There are certain levels of Hello Kitty cuteness that one can tolerate. Hello Kitty-themed cafes, hotel rooms, and airplanes, for example, have the effect of making one smile. Others, such as maternity wards, probably raise eyebrows. But love it or hate it, Hello Kitty is a way of life.
Although it is recognized first and foremost as being synonymous with kawaii culture, there is also a dark side to this adorable cat. The fact that Hello Kitty’s face is plastered on beer cans, dildos and even condom wrappers shows how deeply (and somewhat disturbingly) ingrained this culture of cute is in Taiwan.
Nowadays, Hello Kitty is not simply child’s play — it serves to titillate grown-ups as well.
Photo: Dana Ter
For those seeking to learn more about the phenomenon, Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區) is hosting a two-and-a-half-month long Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Exhibition. Regular tickets are set at NT$280 but those wanting to watch the hologram show in addition to the exhibition will have to pay NT$560.
Running until Sept. 14, the exhibition showcases Hello Kitty toys in various bizarrely-themed rooms from discos to skateboarding rings. Most of the displays ooze cuteness, but there are hints of sexy and naughty in certain ones as well.
STIFF AS A BOARD
Photo: Dana Ter
Although the tickets are overpriced for an exhibition that has nothing extraordinary to boast about, visitors last weekend did not seem to mind. Most were die-hard fans, as many of the women and children came dressed in Hello Kitty shirts and costumes. Relying merely on Taiwan’s huge Hello Kitty fan base to attract visitors, the exhibition’s layout and design clearly lacked imagination.
The hologram show in particular was utterly disappointing — watching a life-sized Hello Kitty hologram bopping and twirling to high-pitch background music singing “kitty, kitty, kitty” is simply not worth the extra NT$280. Moreover, the gift store selling Hello Kitty t-shirts, flip flops, cups and notebooks in the last room was a typical run-of-the-mill advertising gimmick — one that might have been spiced up by a dildo section.
Each room in the main exhibition hall was designed in such a way as to encourage picture-taking, and visitors last weekend were mainly interested in doing just that. The “Hello Kitty Town” which essentially consisted of a few cardboard cutouts with words such as “cafe,” “deco shop” and “fashion and design” slapped on them, served as backdrops for visitors to pose for pictures. The make-believe town also included a Hello Kitty ticket booth, train station and New York City-style subway. Like the hologram show though, the displays were stiff and one-dimensional.
Photo: Dana Ter
MANY FACES
Where the exhibition lacked in design creativity, it made up in explaining the history and cultural significance of the cartoon. The wall of Hello Kitty comics dating from 1974 to today especially illustrated how cultural values and social norms have evolved over time. Earlier drawings from the 1970s and 1980s tended to depict Hello Kitty in domestic settings like showing her cooking in a kitchen. By contrast, comics after the year 2000 portrayed her as taking on more raunchy personas. In the 2007 poster, for instance, there are two Hello Kitties in a devil and angel costume and both are striking cheeky poses.
Other rooms featured life-size Hello Kitty toys dancing at discos and trekking through jungles filled with rainbow-colored apples. In contrast to the cute, pink motif seen throughout “Hello Kitty Town,” the skateboarding room in particular revealed a different side to the cartoon. Apparently, everyone’s favorite cat not only enjoys high tea, but she also rides motorcycles and skateboards.
Those less obsessed with the cartoon may wonder why Hello Kitty is riding a motorcycle. The answer is simple: why not? Oddly enough, the one thing that the exhibition does well is portraying Hello Kitty as an empowered feminist. From DJ Kitty to skateboarding Kitty, the displays make clear that gone are the days where Hello Kitty’s sole duties were in the kitchen.
Hello Kitty might have started out as primarily appealing to young girls, but as the exhibition demonstrates, it now resonates with the public at large. Regardless of overpriced tickets and trite advertising gimmicks, it provides a portal into understanding Taiwan’s obsession with Hello Kitty and the many subtexts associated with “cuteness.”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would