three • Global Kitty: Here, There, Nearly Everywhere

Chapter Three

Global Kitty

Here, There, Nearly Everywhere

People who live with animals value the charm of muteness.

—Ursula K. LeGuin (2005:19)

Ever since I was little, Hello Kitty was just the only character. . . . I’ve seen it everywhere. It’s like imprinted in my mind. Her face. I really don’t know. It’s weird. I just always see her face in my mind. It’s scary.

— Hello Kitty fan, twenty-four years old, personal communication, May 5, 2011, Honolulu

I feel like I’m a walking advertisement.

— Becky Hui, fan and Sanrio employee, twenty-seven years old, personal communication, June 21, 2002, South San Francisco

Happiness tinged with pink, in fact, seduces as a mysterious presence in the confessions of many adult fans, as quoted above. The seemingly inexplicable attraction of Hello Kitty makes many consumers in various parts of the globe speak of her with both intimacy and awe as something they hold close yet do not fully understand. This may not be quite as mysterious as it seems; after all, as Thomas LaMarre explains, “We can never quite be sure what it is that we are enjoying (or why): something of our experience always remains obscure to us, remains unconscious” (2009:242). And yet, the inexplicable nature of fans’ pleasure of Hello Kitty generates a certain amount of their talk about her. In their narratives, she is at one and the same time an affecting presence, a mouthless sphinx, and, unmistakably, a product. She poses the kawaii al-

lure of not just being cute, but so cute, particularly through her “charm of muteness,” as the novelist Ursula LeGuin expresses it. In global fans’ talk, mute cuteness itself carries the force of obfuscation.

This chapter examines Kitty consumption among different segments of her fandom among adults outside Japan as constituent elements of pink globalization. It combines the corporate backdrop provided by chapter 2 with first the sites of consumption, then the personal stories of consumers to address the complex set of interactions, practices, and most importantly, meanings given Hello Kitty in her “here, there, nearly everywhere” settings. If, as we saw in the previous chapter, Sanrio itself emphasizes friendship and happiness as the core message of its cat, then this chapter examines ways in which that core message embeds itself in the settings of consumption and people’s lives. How does she become a friend? And more to the point, what kind of (mute, cute) friend is she? The fact that she is a friend dependent on her purchase or whose relationship may be summed up as “a walking advertisement,” as expressed above, does not bother Hello Kitty fans in the least. For them, the seductiveness of her allure and the excitement of continued consumer acquisition building a growing and unending collection stoke the fires of an ongoing “friendship.”

Hello Kitty’s global span did not reach out and touch everyone equally or all at the same time. Kitty’s trek in the United States began in Asian American–based enclaves and corporate stores in the 1970s, eventually moving into all-American merchandising meccas such as Walmart and Target, as well as specialty shops such as fao Schwarz (toys) and Hot Topic (youth-oriented, popular-music-inspired culture), and inevitably to online shopping sites. By the 1990s and 2000s, the ubiquity of Hello Kitty normalizes her presence in global consumer cultures that transcend their original youth market. This chapter focuses on Hello Kitty’s multiple market vectors primarily in the United States, including Asian American, Hispanic, mainstream (children and adult “girls”), and even male niches. Although my observations and conversations regarding Hello Kitty consumption have spanned different continents, my indepth interviews have been with these American fans.

My telling of Hello Kitty’s global story moves in this and subsequent chapters to places of purchase and voices of fans. A specific sector of voices that I analyze here is that of the collector, a particular subset of Hello Kitty consumers that many would consider extreme in psychology and practices. In fact, several of those whom I interviewed

