Hong Kong: The Lufsig Movement

Stuffed Animal from Ikea becomes Political Symbol

The Lufsig movement is the most recent effort of the Hong Kong people to openly express their hatred of City Leader, Mr CY Leung. People are buying a stuffed animal toy from Ikea in protest at the local goverment. The affiliation between the toy wolf and Leung is due to his political nickname "the wolf" and the name of the toy on Ikea's China website which is said to be a translation of a Cantonese (the local language) profanity. Ikea have denied intent to interfere with politics.

 

Based on the perceived meaning of the toy in respect to Leung, you can probably guess why they have been flying off the shelf. Just to put it into perspective about how popular it has become, reports from the BBC state that people queued outside Ikea's flagship store there before it's opening at 7:00 in the the morning and within 5 hours it was sold out.

 

Despite obtaining this post just last year, inhabitant citizens are not very fond of Mr Leung because it is thought that he has spent most of his time in term working for improvements in Beijing. The most important thing for him is to gain popularity within the public because one of his tasks will be introducing a blueprint for universal suffrage allowing Hong Kong residents to choose his successor in 2017.

 

Some argue that Mr Leung deserves credit regarding other aspects, such as his promise to boost Hong Kong's housing stock, particularly for low-income residents. But a promise stands for nothing until these actions are carried out. More importantly, every one in Hong Kong seems to have mis-understood the concept of protest. Buying Lufsig the wolf, will only help strengthen the economy presenting Leung in a more credible light.