are explained: Lucky Draco Draco Malfoy, one of the schoolboy villains in the Harry Potter series, has become an unlikely CNY mascot. The face of British actor Tom Felton, who played Malfoy in the film series that ended 15 years ago, has appeared on posters, fridge magnets and even emblazoned on a banner in a Chinese shopping mall. The film franchise is wildly popular in China and capital Beijing has a large-scale Harry Potter- themed attraction at a Universal Studios resort. But the current Draco obsession stems from the transliteration of his surname, “Ma Er Fu”, which contains YOUNGER siblings spend more time on screens and less on educational activities than their older brothers and sisters, new Australian research has found, reported Xinhua. A study by Monash Business School’s Centre for Health Economics found compared with firstborn children, second- and third-born children spend an extra nine and 14 minutes per day on screen time, and less time on enrichment activities, the university said in a statement. “While this may sound modest, it represents a 7 – 10% increase compared with the average daily screen time of firstborns,” said Danusha Jayawardana, a research fellow at the centre. Over a week, this adds up to roughly one and 1.5 extra hours of screen use, she said. “This extra screen time also comes at the cost of other activities. In particular, later-born children spend 11 to 18 minutes less per day on enrichment activities, an 11 – 20%

Sad horses, Draco Malfoy

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That hit a chord with stressed-out youth struggling in China’s highly competitive job market and sluggish economy. Dubbed the “crying horse” online, the depressed animal has become an internet sensation, with a related hashtag gaining more than 100 million views on social media platform Weibo. Almost 20,000 were being shipped per day at the height of its fame and orders are backed up to March, according to state broadcaster CCTV. “With a face full of resentment and helplessness, it really looks like an employee coaxing themselves to go to work,” wrote one Weibo user. Many consumers er.

Rice cakes join a long list of inanimate objects that time-poor young Chinese have jokingly adopted for low-maintenance companionship in recent years, ranging from mango pits, to rocks, to cardboard dogs. Clean hair day In a twist of tradition, netizens have called for a national day of hair washing on CNY’s eve. A common Chinese tradition warns that people should refrain from cleaning their hair on CNY’s day – and even for a few days after – to avoid washing away good luck and incoming wealth. The recent hashtag “collective hair washing on the 16th” calls for nationwide mass hair washing on the last day of the CNY, with social media users joking about salons being booked up. – AFP

reduction compared with older siblings,” Jayawardana said, adding that enrichment activities include reading, homework, playing board games or learning a musical instrument. The study drew on survey data from around 5,500 Australian children aged two to 15, including 24-hour diaries tracking how they spent their time from waking to bedtime, and whether activities were undertaken with parents or alone. The findings suggest parental time and attention to foster subsequent children’s development decline as families grow, and that later-born children experience more lenient parenting, including rules around screen use. The researchers recommended parents spend quality time with younger siblings, actively encourage enrichment activities and maintain consistent rules around screen time across children to support healthy development. – Bernama-Xinhua o China’s unexpected CNY trends the Chinese characters for “horse” and “good fortune” – an auspicious omen for the year ahead. Felton, now 38, has embraced the trend, reposting videos of CNY decorations featuring his image on Instagram. Why the long face? A manufacturing blunder recently turned a smiling horse plushie into an icon of China’s young employees. Making “Year of the Horse” stuffed toys in a workshop, an employee accidentally stitched the festive foal’s mouth on upside-down – turning its cheerful expression into a gloomy frown.

rice cakes. Sticky rice cakes are a popular CNY’s dish in much of eastern and southern China, but to be prepared, they must be soaked in water which is regularly changed. Social media posts show users “raising” their rice cakes, complaining about being at home to babysit and dubbing them their new pets. One user on the Instagram-like RedNote gained more than 23,000 likes on their post of a photo of a bag of rice cakes left unattended on a train, along with the caption: “Who’s lost their pet?”

have bought the smiling and frowning versions, to represent the highs and lows expected in the coming year.

An elderly woman holds a happy horse toy next to a ‘crying horse’ one. A n

Edible ‘pets’ Another

Younger siblings spend more time on screens: Australian study

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‘Crying horse’ toys, which went viral due to a production mistake, are seen at the Yiwu wholesale market in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. – ALL PICS FROM AFP