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readily admit to the obsessive nature of their fandom, often laughing self-deprecatingly as they tell me their stories. Here is unabashed commodity fetishism in its classic Marxist formulation. These extreme fans are familiar with the snide glances and overt scorn of other consumers and nonconsumers alike who are critical of such Kitty-based excessiveness, especially over what some interpret as a mere child’s toy. They have learned to live within such critique; some even build identities from it. Of course, not all fans of Hello Kitty are as extreme as these. The greater majority profess liking Sanrio’s cat, but not necessarily making a hobby of purchasing her. In this chapter I gather various consumer voices in order to address the attractions of Sanrio’s cat and the ways in which she has become embedded in their lives. Some readers may feel that the fan interviews I quote here represent an overload of sentiment, a barrage of capitalist frenzy, a besotted attachment to a commodity. Without apology, I agree, and suggest that these readers skip over the interviews themselves and head to the conclusions I draw from them at the end of the chapter. But, in my mind, this overloaded barrage is exactly the point. Most fans I spoke with concur that their desire for such feline acquisition goes far beyond rational explanation into the realm of insatiable hunger. The question that this chapter circumscribes is, Hunger for what (in the collective plural)?

Geographies of Purchase: Asian America and Beyond

Let us turn first to the physical and virtual contexts in which that hunger may be constituted and fulfilled. The anthropologist Elizabeth Chin, who studied African American girls’ consumption patterns, points out the importance of going beyond examining what people buy into where they buy it: “Geographic spaces . . . are as important to consumption as are individual desires, likes, and dislikes. . . . Aside from providing children with different commodities to purchase or covet, these distinct geographic locations open up (and close off) various spaces for play, fears, and fantasies” (2001:176–77). Thus purchasing Hello Kitty within the ethnic enclave of a small Chinatown or Japan town shop becomes a different kind of experiential foray than purchasing the cat in a Walmart megastore or at Target.com. In short, the context of buying—from location of shop to floor space to aesthetic display to type and range of goods to individual shop seller—imbues the act of purchase with different kinds of associative meanings. The link with other goods and sites carves out a semantic

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space for the cat. Buying a Hello Kitty key chain in a small Chinatown shop crammed with other Asian items—from incense burners to black bean sauce—contextualizes Hello Kitty in highly particularistic ways, tying the cat constantly to Asia as a geopolitical space and to myriad other culturally linked items. Hello Kitty in this specifically Asian American setting exists as one of many products from overseas, sometimes in dusty plastic wrapping, bound to an immigrant setting that is itself historically embedded and constantly changing. For many Asian Americans who have since left these settings, Hello Kitty may nostalgically remind them of these earlier experiences, shopping “Asia” in America.

Another form of shopping Asia in America may be found in the numerous Sanrio stores throughout the United States (as well as Sanrio’s website, www.sanrio.com, that calls itself the “Home of Hello Kitty”). Because the physical stores exist outside ethnic enclaves, in suburban shopping malls and central urban areas, the success of these Sanrio stores suggests the first corporate moves of Hello Kitty goods toward a broader public in the United States. The first of these opened in 1976 in Eastridge Mall in San Jose, California, serving a population that included a high proportion of Asians and Asian Americans. As of 2010, Sanrio products are sold in more than twelve thousand locations in North and South America, including department, specialty, national chain stores, and more than eighty-five Sanrio boutiques, called Sanrio Surprises.

In 2010, those boutiques came to be operated not by Sanrio, but by another Japanese corporation, Nakajima USA, Inc. (a subsidiary of Nakajima Corporation; aka Nakajima Japan), which has taken over much of Sanrio product design and manufacture in the United States.1 A full account of Hello Kitty in the United States, thus, must attend to the day-to-day operations and decision making that are handled by Nakajima USA, rather than by Sanrio. Founded in 1919 as a family-run company, Nakajima Corporation has been in the business of creating its own plush, collectibles, and seasonal toys and gifts, and more importantly, managing other companies with similar specialties. The Nakajima USA website explains the relationship with Sanrio, developed to address a changing marketplace in a short article entitled “The Power of Brand”: “Within this changing retail landscape, Nakajima has collaborated with Sanrio, Inc. to develop new products, redesign and rollout innovative store formats and implement strong in-store promotions” (Nakajima USA:n.d.). Thus, Nakajima USA obtained stewardship of Sanrio and its products as a brand strategy in the 2000s. A glance at the Nakajima USA

