The logic behind the viral success of “Xinjiang Lamb Guy”

Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporters Liu Yiming, Guo Qian and Sun Fangting) news: At 10:00 a.m. on June 13, on the first floor of Jianglai City scenic area of the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Abdulla Amirulla, dressed in a white shirt and with a delicate hairstyle, sat at the store entrance, intently gluing hats and attaching accessories to lamb doll. A row of stools had been placed at the entrance, and the line of waiting customers extended well beyond it. Outside the queue, layers of onlookers held up their phones to take photos.

Photo taken on June 13, 2026 shows Abdulla takes photo with his fans in Jianglai City section of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar, Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Yiming)

"Which one of you picked this hat?" he called out to the crowd, holding up an accessory.

"Me!" a young girl hurriedly raised her hand.

"Just a moment. I'll get your lamb all dressed up in no time," Abdulla said, breaking into a broad smile.

After finishing each lamb doll, he would smile as he handed it to the tourists and posed for a photo. From time to time, people would call him "handsome boy." He would look up, raise the lamb doll in his hand, make a finger-heart gesture, and smile with evident delight.

Every day, hundreds of tourists arrive from across the country, dragging their suitcases with them. They wait in line for three or four hours, sometimes even longer, just to buy a Xinjiang lamb doll and take it to Sichuan, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Beijing, or even farther.

The "Xinjiang lamb doll" has become most popular cultural and creative product of the season in Xinjiang. Some call it the "Xinjiang Labubu," while others describe it as "a portable memory of Xinjiang." Abdulla, with his handsome appearance and ever-present smile, has been affectionately dubbed by netizens as the “Xinjiang Lamb Guy.”

Occasionally, Abdulla finds himself wondering: how did he and this lamb doll become so popular?

Aesthetic sensibility is innate, its foundation is your hometown

Before ever holding a "Xinjiang lamb doll" in their hands, most people are first captivated by it online.

Its slightly curled wool, delicately crafted floral cap, large round eyes paired with smiling lips, brilliant Atlas silk dress, and strings of shimmering ornaments all make it instantly striking.

Watching plain, undecorated lamb doll gradually become resplendent in Abdulla’s hands, Yuan Ye, a tourist standing on tiptoe in the crowd and recording the entire process on his phone, said, “You can tell at a glance where this little lamb doll comes from. The aesthetic sensibility of this young man from Xinjiang is indeed beyond mine.”

Similar admiration has surged across the internet. When asked whether he has any secret technique, Abdulla jokes, "It's talent." But when speaking seriously, he says, "It's because I have lived since childhood in the richly colorful world of Xinjiang."

In Xinjiang, color is not mere embellishment, it is life itself.

The blue doors and windows of Kazanqi, the small mountains of spices in every color piled high in the bazaars, and the flowing Atlas patterns on the hems of young girl’s dresses — Abdulla grew up in precisely this "high-saturation" world. The lamb doll in his hands seem naturally to inherit this aesthetic gene: brilliant, passionate, and unstinting in their expression of love for life. This is not merely a symbolic presentation of "ethnic style," but rather the natural outpouring of an everyday aesthetic.

When tourists are amazed by the Xinjiang lamb doll, what they are truly encountering is the beauty of Xinjiang and the warm, exuberant everyday life of people.

What Abdulla has done is to distill that everyday life into a palm-sized lamb doll.

Every morning, long before business hours begin, a queue has already formed in front of Abdulla's stall.

"I'll make yours right away." "Please don't worry, everyone will get one." "Welcome to Xinjiang." As his hands keep moving, Abdulla keeps talking. Each time he finishes a lamb doll and hands it to a customer, he records a customized blessing and takes photos with his fans.

"From the moment I open my eyes, I'm making lamb dolls," Abdulla says of his recent life, admitting that he is indeed a little tired. Yet he still treats every lamb doll in his hands with great care, because it represents Xinjiang.

“People come because of his sincerity," said Li Yueru, a tourist from northwest China's Shaanxi Province. What customers are buying is not simply a lamb doll, but an experience of emotional value—a pleasant interaction worth paying for.

After the Xinjiang lamb doll became popular, many netizens said they wanted one. Netizens from Xinjiang responded enthusiastically: "Does any friend I’ve never met need one?" "I’m going tomorrow morning, let me know in advance if you need one." On June 11, Urumqi resident Xieripam Mehmut waited in line for four hours and successfully bought a lamb doll for a friend outside Xinjiang.

The simplicity and warmth of the people of Xinjiang have allowed these lamb doll to travel across mountains and rivers, becoming emotional bonds that connect Xinjiang with places across the country.

"You are the only stylist for Xinjiang lamb doll"

At 2:00 a.m. on June 13, Zhang Zhiwei, a tourist from Guangdong, was already waiting in front of Abdulla’s stall to receive a queue number. Ahead of him was a 17-year-old girl.

After getting three lamb dolls, he went to Jinquan Mall again near noon to choose more lamb dolls.

"I want more! I wanna style the little lamb myself. How's my eye for design?" As he spoke, he proudly held up the Xinjiang lamb doll he crafted himself.

Tourists choose Xinjiang lamb dolls in Jinquan Mall, Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Yiming)

Is it worth waiting in line for eight hours just to obtain a Xinjiang lamb doll?

