When Christine Yano taught a Japanese popular culture course at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1997, she developed an interest in the iconic cat with a red bow – Hello Kitty.
The anthropology professor emeritus said Hello Kitty is universal and nostalgic.
“You think about 50 years of a figure, a character, a toy, like Hello Kitty,” she said in a news release. “And so how is that possible? Because things change, generations change. So what is it that can make her still appealing?"
The beloved character turned 50 last Friday. She’s grown from a Japanese character to a global icon.
Hello Kitty was created on Nov. 1, 1974, by Sanrio, a Japan-based entertainment company focused on the “cuteness” of Japanese pop culture. The company is best known for selling gifts, school supplies and accessories.
Each state or country has its own version of Hello Kitty. Special editions of Hello Kitty in Hawaiʻi feature her tan with a flower in her ear and a lei around her neck.
“I can only guess that in talking with many different people, all walks of life is that they make her (Hello Kitty) their own and that's part of the appeal of the blankness,” Yano said in a news release. “Undeniably cute, but somehow flexible in its spareness of the design.”
Sanrio in 2014 revealed that Hello Kitty isn’t technically a cat but rather a “little girl.”
