XiaoPang is an orange Chinese dog popular on social media for starring in skits where his male owner gives him forbidden foods, then snitches on him to his female owner, accusing the orange dog of stealing from the plate.
Who is XiaoPang?
XiaoPang is a Chinese dog with a vibrant orange coat who has been gaining popularity due to his owner’s comedic sketches of tattling on him for “stealing” treats he was expressly given. The sketches usually involve XiaoPang, also spelled as Xiǎopàng or Xiao Pang, growling and baring his teeth at the snitching owner, all while wagging his tail excitedly. In Chinese, “xiǎopàng” translates to chubby or plump.
His most popular videos are of him “stealing” roasted duck (meaning, being asked if he likes roasted duck and being handed pieces from the plate) before getting yelled at and having his “mom” called in to reprimand him for the “theft.”
XiaoPang goes viral outside of China
While the XiaoPang videos have been amassing a following after going viral on TikTok and Instagram, the videos the Western world sees are not the original uploads. XiaoPang’s owner originally posts the videos to Douyin, which is China’s alternative to TikTok.
The account, which is only available to those in Mainland China, has over 525K followers as of August 16th, 2024, and the account has garnered over 11 million likes on the Chinese app on their 238 videos.
@jiugecoca #cutedog #dog #cat #fyp ♬ nhạc nền – coca
Videos from the Douyin account started to get reposted to TikTok by fans beginning in July 2023, but they didn’t go viral outside of China until mid-August 2024. The earliest known reposted video to go viral is one that TikToker @jiugecoca shared on April 30th, 2024. In it, the owner/cameraman pushes over a trash can and a plant while “yelling” at XiaoPang for doing the deeds, until the dog’s mom comes in to admonish him.
The video has been viewed over 11.7 million times with over 15.1K comments and 106K shares.
Reposted videos of XiaoPang have become increasingly popular as more accounts pop up on Instagram and TikTok. On May 31st, 2024, an Instagram account named @xiaopang174 shared a Reel that has gained over 100K likes since it was posted. (And interestingly, used the Mercedes ChatGPT copypasta in their caption.)
XiaoPang, Do You Like Roast Duck?
The most recent viral video of XiaoPang “stealing” roast duck was reposted on August 11th, 2024 by TikToker @xiaopang456, which has been viewed over 1.8 million times in the last five days.
@xiaopang456 You kid! So you were waiting for me here! I never thought you were this kind of person! #xiaopang #XiaoPangWasWronged #poordog #vairal #vairal #cute #funnyvideo #dog #dogsmart #XiaoPangPoor #funnydog #fyp #funny #poorXiaoPang ♬ nhạc nền – Xiao Pang
XiaoPang was wronged: Allegations of abuse
While an animal being tattled on like XiaoPang can be funny to many people, some on social media are accusing him of abusing the dog, or at the very least causing him distress. To those familiar with dogs and their body language, it is clear that XiaoPang isn’t distressed at all, as he is excitedly wagging his tail and not showing any signs of stress, but the casual observer could certainly think so.
Videos of XiaoPang’s training have been shared to attempt to explain to viewers that XiaoPang is merely a very good actor, who gets paid well in roasted duck.
Even those who have seen these videos of XiaoPang being trained to growl and bare his teeth don’t always think that it is enough, however, and there are still those who say that he is being mentally abused.