For 24-year-old “Momo” Wang Liyuan, creator of the hugely popular Tuzki rabbit character and emoticon popular on QQ and MSN and elsewhere, 2009 was a memorable one. The official website, www.clubtuzki.com, was launched and won a gold award for best design from Promax/BDA, a worldwide association of broadcast and multimedia designers.

Her first book, I, Tuzki, U, won the best book design at the Seventh National Art Exhibition and Book Design Awards organized by the China Publishers Association, and also became a best seller in many Chinese cities. Over 500 fans lined up for Wang’s autograph at an I, Tuzki U book signing and the first Tuzki iPhone application, TuzkiSnap, was on the market in November.

All of this was unimaginable when Wang first developed the bunny in the end of 2006 while a third year student at the Animation School in Communication University of China in Beijing. (Read article at Global Times.)