'Cute' expressions of young Qatari royal go viral, netizens in China call him 'dumpling wrapper prince'
Abdulrahman Fahad al-Thani
Abdulrahman Fahad al-Thani, a 16-year-old member of Qatar’s royal family, went viral on Chinese social media for his animated facial expression during a football World Cup match.
Netizens are showing love for the expression of sadness and exasperation of the young royal on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. They have even called him super-cute and dubbed him "dumpling wrapper prince".
Fahad al-Thani's expressions were from the FIFA World Cup host country's match against Ecuador, in which Qatar lost 0-2, and he looked so disappointed.
Chinese netizens have said that with his traditional Qatari headdress, Abdulrahman looked like La’eeb, the World Cup mascot.
The "Dumpling wrapper prince" reference came from a banter when netizens earlier joked about the World Cup mascot, calling it traditional Chinese dumpling wrappers. From where Abdulrahman's nickname came.
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As quoted by the South China Morning Post, one user commented on Weibo, "We love him because he is so cute. We love him because he is so cute. It’s got nothing to do with politics."
Amid all the buzz, Abdulrahman created an account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. He amassed more than 15 million followers in less than a week. Users on Douyin have also tried to re-create Abdulrahman’s facial expressions.
In his first Douyin video, he said: "Ni hao. Hello. This is my message for all of my Chinese friends. Thank you so much for all your support."
He also joined Weibo and named himself "Little Prince La’eeb", amassing almost 2.5 million followers.
During an interview with China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV, he said he was surprised by the attention he received. He said: "I was just reacting, just a normal reaction. I didn't expect to reach to China or to anywhere else, honestly."
He further said, "All of you, all the Chinese fans, are welcome to Qatar to experience our amazing culture."
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