College project adds a splash of color

Chachong, or "tea pets" in English, are cute, charming, change color, and please the eyes or refresh the minds of tea drinkers. They are ornamental, but they bring life to any tea ceremony. Traditionally, the water used to warm up the tea set prior to drinking, the rinse from the leaves and any leftover tea are poured over the clay figurines.

The fluid's color and scent will change the tea pet's appearance and this characteristic has been brilliantly mastered by four students.

Their short video of a lychee-shaped "tea pet" has become an online hit. When hot water is poured on the dark brown object, it suddenly changes into a "fresh" lychee with red skin, green leaves and white meat.

The videos with the hashtag of "Color-changing lychee tea pet" have been viewed more than 3 million times on short video-sharing platform Douyin, and creative internet users have even come up with a way to make the color change last longer－by putting the tea pet into a glass teapot.

The lychee tea pet is actually the brainchild of four junior college students, Ye Zhiyuan, Guo Siqi, Zhou Zijun and Wang Huilin, who are all Cantonese.