An unlikely Lunar New Year mascot has popped up in China this year- Draco Malfoy.

Tom Felton is best known for his role in the Harry Potter series, but now, the actor is also making an appearance in some Chinese houses, with e-commerce sites selling festive decor prominently featuring his face.

His sudden popularity is thanks to his Chinese translation of his name Malfoy - Ma Er Fu, which contains the words for "horse" and "fortune " - ringing especially auspicious for the upcoming Year of the Horse.

Harry Potter is hugely popular in China, with hundreds of millions of books sold. A re-release of the series' first film in 2020 grossed more than 90 million yuan ($13.6m; £9.4m) in three days.

Ahead of Lunar New Year this month, Chinese households typically decorate their doors with couplets - a set of auspicious writings heralding health and prosperity in the new year. Others decorate their houses with red square-shaped papers with auspicious words written on them, a symbol of prosperity and a way of warding off evil.

These square shaped papers are commonly hung upside down to symbolise "luck arriving", as the Chinese words for "upside down" and "arrival" have the same Chinese pronunciation: dao.

On Chinese social media, pictures show some users sticking couplets or upside down pictures of Malfoy's signature smirk. Merchants on e-commerce site Taobao are also seizing the trend, coming up with even stickers and magnets featuring the Harry Potter character.

Others began sharing photos of the character, saying: "Share this image for good fortune".

"[It's an] oriental new year with magical elements," one user on social media site Weibo commented.

"Felix Felicis!" said one comment, a reference to a potion in the series that makes the drinker lucky for a period of time.

Source :BBC