Recently, a topic that appeared on the Hot Search list on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, had many confused. It said, “Who said Qin Hailu battles the evil silver shade?” (#谁说的秦海璐大战邪恶银渐层#) and reached number 25 on the list with 12.81 million views. Qin is a Chinese actress, and while the “silver shade” is not a new alias of the Marvel character Silver Surfer it is short for silver-shaded British shorthair cats.
Of course, Qin didn’t battle a feline supervillain. Her name was only mentioned because the owner of a recent meme sensation and livestreaming superstar, a silver-shaded British shorthair called Offer (芬儿头) shares some resemblance with her. The cat’s Douyin channel “Offer is a cat, not a pig” (芬儿头是猫不是猪) was launched back in 2022 and slowly gained popularity before recently garnering 1.54 million followers in just 30 days. The channel’s sales number also grew as its first livestream on 5 January received 237,000 views with sales between 100,0000 RMB (14,097.41 USD) and 250,000 RMB(35,243.52 USD), while its 6 September stream had 3.92 million views with sales numbers between 750,000 RMB (105,730.58 USD) and 1 million RMB (140,974.10 USD).
What made Offer click, however, is more than simple cuteness. The channel’s viral popularity comes from the resonance viewers find in the “stench of employment” (班味), when the cat reluctantly dons the outfits and accessories its owner puts on it and sometimes fights back when forced. But when shown treats, the cat would comply and wear whatever headpiece the owner was putting on it, even with a smile. Many netizens find its initial unwillingness and the final (sometimes forced) smile it shows when modelling accurately covers their relationship with work.
Pet livestreams have been around for several years but many remain gimmicky and can hardly translate into sales. There has been a continuing concern about the mistreatment of pets and some see Offer’s resistance as a sign of that. The owner had to clarify that Offer wasn’t born “evil” or mistreated, it only became less active after taking two cat flu shots when it was three as many cat owners online agreed that silver haired cats can be much more aggressive compared to Offer. While Offer’s official Xiaohongshu (RED) account denies being an “evil” silver shade, the name has stuck as many find Offer’s “evil” smile with costumes a great source for memes and stickers.
