{"id":27106,"date":"2014-08-28T13:09:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=27106"},"modified":"2021-10-27T14:53:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:53:49","slug":"hello-kitty-revelation-from-manoa-anthropologist-christine-yano-shakes-up-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2014\/08\/28\/hello-kitty-revelation-from-manoa-anthropologist-christine-yano-shakes-up-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello Kitty revelation from M\u0101noa anthropologist Christine Yano shakes up the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Christine Yano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Author and University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a> anthropologist Christine Yano sent shockwaves across the internet yesterday when she revealed to the LA Times<\/em> a dramatic fact: Hello Kitty is not a cat. The insight led thousands to take to social media to vent in disbelief and denial. As reporter Carolina Miranda put it herself, “mind blown!” The news was picked up in national and international media and drew comments from celebrities like Katy Perry and Josh Grobin.<\/p>\n

Yano, a professor in the College of Social Sciences<\/a>, is the author of a book about the Hello Kitty pop culture phenomenon Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific<\/a><\/em>, but it wasn’t until she was preparing text for a Hello Kitty exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum that she was corrected by the Sanrio Corporation, which objected to her referring to Hello Kitty as a cat.<\/p>\n

“I was corrected—very firmly,” she told the LA Times<\/em>. “Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature.”<\/p>\n

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Childhood ruined: Hello Kitty is NOT a cat http:\/\/t.co\/BFvogJ29wz<\/a> #hellokittyisnotacat<\/a> #HelloKitty<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sGljiyDWhM<\/a><\/p>\n

— Philstar Lifestyle (@PhilstarStyle) August 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n