‘Dumpling wrapper prince’: millions go mad in China for cute young Qatari royal whose World Cup antics make him look like tournament mascot
- In just 48 hours, more than 14 million Chinese netizens follow soccer-mad royal Abdulrahman Fahad al-Thani on his new Douyin account
- Videos of exasperated and disappointed young royal as Qatar lose opening World Cup game spark flood of affectionate jokes and memes online
Facial expressions of sadness and exasperation as his country’s soccer team slumped to an opening game defeat at this year’s soccer World Cup have propelled a 16-year-old member of Qatar’s royal family to social media stardom in China.
The young royal, Abdulrahman Fahad al-Thani, has been crowned super-cute by Chinese netizens, who have also affectionately dubbed him “dumpling wrapper prince’’.
The adoring moniker has caught on because video clips of the prince gesticulating at the game in his traditional Arab headgear make him look like tournament mascot La’eeb, which also resembles traditional Chinese dumpling and wonton wrappers.
Earlier this week, Abdulrahman sparked an online frenzy when he opened an account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, calling himself “La’eeb little prince”.
In just 48 hours – with just three video clips – the teenage Qatari royal attracted 14.3 million followers and 13.8 million likes.
He opened an account on Weibo on Wednesday and attracted some 210,000 followers in just a day.
Indulging his new-found Chinese audience, the young prince began his first Douyin video clip with “Ni Hao,” Mandarin for hello.
“This is my message for all my Chinese fans. Thank you so much for your support,” he said.