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How Has Hello Kitty Conquered the World So successful has Kitty been tha

游客2024-01-02  20
问题     How Has Hello Kitty Conquered the World
    So successful has Kitty been that she was chosen to be a Japanese diplomatic envoy , the official tourism ambassador to China and Hong Kong, in 2008. All part of Japan’s drive to bolster its soft power globally through a state-backed campaign dubbed Cool Japan. Promoting manga, anime cartoons and other aspects of Japanese pop culture, it’s an initiative that came about when Japan’s perennially uncool bureaucrats had a vision that cultural exports could help plug the economic gap created by the near collapse of Japan Inc in the 1990s.
    Out went promoting wabisabi and tea ceremonies. In came the country’s pop culture as flagships of Japanese enterprise. Older, less cute merchandise, would only remind the Japanese of their hubris and their bubble economy that burst, taking macho hi-tech Japan with it. Since the 1990s many in the nation have wanted their culture to get in touch with its feminine side, hence the new love of all things kawaii (rhymes with Hawaii and means cute). Cute is also an important social lubricant in cities where many desperately seek a comfort blanket, a buffer against exceedingly tough urban lifestyles. Japanese companies now take special care in projecting their kawaii image, says Yasuko Nakamura, president of Tokyo-based marketing company Boom Planning: "Japanese products are made to be kawaii so that they are liked by women. In Japan, women hold the spending power. Even for things that women don’t purchase themselves, such as a car, they have a strong say in the final decision. "
    But why has Hello Kitty made such a foothold in Europe and the United States? Perhaps it is because the western democracies in the past decade have encountered problems similar to those Japan has faced since the 1990s; deflation, more work for less pay, an aging demographic and an unhealthy obsession with youth. Even the once hard-bitten British are falling for Hello Kitty and Osaka-based musician and cultural commentator Nick Currie thinks he knows why. "Hello Kitty symbolizes some essential Japanese virtues; agreeableness, harmony, commerce, cuteness, nature, fertility and affluence," he says. "She also represents the irresistible idiocy of consumer culture, hardwired to our neurological system.We shop with almost the same reflexes that make us stretch out to stroke a big-eyed, fluffy kitten. " That may be a universal impulse.
    But the West, and certain minorities in Japan, are not all about the ascendance of commerce. Pockets of resistance to Kitty tyranny do exist, while savvier cartoon characters from Japan are now poised to possibly eclipse the reign of this most babyish of icons.
    Kitty Hell is one of a number of web sites that aims to thwart the ubiquitous feline. The blogger puts up examples of his Japanese wife’s and others’ obsession with the mouthless one. He posts items such as Kitty-shaped face tattoos and suggests, tongue-in-cheek, that " Sanrio has invented a Hello Kitty virus that makes people do things like this. "
    " All I really do is point out the absurdity of the fans and all the products," the anonymous blogger tells the BBC.
    Meanwhile, the genius Japan has demonstrated for creating likeable characters has spawned another Pan-Asian hit in the form of a chat service called Line. Much of the app’s popularity rides on one area where Japan has an unassailable lead—the design and playful use of emoji (Japanese emoticons). On the Line app they have grown into fully delineated characters such as the enigmatic Moon.
    Now the company behind Line is gunning for equal success worldwide—recently the Spanish have also fallen in love with Line’s impish and much more cynical, adult-oriented mascots. Could it be time to say "Hello Line" and "goodbye feline"?
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答案     凯蒂猫如何征服世界
    凯蒂猫很成功，因而被选为日本的外交使节。在2008年成为日本驻中国大陆和香港的官方旅游大使。这一切都是日本通过一场名为“酷日本”的全国性运动来增强其国际软实力所做努力的一部分。日本那些终年古板的官员认识到文化输出有助于弥补上世纪90年代日本企业衰败造成的经济差距，于是“酷日本”应运而生——推广日本漫画、动漫卡通以及其他日本流行文化。。
    推广“侘寂”之美(wabisabi)和茶道已不再时兴。日本流行文化粉墨登场，流行文化亦是日本企业的旗舰。那些陈旧的、不够可爱的商品只能让日本国民想起自己曾经的傲慢，大男子主义、以高新科技为标志的那个日本已经随着泡沫经济的破碎而成为过去。20世纪90年代以来，许多日本人希望本国文化能够展现其女性化一面，因此涌现出“卡哇伊”(与英文“夏威夷”韵脚相同，意为“可爱”)新风尚。可爱文化在城市里也是一种重要的社会润滑剂，在城市里很多人拼命寻求安逸窝，以缓冲极艰难的城市生活方式。东京营销公司繁荣计划(Boom Planning)总裁中村宁子表示，日本公司如今特别注意表现可爱形象：“日本产品刻意追求可爱，从而吸引女性。在日本，女性拥有消费能力。即使像小汽车等那些并非女性自己购买的东西，她们对最终抉择也有强大的话语权。”
    但是为什么凯蒂猫在欧洲和美国也能牢牢站稳脚跟?也许是因为在过去的十年里西方民主国家也遭遇过日本自1990年代起所面临的相似问题：通货紧缩，工作量加大、薪资减少，人口老龄化，以及对于青春的病态留恋。就连性格硬朗的英国人也迷上了凯蒂猫。大阪的音乐家、文化评论员尼克-克里认为其原因是： “凯蒂猫象征着日本的基本品德：随和、和谐、商业、可爱、自然、多子、富足。她也代表着消费文化中无可避免的愚蠢行为，这是人们神经系统与生俱来的。我们无法不购物，而几乎出于相同的条件反射，我们也无法不去抚摸这只大眼睛、毛茸茸的凯蒂猫。”这种冲动，人皆有之。
    但西方国家和少数日本人并不完全赞同商业至上。扎紧钱袋抵制凯蒂猫独霸天下的情况确实存在。同时，形象更为精明的日本卡通人物正在瞄准凯蒂猫这个稚气十足的偶像，或将取代其统治地位。
    已有众多网站在抵制无处不在的凯蒂猫，“凯蒂猫地狱”是其中之一。博主列举出他的日本妻子及其他人痴迷这只无嘴猫的很多例子。他发布诸如凯蒂猫形状面部纹身的照片，半开玩笑道：“三丽鸥公司发明了一种名为凯蒂猫的病毒，使得人们去干这种傻事。”
    “其实我所做的就是罗列出凯蒂猫粉丝和所有凯蒂猫产品的荒唐可笑之处。”该匿名博主对英国广播公司如是说。
    同时，日本这种创造可爱人物的天分又催生了一款聊天服务应用“连我”(Line)，在泛亚地区再次引起轰动。该款应用软件的流行在很大程度上源于日本遥遥领先的领域：对表情符号的设计与炉火纯青地运用。在“连我”应用中，表情符号已发展成意思表达十分清晰的很多卡通角色，例如神秘的月亮。
    目前，开发“连我”应用的公司也在竭力谋求在国际上取得同样的成功。近日，西班牙人也爱上了“连我”应用中这些顽皮的、更愤世嫉俗的、面向成年人的标志形象。是否到了说“你好，‘连我’”和“再见，凯蒂猫”的时候了呢?
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