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website shows some of the different directions that this company is taking Sanrio and its products. For one, whereas in my previous interviews at Sanrio, Inc., headquarters, managers explicitly stated that part of Sanrio’s policy was not to advertise, the Nakajima USA website displays more aggressive promotional campaigns. Second, whereas previously Sanrio, Inc., seemed like a fairly close-knit operation—with many employees firmly committed to its products, and especially to Hello Kitty (as detailed in chapter 2)—now under a larger corporate umbrella, the relationship between Nakajima USA employees and Sanrio products seems more distant and contractual. After all, Sanrio is only one of several brands that Nakajima USA manages. In 2010 other brands managed by Nakajima USA include potential Sanrio competitors in the field of Asian (American)-influenced girl culture: Angry Little Girls, originally a self-reflexive Asian American video and comic series by Leela Lee in 1998, expanded to products featuring Kim, the angry little Asian Girl (“She’s one short-tempered little girl. Grrr!” www.angrylittlegirls.com); and Harajuku Lovers, a clothing and product line launched by the singer Gwen Stefani in 2005, inspired by the youth culture of Shibuya, Tokyo. Both Angry Little Girls and Harajuku Lovers form distinct Americanbased extensions of pink globalization. These two brands, combined with Sanrio, make Nakajima USA a notable empire of Japanese CuteCool and its derivatives in the United States.

Nakajima USA’s website provides further insights into the target market and image for its umbrella of branded products, including Hello Kitty. A photo gallery on the home page of www.nakajimausa.com displayed child and adult female models cuddling and wearing primarily Sanrio products. Of the fourteen photos displayed in June 2010, two showed adult women in their twenties, one depicted a very young elementary-school girl, and the rest pictured girls in the category known as tweens. Besides age, race plays a significantly marked category in the photos. The photo gallery presents a multiracial display of blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, and mixed-race females. None of the photos shows a white girl by herself; instead, whenever there is a white model, she is always juxtaposed with a girl of color. Girls of color, however, are displayed by themselves or with others.2 In short, girls of color perform center-stage in Nakajima’s imaging.

The photo gallery sheds light on the marketing and imaging of Hello Kitty in the United States. First, the use of amateurs as models (as indicated by a casting call on Nakajima USA’s website) provides a sense of verity, proof of the widespread popularity of Hello Kitty that goes be-

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yond celebrities. Second, suggested by the photos, Hello Kitty is no longer necessarily only Asian (American); she is multiracial, multicultural, and, to an extent, multigenerational. More specifically, Hello Kitty reflects a youth-oriented, female, Southern California–branded blend of races and cultures that includes whites, but only in the context of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and admixtures of the above. Third, the racial mix of Southern California stands in for the United States itself, or at least that segment of the American population that might be interested in goods branded by the corporation. Nakajima USA presents Hello Kitty as an icon in this Southern California melting pot of consumerism focused on Asian-linked goods. Of course, it is difficult to know exactly who might access the Nakajima USA website, and for what purposes. Nevertheless, given that Nakajima USA, with Sanrio, Inc., now takes responsibility for much of the branding, including boutique stores, it is safe to assume that the message and general direction of the website pervades most Sanrio merchandising throughout the United States.

In this age of Internet shopping, there are many kinds of Asian-linked sites—besides the obvious Nakajima USA and Sanrio websites—that tie Hello Kitty to Asian American images in different ways. Even when Asian Americans do not run these Internet sites, the link to Asia or Asian America is clear through the language, graphics, and goods themselves. The website All Things Kawaii, established in August 2001 by Valerie Franek, originally posted cute photos and items; however, more recently it lists various shopping sites for those who want to consume Asian cute goods, including Hello Kitty. In addition to the use of the Japanese word kawaii as part of the name of the site, the logo is notably a Hello Kitty–like cat (sans bow). All Things Kawaii lists 228 shopping sites of Asian cute goods (as of June 2010), complete with ratings and reviews. For example, one such shopping site, the Canadian Dreamkitty, focuses on Hello Kitty, as well as other Sanrio characters (www.dream kitty.com). The frequency with which All Things Kawaii and various other shopping sites reference Hello Kitty provides some indication of the central position of Hello Kitty within what I call pink globalization.

