Emotive photographs of “mended” moon bear Xuan Xuan by animal welfare photographer Peter Yuen captured the attention of millions across China via social media.

The snaps of Xuan Xuan, one year on from her rescue from a bear bile farm in January 2013, were uploaded to Animals Asia’s main website on Wednesday 12th February before being translated into Chinese and shared via social media platform Weibo.

The response was overwhelming with the images being viewed an astonishing 3.26 million times in just five days, garnering thousands of comments and shares.

Animals Asia supporters have followed Xuan Xuan’s progress since the rescue when it was feared that an array of ailments might mean her not surviving.  Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson then dubbed her “a broken bear”.

The most recent photos finally pronounced her “mended”.

The post’s popularity was swelled by the support of Chinese film star Sun Li (pictued below), a long time supporter of Animals Asia, who had been given the honour of choosing Xuan Xuan’s name and had visited the bear during her rehabilitation.

Sun Li shared the link to the photos adding:

“Fantastic! A mended bear, now she can live a real life.”

Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson MBE said:

“With every bear rescued we are not only removing them from a hellish existence we are also further raising the awareness of those bears still locked in cages in China and Vietnam. We have continued to share Xuan Xuan’s wonderful progress via social media and, in following her story, people are learning about what these poor bears endure.  From there, our friends and those who want to see an end to bear bile farming, work hard to further get the story out and to make sure we are heard. It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that Xuan Xuan has been an inspiration to millions.  Her story will mean less bile products sold and less products equals fewer bears, less pain and another step closer to the industry’s end.”

To date, the story has been read 3.26 million times, received 7,649 likes, has been shared 1,694 times, attracting 1,114 comments.