CHINA’S ruling Communist Party is known for its vice-like grip of the country’s internet but this is probably the last thing you would expect them to be censoring.

Peppa Pig has been banned on popular Chinese streaming site Douyin.

More than 30,000 videos of the loveable UK cartoon pig have been wiped from the site after the children’s character has developed into a counterculture icon reportedly embraced by the Chinese youth.

Aimed at preschoolers, the cartoon was first aired on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV in 2015 and became insanely popular. The show has been such a hit that two Peppa Pig theme parks are being built, one in Beijing and another in Shanghai set to open in 2019, the year of the pig in China.

But somewhere along the line, the cute little animal has become a subversive symbol, earning the nickname Shehuiren, a slang term used for a gangster. The trend has reportedly worried authorities (who want to foster a positive online atmosphere) and is thought to be the reason behind the unlikely censorship.

According to the Global Times, Peppa has become somewhat of a mascot for China’s Shehuiren subculture, a word that literally means “society person” but refers to those who drop out of society like slackers and gangsters.

The character’s popularity has even sparked a tattoo trend — something which isn’t embraced by mainstream Chinese culture — after a popular video with the slogan “tattoos on Peppa, claps for fella” went viral.

A number of photos circulating online from Chinese social media sites show users posing with Peppa Pig tattoos, mostly of the temporary variety. Some pictures showing a more “gangster” interpretation have also been shared.

One 18-year-old high school student in Beijing known only as Zhang told the Global Times that his classmates would frequently draw the character on themselves.

“All of my classmates draw Peppa Pig on their arms,” he said. “Nobody knows why they do this. I do not really care but I do it as well for fun.”

It’s not the first time a children’s cartoon character has been appropriated by internet subculture in the country and adopted by the youth.

In order to subvert China’s strict internet censorship, netizens often adopt a shorthand or use emojis or other characters to represent something that might draw the attention of censors.

The #MeToo movement found its way to China but internet users were forced to use #RiceBunny as a substitute term, using a rabbit and rice emoji side-by-side to refer to the anti-sexual harassment movement. In Chinese, the word for “rice” is pronounced “mi”, and the word for “rabbit” is “tu”.

Last year, the Chinese government banned Winnie the Pooh internet memes on social media. Neither the Chinese government nor the internet platforms gave any comment at the time of the ban but observers said the crackdown was likely due to a long-running internet meme comparing Chinese President Xi Jinping to the slow-witted, good-natured bear.

To show just how worried China’s government is about anything too edgy, Netflix adult animated series BoJack Horseman (which features an alcoholic horse living an Los Angeles as a washed-up sitcom star) was pulled from the country last year just two days after its debut.

It’s believed the show’s critically acclaimed dark comedy and earnest commentary didn’t go down well with the nation’s censors.

Many believe the bizarre Peppa Pig trend is a manifestation of the strict online censorship Chinese people live with. Hijacking Peppa is a harmless way for youth culture to push back against the authoritarian government and the cultural pressures being placed on the younger generation.

“In China’s strict environment, it’s hard to directly criticise anything so they use roundabout, joking ways,” Professor Haiqing Yu, a senior research fellow at RMIT University, told SBS News.

“Peppa Pig is supposed to teach kids about the importance of family which is quite acceptable to the Chinese culture, but the fact that young people have turned it into something associated with a thug or a gangster, that’s totally the opposite of what (President) Xi Jinping has wanted China to be,” she said.

Details about the crackdown by the Douyin video streaming site are still not known but it’s suspected that it was the result of a directive from Chinese authorities, who have been clamping down on social media content.

Peppa Pig videos on the site have reportedly been banned along with content including nudity, men dressing as women, displays of firearms and cult preachings.