Hello Kitty at 50: how Sanrio’s cute cat character became a global phenomenon

Hello Kitty toys at an exhibition in London in 2024. Since being created 50 years ago, the character has become a global cultural phenomenon. Photo: EPA

• Since its 1974 debut in Japan, cute cartoon cat Hello Kitty has comforted millions, and made billions for Tokyo-based Sanrio Company

Hongkonger Connie Tse is loaded up with Hello Kitty-themed items: pencils, notebooks, a key ring.

"I can't stop buying Hello Kitty stationery," says the 14-year-old, as she wanders around a Hello Kitty store in the shopping district of Causeway Bay, in Hong Kong. "She is so cute."

Tse, much like the rest of Hong Kong and the world, can't get enough of the cute, mouthless, red-bow-wearing character which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

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The merchandising machine, which started in 1975, a year after the character's creation, began with a small vinyl coin purse.

Today, Hello Kitty's face is plastered on pouches that dangle from school bags, on shirts, shoes, phones, plush toys and toothbrushes ... There is even Hello Kitty toilet paper.

In Hong Kong, fans might find themselves in a Hello Kitty-themed taxi decked boot-to-bonnet in images of the kitsch cat, while in Taiwan they can board Eva Air's Hello Kitty airliner, and in Japan ride a Hello Kitty bullet train.

Fans can eat at any of the many Hello Kitty cafes around the world, and for those giving birth, there is Taiwan's Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital, where nurses in pink Hello Kitty uniforms swaddle newborns in Hello Kitty blankets.

Speaking of births, Hello Kitty was born in 1974 at Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company known for embracing the kawaii, or cute, parts of Japanese popular culture.

Designer Yuko Shimizu drew the first Hello Kitty, inspired by the cats in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

Despite Hello Kitty's feline features, Sanrio maintains the character is not a cat but a girl - a perpetual third-grader named Kitty White, who, along with her parents and twin sister Mimmy, lives in the suburbs of London, where she loves baking cookies, making friends and eating home-made apple pie.

While Hello Kitty's identity is slightly fuzzy, what is clear is that the character is a moneymaking machine, having reportedly generated an eye-watering US$80 billion to date.

This makes Hello Kitty among the world's highest-grossing media franchises, alongside Pokemon and Mickey Mouse.

In the West, the Hello Kitty craze took off in the mid-1990s, when celebrities including Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were photographed wearing Hello Kitty clothes and accessories.

American singer Lisa Loeb dedicated an entire album to Hello Kitty, while Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne wrote and recorded the song "Hello Kitty" for her fifth studio album.

Hello Kitty has some official roles, among them ambassador of Japanese tourism in China and Hong Kong.

In addition, the character has been the children's ambassador to the United States for Unicef since 1983, and in August 2010 "she" marked Sanrio's anniversary by ringing the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

"I'm always surprised by her longevity," says Christine Yano, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii who wrote about the Hello Kitty phenomenon in her book Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific.

"I ascribe part of this to Sanrio's creativity and willingness to embrace new designs for the character. Sanrio has created a character that is always the same and always different.

"In some ways, this is true for most successful brands. But the quality of cuteness injects the emotional element as well as the element of surprise into her products and marketing," Yano adds.

Yano decided to research Hello Kitty after noticing how much the character appealed to adult fans. Hello Kitty was, after all, initially marketed with a preteen female audience in mind.

"One of the key findings from my research is that Hello Kitty has a wide variety of fans, from young children to those from a punk generation to men," she says.

In Hong Kong, Hello Kitty is also associated with something more sinister: the 1999 murder of nightclub employee Fan Man-yee.

The skull of the 23-year-old, who was held captive for weeks, tortured and killed in a flat in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui neighbourhood, was found inside a Hello Kitty doll, leading the case to become known as the Hello Kitty murder. Three men were given life sentences for the crime.

Gruesome as it may have been, the incident has not affected Sanrio's ability to collaborate with brands in Hong Kong.

This is evidenced by its collaborations this year with fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's on the release of a limited-edition crystal mahjong set for Chinese New Year; with restaurant chain Cafe de Coral on an eco-friendly reusable Hello Kitty-themed cutlery set; and with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA-HK).

"We are thrilled to welcome Hello Kitty, a cultural icon also with a rich heritage and a passion for the future, to join us in exploring and reframing the relevance of animal welfare in our current society," said Louisa Ho, deputy executive director of the SPCA-HK.

Caroline Tsang, chief operating officer of Sanrio Hong Kong, says Hello Kitty is more than just a cartoon character: since 1974, she has been the friend who has accompanied many children into adulthood.

"She connects the next generation and spreads love and culture that shape a better future," Tsang says. "We are honoured to be part of a campaign that fosters positive human-animal relationships."

As to why Hello Kitty has such a huge fan base in Hong Kong, Isaac Gagne, a researcher at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, has some theories. The city's love for Japanese popular culture is one of them. Also, she's cute.

"Japanese popular culture is a source of fantasy, comfort, and aesthetic appeal for people in Hong Kong, both young and old," says Gagne, who has spent time as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong.

"Given the cultural proximity of Japanese popular culture among residents of Hong Kong, it is easily relatable as a 'cute good' from Japan, and also easily purchasable within Hong Kong, with an endless variety of Hello Kitty goods."

Gagne adds that Hong Kong's proximity to Japan - it is just a 4 1/2 -hour flight from Tokyo - is another reason. "It is relatively easy to visit and seek out limited-edition Hello Kitty goods, or those available only in Japan, which further increases her appeal to collectors," he says.

Hello Kitty's popularity in Hong Kong echoes its global image as a universal companion, he says. Without a mouth, Hello Kitty is all ears and ready to listen to all your problems.

"It is a source of comfort, or iyashi in Japanese, its 'cuteness' invites you to create a connection with it via its boundless empathy and infinite patience in listening to your worries, hopes, and dreams," Gagne says.

As well as being a non-ideological symbol of intimacy and comfort, Hello Kitty does not require any particular world view or values to appreciate, he adds.

"I think that Japan's pop-culture characters stand out because of their aesthetic of softness and non-judgmental, empathetic intimacy," he says, adding that companies like Sanrio add a "softness" and humanity to the often dehumanising modern landscape of consumer capitalism.

"In fact, this kawaii aesthetic was originally built into Hello Kitty to evoke a feeling of mutual caring that is intended to extend beyond the item by becoming a bond between friends who exchange Hello Kitty goods."

Gagne cites a 2020 TV Tokyo programme where Sanrio's founder, Shintaro Tsuji, explains the cute culture concept in a rare interview.

"Unlike scary things, kawaii means something that is loved by everyone. If we send such kawaii items to each other, we can create a better society where people stop fighting or bullying or killing each other," Tsuji said.

Gagne says that Tsuji - who stepped down from the company in 2020 at the age of 92 - wanted Hello Kitty to be a miniature ambassador of world peace, something he had discussed in relation to his own experiences of suffering in the firebombing of Tokyo during World War II.

"We can do a little something for those who are in trouble, or those who are in need, or for occasions like birthdays, or when a baby is born, or when someone is sick [...] This can be something small, a tiny thing like giving a small notebook or one pencil, that kind of thing. By doing so, we can get along better and our world will get better," Tsuji said in the interview.

Gagne says that while Tsuji's comments sound somewhat specious, they align with Sanrio's corporate motto: "small gift, big smile".

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