Since 1983 the annual Spring Festival Gala hosted by China Central Television has always been an important part of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration – no wonder every move organizers make becomes the center of attention. On Thursday it published its mascot for 2016, the Year of the Monkey, and instantly it became a hit on the Internet; unfortunately some people deemed it “very ugly”.
1983年开始，央视每年都会举办春节联欢晚会吐槽猴年吉祥物，春晚已经成为中国庆祝新年的重要一环——怪不得春晚组织者的一举一动都会引起关注。本周四，春晚方面公布了2016年猴年春晚吉祥物。之后立即成为网络热点话题；不幸的是吐槽猴年吉祥物，有些人认为这个吉祥物“丑爆了”。
The sketch of a monkey in an ink painting was made by Chinese contemporary artist Han Meilin, who also designed the “Fuwa” mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The ink painting was deemed “cute” by most web users, as it “looks joyful”, and represents a traditional art style. The producer named the monkey “Kang Kang”, which means “healthy” in Chinese.
水墨画风格的吉祥物素描画像由中国当代艺术家韩美林创作，他曾经设计了北京奥运会吉祥物“福娃”。多数网民认为这幅水墨画很可爱，也很有喜感，代表了中国传统的艺术风格。吉祥物设计者给这只小猴子取名为“康康”，在中文里是“健康”的意思。
But the 3D version of the mascot image failed to dodge bullets, as critical netizens sneered at this version: “Why are they using different colors asymmetrically? ” “Reminds me of green and red lights.” “What are those balls under its ears?” “What a stiff body!” “It is so ugly that I just want to cry.”
但3D版本的吉祥物画像却惨遭网友吐槽：“为什么要用完全不搭的几种颜色啊？”“这让我想起了红绿灯。”“猴子耳朵下面的那几个球是什么鬼？”“猴子身体也太僵硬了吧！”“真是丑哭了”。
Han said on his social media that he only designed the original version of the mascot, which is the ink painting, but didn’t participate in the 3D model design. “Of course we believe the ugly stuff has nothing to do with you,” Web users said.
韩美林在社交网站上说，他只是设计了吉祥物的最初版本，也就是那个水墨画，并未参与到3D模型的设计中。“我们当然相信你跟这个丑哭了的吉祥物无关了，”网友们说。
In a vote by Sina Weibo，China’s Twitter-like website, 58.5 percent of people “liked” the ink painting version of the monkey, only 14.4 percent like the front view of the 3D version, while 12.5 percent want to “change its clothes”, supposedly meaning they don’t like the colors. Photo from Weibo.
新浪微博（中国版的推特）进行了一次投票，结果显示58.5%的人都赞了水墨画版的吉祥物，只有14.4%赞了3D版的吉祥物，还有12.5%的人想给吉祥物“换身衣服”，意思是他们不喜欢那样的颜色搭配。*图片来自微博