Recently, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV released the mascot for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, named “Four Steeds,” which has sparked widespread discussion on social media. Netizens have raised questions about its design bearing a striking resemblance to the image of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” from the Bible’s Book of Revelation, with many similarities from color scheme to details, representing the coming of the end times as portrayed in the Bible.
The mascot features four steeds named “Qiqi,” “Jiji,” “Chichi,” and “Chengcheng,” echoing the annual theme “Unstoppable Momentum of the Steeds.”
According to CCTV’s introduction, the concept of the four horses’ creation is inspired by classic horse culture images from different historical periods in China: the blue-black “Qiqi” draws from the Western Zhou Dynasty artifact “Pan Ju Zun”; “Jiji” originates from the Han Dynasty celestial horse incorporating the wings of a flying horse; “Chichi” is based on the Tang Dynasty Three Flowers Horse; and “Chengcheng” is derived from the Przewalski’s Horse.
However, some netizens pointed out that the color scheme of the four horses is highly similar to the commonly depicted white, red, black, and gray (or blue) horses of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” with even the detail of only the white horse wearing a saddle being identical. These comparative images have been widely shared on social media.
The “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” come from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, traditionally representing plague (or conquest), war, famine, and death, seen as a sign of the impending apocalypse.
Some netizens also questioned the phonetic similarity between “four horses” and “dead horses.” Some people noted that when the Spring Festival Gala slogan “Qiqi Jicheng” is read backward, it sounds like “City Sacrifice Flag.” Additionally, some netizens observed similarities in the layout style and angle between the main visual of the Spring Festival Gala featuring “Four Horses Running Together” and the 1989 Tiananmen Square “Tank Man” photograph.
Rumors have circulated online about internal documents suggesting that since the image of the four horses has already been publicly released and cannot be withdrawn, it is recommended that relevant units intervene in public opinion early to guide the direction of the discussion.
This is not the first time that a CCTV Spring Festival Gala mascot has sparked controversy.
In the 2024 Spring Festival Gala, the CCTV mascot “Long Chencheng” was found by netizens to have multiple design errors: the number of toes on the feet with three-legged claws varied, with five on the right front paw, three on the left front paw, four on the left hind paw, and only two visible on the right hind paw, with noticeable inconsistencies in toe thickness and disproportion; the direction of the ear hole of one ear was opposite; the leg hair design between the front and hind legs was inconsistent.
Netizens speculated that “Long Chencheng” was possibly a creation of “low-quality AI drawing.” In December 2023, a propaganda poster for China Construction Bank’s banknotes had labeled the 2024 Spring Festival Gala mascot as “AI-designed.”