Hello Kitty Special

***Japan Topics***
TOPIC #3: Hello Kitty (& friends)


Who is the character to the left of this text? Hello Kitty, you think? Wrong. This is Charmmy Kitty, Hello Kitty's pet cat.
"Charmmy bears a striking resemblance to her owner, except that she has more 'cat-like features'."
-Emma Boyes, "Hello Kitty Trivia", Japanzine, February 2006.

Anyway, I thought that would interest you. Back in early December I went Christmas shopping for one of my young cousins and was instructed to buy a "Hello Kitty-style" doll, when I came across Charmmy Kitty. I didn't end up buying it, I bought a much more appropriate small bear-like creature that was attached to a squid.

Moving along, as you probably know as one of your only "Asian Facts", they love Hello Kitty. I was really confused about the obsession for a long time, but I'm slowly starting to understand... She has no mouth and that is very, very funny.

So this month in Japanzine, a free national magazine for English-speakers, there was a feature on Hello Kitty, and I thought I'd plagiarize some interesting facts about Asia's favorite young cat.

Hello Kitty and her competing characters (there are a number of them) all have elaborate background stories that the general public is supposed to know. Hello Kitty, for instance, is not actually Japanese, but British. "She was born in London on November 1st, 1974. Her surname is White and her parents are called George and Mary. She lives with them and her sister somewhere in 'suburban London'".

"At any one point in the year, there are 22,000 Hello Kitty products on the market. The only licenses that (its company) forbids... are sharp objects, drugs, guns, hard alcohol and cigarettes. "Soft" alcohol... is okay... Hello Kitty red wine has been sold in years past."

"Hello Kitty caused fisticuffs and riots in normally sensible Singapore in 2000, when McDonald's restaurants launched a special New Year promotion, giving away Hello Kitty dolls in wedding suits as Happy Meal toys... Two weeks later, a riot occurred when Kitty-crazed fans shattered a glass storefront window in a frenzy to get to the toys. Seven people were injured and the police subsequently had to use crowd control measures at the most popular stores. Bad Kitty!"

"There is a Hello Kitty shrine at the National History Museum in Singapore. Perhaps they're not so sensible there, after all."

"Kitty has an admirer called Tippy, a brown bear who rides a bicycle, and is described as 'strong but gentle'."

"Kitty's official weight is described as being 'three apples' and her height is 'five apples'.

"Despite being a cat, Kitty's blood type is A negative."

"Despite being 31, she is still in third grade."