"Of course it is. I designed it myself, and the boy made it by hand. I watched it gradually take shape before my eyes,” Zhang Zhiwei said. The warmth of handmade objects and the exclusivity of personalized creative design, he explained, were what made the experience so captivating.

Chen Yuying, a tourist from Hunan, came to Xinjiang for Sayram Lake. During her trip, she came across the Xinjiang lamb doll online and immediately decided that she would buy one on her way back.

"It is incredibly beautiful here. I also visited the Narat Grassland, which was equally stunning," she said. Throughout her journey, she felt the warmth of the people of Xinjiang everywhere: "If you so much as glance at the food displayed at a stall, the owner will invite you to try some."

"I want to take away a piece of Xinjiang that belongs only to me," tourist Zhang Ling said. She had visited many places across China, but the homogenization of cultural and creative products had often restrained her desire to buy.

"T-shirts and refrigerator magnets printed with landmark buildings may look nice, but there is always a certain distance between them and the tourists. The Xinjiang lamb doll is different. It waits for you to choose a little floral cap for it, to select a sparkling ornament, and to dress it up in the way you like,” Zhang Ling said. What tourists are purchasing is no longer an object produced on an assembly line. The anticipation of waiting for hours, the excitement of craning the necks and looking on together, and the moment when Abdulla looks up, smiles, and says, "I'll make your sheep right away" — all of these give the little lamb doll a sense of warmth.

No two tourists leave with identical Xinjiang lamb dolls — each visitor's creation is one of a kind. For tourists like Zhang Ling, as these one-of-a-kind Xinjiang lamb dolls travel with them to places across the country, their memories of Xinjiang are also preserved in tangible form.

As the Xinjiang lamb doll has gone viral, more and more merchants have begun making them. In Jinquan Mall, where the Xinjiang Lamb Guy originally operated, Xinjiang lamb dolls now hang at the entrances of almost every shop, and many merchants offer customization services.

The merchants make Xinjiang lamb dolls in Jinquan Mall, Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Yiming)

"We can sell around 150 a day," said Bilal Ekbarjan, a merchant. "We hope the Xinjiang lamb doll can remain popular."

Such market competition has not placed much pressure on Abdulla. "The Xinjiang lamb doll does not belong to me alone," he said. In his view, as long as people can create products with Xinjiang characteristics, with quality and sincerity, then every additional person making Xinjiang lamb dolls means that more people will come to see Xinjiang.

After going viral, how can the path ahead become more stable?

The Xinjiang lamb doll became a runaway hit, and Abdulla himself rose to fame as well. Faced with this overwhelming surge of attention, the young boy was bewildered for a time. What should the next step be?

Felidong Hasim explains the relevant legal provisions to Abdulla Amirulla. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Yiming)

At Jinquan Mall, as more and more tourists arrived because of his growing reputation, his stall was packed every day. Feilidong Hasim, secretary of the Party general branch of Erdaoqiao Community, Erdaoqiao Subdistrict, Tianshan District, Urumqi, worried that the excessive crowds might create safety risks and often went over to check on the situation. After visiting many times, he gradually became acquainted with Abdulla.

Later, an increasing number of platforms and brokerage companies approached Abdulla, hoping to cooperate with him. "I don’t understand these things, and I don't have time to learn about them," Abdulla confided to Feilidong. Unexpectedly, Feilidong spent the night checking the qualifications and backgrounds of many companies, listing them one by one for Abdulla’s reference.

"Brother Feilidong often reminds me to keep my feet on the ground,” Abdulla said. Although they had not known each other for long, Feilidong had already become a trusted brother to him.

The work team dispatched by the Urumqi Municipal Bureau of Justice to Erdaoqiao Community also drew on its institutional resources to provide Abdulla with free legal assistance.

“The help we provide is not only about safeguarding contracts, it is also about protecting a young child’s future,” said Feilidong.

Later, Abdulla’s new stall settled in Jianglai City section on the Pedestrian Street of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar. The new venue is equipped with air conditioning, and the operator of Jianglai City has also prepared stools for tourists waiting in line while offering free watermelon and snacks to help them cool down.

“We now use an online queuing system. After receiving a number, tourists no longer need to wait in place the whole time. They can stroll through the nearby streets, experience local ethnic customs, and discover more quality products from Xinjiang,” Chen Hao, head of Jianglai City section of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar under Urumqi Tianshan District Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., explained to tourists.

Abdulla interacts with his fans in Jianglai City section of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar, Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Yiming)

This support from various sides has given Abdulla greater confidence.

On June 11, the day the new shop opened, Abdulla raised his voice toward the long line and said, “We won’t raise prices no matter how many people come!”

Without marketing investment or a carefully designed script, the queue in front of Abdulla’s new stall remains just as long. He lowers his head, focusing intently on the lamb doll in his hands as he carefully attaches ornaments one by one. Tourists raise their phones to record the moment, sharing their excitement and joy on social media.

As more and more people come to Xinjiang and fall in love with Xinjiang because of this lamb doll, and as more and more Xinjiang lamb dolls find homes across the country, what people take away is not merely a cultural and creative product. It is Xinjiang’s simplest and most moving expression: you are welcome to come, and you are welcome to return.

The beauty of Xinjiang extends far beyond the Xinjiang lamb doll.

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