About

Chinese Frog Mascot refers to a costume trend that originated in China in May 2023 and grew popular on TikTok in August 2023. The costume was reportedly created by a woman named Ms. Tong as a means of showing her frustration with the Chinese job market. The costume grew to be popular among street vendors and street performers, with videos of the frog saluting people and dancing wildly being shared on TikTok and Twitter in late 2023. In late 2025, the costume saw a resurgence as the Portland Frog went viral during the anti-ICE protests in Portland, Oregon, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump attempted to deploy the National Guard to the city in October of that year.

Origin

According to Radii Magazine, the green frog costume was created by a Chinese woman named Ms. Tong after she grew frustrated with the job-hunting process. A mother to twin children and a graduate of Nanjing Art Institute, Ms. Tong's unsuccessful attempts at returning to the workforce led her to draw and make the costume for the frog, and subsequently go out on the streets to market it.^[1]

A photo of Ms. Tong being interviewed by the Chinese state-run newspaper the Yangtze Evening Post can be seen below.

Videos of the frog stomping and saluting random people on the street went viral on Chinese social media, as seen in a YouTube repost by China.org.cn (seen below).

In May 2023, reports of vendors being reprimanded for being public nuisances and told to remove their costumes by Shanghai police went viral on Weibo and Chinese media. According to the South China Morning Post, people were "enraged by a video of an adorable costumed street vendor selling inflatable baby frogs being moved on by Shanghai city officials."^[2]

Spread

In August 2023, X users began reposting videos from the TikTok page @frogg.ech and @echbao123, which are themselves likely sourced from Chinese social media apps like Weibo and Douyin. On August 23rd, 2023, X^[3] user @vashethestamped posted a frog costume video captioned, "no someone needs to tell me who and what this is because i’ve become obsessed with him," gathering over 4,000 likes in two weeks (seen below).

On August 29th, 2023, X^[4] user @maxafrass posted a frog video with the caption, "You don’t understand how fucking obsessed with this frog I am," gathering over 73,000 likes in a week (seen below).

On September 4th, 2023, X^[5] user @INDIEWASHERE posted a frog video with the caption, "me after the first sip of my iced brown sugar oat shaken expresso latte from Starbucks," gathering over 102,000 likes on X (seen below).

Related Memes

Portland Frog

Portland Frog is the nickname given to a protestor wearing an inflatable frog costume during the anti-ICE protests in Portland, Oregon, soon after Donald Trump attempted to deploy the National Guard to the city in October 2025. Videos of a person "wriggling" in front of ICE officers first began making the rounds in early October, before a video of an officer pepper-spraying the frog costume's air vent went viral on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. According to some internet users, the person in the costume was 24-year-old Seth Todd, also known by his Instagram account @the_queertoad. However, multiple protestors have been spotted wearing the frog costume since the virality of the initial video. The Portland Frog inspired memes, jokes, and inspirational posters among internet users critical of Donald Trump's policies, and also led to discourse among his supporters about "humorous" tactics used by so-called "antifa terrorists." The frog costume used by the Portland Frog protestor is similar to the Chinese Frog Mascot that went viral in 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References