Social media
Bizarre trend from China: Young people keep furry mango seeds as pets
Before you can convert the core into a pet, the flesh of the mango must be meticulously removed, the instructions on social media show
© Arthur S. Ruffino / Imago Images
A bizarre trend has spread on social media in China: young people are washing, blow-drying and dyeing furry mango seeds – to make pets out of them.
No space and no money for a real pet? The people in China have found a cost-effective – and somewhat absurd – alternative that has become the latest social media trend there: mango kernels. You read that right. Young people from China care for and treat the hairy seeds like dogs and cats, often even keeping an online diary about their “pets”, which are known there as “Mango Dog” or “Manggou”.
Young people from China take care of mango seeds
“Raising” a Mango dog is incredibly easy, as numerous videos on Instagram and TikTok show. The mango is consumed, the excess flesh is first roughly washed off and then scrubbed away with a toothbrush until the yellow color of the mango seed is completely removed. Then the seed is dried with a hairdryer and exposed to the sun “to prevent mold formation,” explains the Singaporean newspaper “Straits Times“.
By far the most posts about the “Mango Dog” can be found on the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu. Users show their personal versions of the trendy “skin” in more than 5,300 photos and videos. Because once the kernel is completely dry, the furry seed can be dyed, painted or decorated with a face as desired.
“The Mango Dog brings a different kind of fun. You can comb it, reshape it, color it and style it. Or you can bathe it and dry it,” says 37-year-old Qiu Mier of “Shanghai Daily“. Although he has a pet cat himself, many younger people today have neither the time nor the money to look after a living pet. He also sees the “mango dog” as “a healing thing that can relieve stress.” .
In fact, the calming effect that “pet owners” attribute to their unusual everyday companions seems to be one of the main reasons for the growing trend. Posts on social media repeatedly talk about a calming, almost therapeutic effect that “raising” the “mango dog” brings with it. It is as much fun as looking after a cat or dog. The furry core has a similar texture to animal fur, which gives the feeling of stroking a cat or dog.
It is not uncommon for there to be criticism of the popular “pet”. It’s pointless nonsense, a waste of time and the people who make a “mango dog” are “mentally ill,” says the Shanghai Daily. Qiu Mier disagrees: “Many young people are stressed, and creating a ‘mango dog’ can be a kind of spiritual uplift. As long as it doesn’t become an addiction, I don’t see any harm.” The thousands of followers the bizarre trend has found would surely agree.
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Sources: “Shanghai Daily“, “South China Morning Post“, “Straits Times“