Little Cherry (Comic Strip)

***Little Cherry*** (Chinese: 小樱桃; pinyin: Xiǎo Yīng Táo) is a Chinese comedy comic strip created by Yang Shangjun which has been running since October 1998. Named after its main character, it highlights a young girl and her daily life in school and home, while not overlooking longer stories that sometimes veer into fantasy or Chinese folklore settings. The main character, Little Cherry, was originally drawn with a braided "noodle" hairstyle and flower headband but has been drawn with only small pigtails since 2003.

It is published by the Little Cherry Animation Group (formerly Zhengzhou Xoyto Comics Company), which was founded by Yang Shangjun and Zhang Guoxiao in 2000, although it originally relied on other publishers such as Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House. Since 2008, it has been published in the *Little Cherry Childhood Comics* magazine, which remains to be the primary source for new comics.

A series of flash shorts was released in 2003. In 2007, an animated/multimedia project known as Grandpa Chinese New Year was teased but never released. *Little Cherry* made its debut on national TV in October 2008 as a 26-episode animated series, and it had four more seasons and few spinoffs. Beverages and snacks were manufactured featuring the Little Cherry character from 2006 for an unknown duration.

There has never been an English language release of any comic and animation. The Zhengzhou Xoyto Comics Company and a licensing company, KoWe International, had English-language summaries that use the "Little Cherry" name. Also, the main character is interchangeably referred as "Xoyto" and "Xiaoyingtao" in the flash shorts. Some of the Flash shorts have English subtitles, but they were never aimed to reach the English-speaking world.

## Characters

* Little Cherry (小樱桃 Xiao Ying Tao, or 桃桃 Taotao) - a cheerful, mischievous and funny girl who struggles with studying
* Lazy (大懒 Da Lan) - an overweight and food obsessed boy. Had been a love interest to Little Cherry.
* Xiaonan (小南) - the greedy son of the principal
* Tie Nan Hua (铁南花) - a fashionable and self-centered girl
* Xiaoxue (小雪) - a nice girl and Cherry's best friend
* Xiaoli (小丽) - the daughter of divorced parents who wants to become mayor
* Erdou (二豆) - a timid computer geek boy
* Pidai or Pizi (皮带 or 皮仔) - a boy who's into coolness (absent in the TV show and beyond)
* Wang Shuai (王帅) - a student leader of Cherry's class (originally appeared months before the TV show's premiere)
* Xiao Yang (小杨)- the hard-working teacher who quarrels with her students (absent in the TV show and most comics afterwards)
* Principal
* Director Hao
* Little Cherry's Mom
* Little Cherry's Dad
* Guoguo (果果) - a talking yellow bird appearing in the older comics

## Publications

(incomplete)

* *Golden Junior* (金色少年) circa early-mid 2000s
* *Comic Classics* (漫画精典) circa 2003-2004
* *Can Comic* (看漫画) circa 2004
* *Ying* or *Little Cherry Childhood Comics* (2008-present)

## Reception

The comic strip received praise from readers of different backgrounds including children and teenagers, as well as politicians. It also had an adult fanbase during its heyday.

Retrospectively, it had a user score of 8.6 on Douban, whereas the 2008 TV series had mixed or negative ratings.

## Gallery

A banner from the old company websiteArtwork with very early versions of Little Cherry, Xiaoxue, and ErdouPotential promotional image for a cancelled 2002 collection of 160 animated shorts that was going to be coproduced by Korean studio Kims AniComFrom 2004 website [1]Artwork for trademark registrationThumbnail for a screensaver [2]A flash banner from the old website [3]An assortment of *Little Cherry* beveragesBack and front of the inaugural *Childhood Comics* issue (June 2008)November 2008 issue celebrating the TV series' premiereInterview with Yang Shangjun (unknown 2008 issue)Little Cherry on the September 2023 cover
## References

1. ↑ https://book.douban.com/subject/1072930/

## External links

* Company website
* Official Taobao shop page
* Bilibili channel
* Flash games (2003 era)