I created this bird poop official according to Chinese Tang/Song Dynasty official’s formal suit, the hat and the cloth is a simplified version of the suit, he is holding a canon on his right hand to shoot off any falling things that would possibly falling onto the car, in his right hand on the back, he holds a flag that says “鳥屎退散“ (Bird Poop Go Away), it is actually from Chinese traditional Taoism, when they do exorcism, the master or the priest often write on a paper that says “惡靈退散“ (Bad Spirits Go Away), and inject power that the bad spirits fear and stick it on the wall of the haunted house. He is wearing sunglasses because he have to look at the sky to stay alert all the time, he definitely needs a pair of sunglasses. In certain versions, he has a cigarette, because he needs to relax sometime and some other variations he has a cup of coffee.

The first image is the back of the box, it tells the background story that I made up of how he became a god: he was a foreigner living in the Capital of China, Chang’An, in Tang Dynasty, he was very good at raising horses and keeping them clean, as horse is very import transportation at that time, especially for the wealthy people and the imperial government, he was pointed by the emperor to raise horse for the palace. Unfortunately An Lushan Rebellion happened, even the emperor had to evacuate from the capital, he also flee away from the city, what was more unlucky, he was hit by a huge portion of bird poop on the face and choked to death when he was sleeping in a rural area. The Jade Emperor, who is a god that rule all the other gods in heaven, saw his skills as a talent and made him a god, and let him raise the horses in the heaven. People worship him as the god who keeps their transportation tool (which is horse in the ancient time) healthy and clean, as car becomes people’s main transportation tool, he protects the cars as well. The story was inspired by many traditional Chinese stories and fictions about fairy and deities, the rebellion part is aligned with the true history.

As I finished the toys and show them to other people, they told me that they also had some similar experiences, some of them have been hit by bird poop on their heads, that give me an idea of developing this into small versions as necklace or earrings so that people could take it with them, that could be very interesting and a lot of opportunity space.