Did you know that Hello Kitty has been accused of being a satanic symbol? Did you know that her real name isn’t Hello Kitty and that she’s not from Japan? And have you heard that Hello Kitty isn’t really a cat? Here are 6 things you didn’t know about the world renown feline.
❶ Despite being known around the world as Hello Kitty, and as Kitty-chan in Japan, the famous white cat’s real name is Kitty White. That name isn’t too surprising given the character’s appearance, but the same cannot be said for the reason behind that name............. ❷ If 'Kitty White' sounds distinctly English, that’s because it is. Kitty White isn’t from Japan, according to her creators at the Sanrio Company she was born in the suburbs of London on November 1st and lives in London with her parents, George and Mary, and her sister Mimmy! The British backstory was selected because, at the time of Hello Kitty’s development in the 1970s, Japan had a fascination for all things British and the Sanrio Company capitalized on this trend by making their new star character British. Whether or not Kitty White holds a British or a Japanese Passport has been thrown into question by a 2008 decision by the Tourism Industry of Japan to make her Japan’s Tourism Ambassador to China and Hong Kong, and by the 2012 release of the book “Hello Kitty’s Guide to Japan in English and Japanese” in which Hello Kitty is seen living in Japan with her family (with no explanation for why or how they came to be there) and showing her boyfriend Dear Daniel around Japan in a distinctly Japanese way. Diehard fans may be determined that Hello Kitty is Japanese and that this book’s portrayal proves it, but Sanrio still stands by their original backstory. ❸ Hello Kitty’s height and weight is not measured in imperial or metric units but in fruit! According to Sanrio Hello Kitty weighs 3 apples and is 5 apples tall.
❹ Despite her appearance, the name Kitty White, and the title Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty is not actually a cat! A Sanrio PR representative explained in 2014 that Hello Kitty is not a cat because she is never depicted as walking on all four legs. The representative went on to explain that Hello Kitty wasn’t human either but an anthropomorphization of a cat. He compared Hello Kitty to Mickey Mouse saying, "No one would mistake the Disney character for a human–but at the same time he's not quite a mouse. Just like Hello Kitty isn't a human, she's not quite a cat either.”1 ❺ Even a character with as well documented a history as Hello Kitty isn’t free from wild stories and speculation. The most prevalent and wild urban legend about Hello Kitty claims that she is a satanic symbol that came about because of a pact made with the devil. Supposedly a girl in China was dying of mouth cancer and her mother made a pact with the devil to save her. The devil granted a cure for the girl’s cancer in exchange for the mother developing a character that would lure girls into devil worship. The myth goes onto claim that Hello Kitty’s ears are a stand in for the devil’s horns and that “kitty” means devil in Chinese. The myth also claims that Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth because the mother wanted to acknowledge her daughter’s cancer. ❻ The real reason why Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth is because, according to Sanrio, “Hello Kitty speaks from her heart. She’s Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language.” Hello Kitty’s designer, Yuko Shimizu, also said she designed Hello Kitty without a mouth because, “people can project their feelings onto the character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty.”2
Love her or hate her Hello Kitty is one of the most successful and well recognized brand characters in the world worth approximately $7 billion a year in 2014. This year, 2016, saw Hello Kitty launched into a new adventure with the web comic “Ichigoman” (Strawberryman) featuring Hello Kitty as the title super hero (I thought Hello Kitty was a girl?) who fights monsters with the help of her giant robot. The comic is updated once a month and shows that Hello Kitty still has the power to keep going 42 years after her creation.
Works sited: 1."Hello Kitty isn’t a cat!? We called Sanrio to find out!”. Retrieved 16 June 2016. 2. Takagi, Jun (August 21, 2008). "10 Questions for Yuko Yamaguchi". TIME. Retrieved 2016-6-14
Works consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Kitty http://anitasnotebook.com/2011/02/the-real-story-behind-hello-kitty.html http://www.scaryforkids.com/hello-kitty/ http://www.people.com/article/hello-kitty-not-a-cat http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/28/world/asia/hello-kitty-revelation/ http://jezebel.com/5880380/what-dark-secrets-has-hello-kitty-been-hiding http://www.thewire.com/global/2012/01/kitten-sized-controversy-hello-kitty-london-or-japan/47988/ http://www.zmonline.com/random-stuff/turns-out-hello-kitty-is-not-a-cat-and-never-has-been/ http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/hellokitty.asp http://www.sanrio.com/faqs/#27 http://www.kittyhell.com/2010/08/30/hello-kitty-devil-worship/ http://popcultmag.com/criticalmass/books/kitty/hellokitty1.html Walker, Esther (21 May 2008). "Top cat: how 'Hello Kitty' conquered the world". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2016-6-14 Tabuchi, Hiroko (May 14, 2010). "In Search of Adorable, as Hello Kitty Gets Closer to Goodbye". NYTimes.com Walker, Rob. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. Random House, Inc., 2008. 18. Retrieved from Google Books on August 30, 2010. ISBN 1-4000-6391-4, ISBN 978-1-4000-6391-8 Tracey, David (May 29, 1999). "The Small White Cat That Conquered Japan". New York Times Detroit Free Press, HELLO KITTY STILL BOWLING ’EM OVER, by Jenee Osterheldt, page D1, July 14, 2014