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A hero of a different stripe

By Xu Fan | China Daily | Updated: 2022-01-28 08:28

A promotional picture for the animated feature, Run, Tiger Run! The film, set to open on the first day of Spring Festival, features Hudun, an 11-year-old orphan, and his friends. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Animated film introduces a loveable, tiger-head hat-wearing protagonist, brimming with traditional Chinese values and characteristics, to a wider audience, Xu Fan reports. 

In China, people often use the Chinese idiom hutou hunao, or "tiger's head and brain", to eulogize a child who looks robust, healthy and energetic. The influence of the tiger-revered in China as the king of all animals-radiates through many aspects of Chinese people's lives, even the decorative pattern of children's headwear.

With the country approaching the Year of the Tiger, Run, Tiger Run!-a feature-length animated movie epitomizing that cultural tradition-will open on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which will fall on Tuesday, making it a fitting way to celebrate the festival.

Set during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the film centers on Hudun (an adorable nickname inserted with the Chinese character for tiger), an 11-year-old orphan who aspires to become an established biaoshi-an armed escort for wealthy travelers and their property on treacherous journeys.

Hudun manages to shake off a stereotypical bias that makes people view him as merely a troublemaker with the help of a legendary former swordsman. The unlikely duo fight off a powerful gang of bandits who are trying to steal a valuable item that the pair are charged to protect.

Hudun-who always wears his signature tiger-head hat-has already accumulated a sizable fan base before he even makes his screen debut.

According to the movie's co-directors, Zou Yi and Stanley Tsang, the first short video work featuring the character-showing a vivid imitation of a crosstalk performer-was released on short video platform Douyin, the domestic iteration of TikTok, in October 2018.

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