Red-carpet treatment: Yuko Yamaguchi, the third and current Hello Kitty illustrator, designed the restaurant. (Photo : Sanrio)
The most famous character in the world without a mouth said hello to Shanghai.
Hello Kitty Bistro Bianco started a trial operation in the city’s Nanjing Road on Jan. 29, according to Sanrio’s website.
Tokyo-based Sanrio’s slogan “Small Gift, Big Smile” reflects the company’s corporate philosophy, and this time, its latest “small gift” comes in the form of a restaurant.
Located inside a mall, the two-storey Hello Kitty establishment operates a gift shop on the first floor and serves meals in a public dining room and a VIP room upstairs, reported Mail Online.
Diners can order sweet delicacies--from macaroons to cakes--and Western dishes, with Hello Kitty’s face even stamped on the steak.
This is not the first time Hello Kitty ventured into business in China.
As part of Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2014, Sanrio, the Japanese company that created the iconic character in 1974, built a theme park in the country, according to Mail Online.
Hello Kitty Park officially opened in Zhejiang Province on July 1, 2015.
The 210-million-pound theme park sits on a 9.5-hectare lot in Anji County in Hangzhou. It offers “thrilling rides,” presents float parades, and provides accommodation in the form of “a castle-style hotel with 343 luxury guestrooms.”
Another part of the celebration is the exhibit titled, “Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty,” according to Sanrio’s website.
The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, hosted it from Oct. 11, 2014 to May 31, 2015. Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii, curated the exhibit, according to the museum’s website.
In Aug. 2014, the news that Hello Kitty was not a cat hit the headlines of various news websites.
Yano said that Sanrio corrected her when she indicated in a script for the exhibit that Hello Kitty was a cat, reported Los Angeles Times.
According to Yano, who authored “Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek Across the Pacific,” Sanrio referred to Hello Kitty as “a cartoon character . . . a little girl . . . a friend . . . but not a cat.”
Well, Hello Kitty looks like a cat--it even has whiskers!--and the name “Kitty” denotes a feline creature.
So, what’s the final verdict?
Kotaku, a blog for video game players, contacted Sanrio’s headquarters and, according to Brian Ashcraft, the blog’s senior contributing editor: “Don't be silly, Hello Kitty is a cat.”
“Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. It’s going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat,” said a Sanrio spokesperson to Kotaku. “Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat.”
“Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty” now runs at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, Washington, until May 15.
How about a super cute Hello Kitty exhibit in China?
