To add: it has become a serious enough problem that China has cancelled Chinese New Year celebrations nationwide, and this character seems particularly associated with New Year--at least, most of her recent posts are.
To add: it has become a serious enough problem that China has cancelled Chinese New Year celebrations nationwide, and this character seems particularly associated with New Year--at least, most of her recent posts are.
Her name literally means "Year" in Chinese, in reference to a legend of how every year monsters called Nian comes down from the mountains to eat children. Setting off firecrackers scares the Nian monsters away, hence years are called "Nian".
Her name literally means "Year" in Chinese, in reference to a legend of how every year monsters called Nian comes down from the mountains to eat children. Setting off firecrackers scares the Nian monsters away, hence years are called "Nian".