One shopping website that handles Hello Kitty among a myriad of popular culture goods from Japan is J-List (“a wonderful toybox of things from Japan”; www.jlist.com) and its companion J-Box (for those under eighteen, or not interested in “adult goods”; www.jbox.com). Established in 1996, J-List and J-Box are run by “Peter,” a forty-one-year-old American, former English-language teacher, and San Diego State University

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graduate who has been resident in Japan since 1991, and his Japanese wife, Chiharu. “Peter” sets the tone for the website, which is chatty, informal, and humorous. The website staff of thirteen includes Americans, Japanese, and Europeans, and its primary office is maintained in Isesaki (Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo), as well as another in San Diego, California. On such a website, Hello Kitty rubs shoulders with the following kinds of items: Japanese magazines, photo-books, dating-sim games, manga, dvds, calendars, anime, T-shirts, toys, items for kosupure (“costume play”; wearing costumes of characters, typically from anime or manga), food, bentō (lunchbox) paraphernalia, as well as R-rated sex toys, dvds, calendars, and Asian pornography. In other words, Hello Kitty shares the electronic stockroom shelves with the very products of Cool Japan (including schoolgirl pornography) discussed in chapters 1 and 7. Websites such as J-List and J-Box demonstrate the range of associative meanings given Hello Kitty through this shared stockroom, here run primarily by Americans resident in Japan and Japanese engaged in the English-speaking world. Pink globalization of Hello Kitty in the 1990s and 2000s engages in this kind of electronic connection directly to Asia.

One particularly noteworthy Asian American site selling Hello Kitty is Giant Robot, in both its physical and online retailing manifestations. Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, both University of California at Los Angeles graduates, began Giant Robot in 1994 as an alternative-culture magazine about all-things-cool-and-Asian, inspired by their own backgrounds in the punk rock zine scene. The beginnings and ethos of Giant Robot embody a deliberately created subcultural niche that may have begun with an independent zine/magazine, extended to small stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco selling subcultural niche products such as toy robots, figurines, and T-shirts, and further extended to Internet sales and blogs. According to their website, half of their customers are of Asian ancestry.3 The items sold by Giant Robot differ from that of J-List and J-Box in that they exhibit more of a punk aesthetic, reflecting the founders, Nakamura and Wong. Unlike the expat-American preferences of those resident in Japan (e.g., J-List and J-Box), Giant Robot provides a decidedly hip Asian American take on things Japanese. Here is Asian American “cool,” and Hello Kitty within it. Sanrio’s product within the Giant Robot setting thus shares the virtual and real stockroom shelves with the hipness of toy robots, humorous art (including that by the Japanese artists Takashi Murakami and Nara Yoshitomo), street or graffiti T-shirts (e.g., Shepard Fairey’s obey line),4 and other items that circumscribe an art-infused,

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ironically framed, politically directed, alternative-culture lifestyle. Hello Kitty within this setting may be interpreted as an Asian-based counterculture to an American mainstream, especially as designed and directed by politicized Asian American youth. Hello Kitty items preselected and framed within a Giant Robot setting thus signify the possibilities of pink globalization inhabiting an edgy, alternative Asian American lifestyle.

One last context of Hello Kitty consumption that needs mention has little to do with Asian America but everything to do with American-based globalization—that is, McDonald’s. Since 1999, Sanrio and McDonald’s have sporadically cooperated in offering Hello Kitty toys and other goods as premiums with McDonald’s Happy Meals. Creating this kind of cooperative agreement with a major global company such as McDonald’s only confirms, in fact and image, Sanrio’s place within a major hub of global consumption. In fact, media coverage of this tie-up focused far more on its manifestation in Asia (especially Singapore) than in the United States or elsewhere. Because these McDonald’s/Hello Kitty premiums are limited to those who purchase or receive them with other McDonald’s offerings, and who do so within a limited time frame, the resultant objects can easily become collector’s items, for sale in places such as eBay to the highest bidder. Hello Kitty in conjunction with McDonald’s thus participates in the limited-edition framework of value for collectors, even as it spreads throughout the globe, arm in arm with industries of mass consumption aimed in part, though not exclusively, at children.

In fact, it is Hello Kitty’s associative meanings as inclusive global figure that positions the work of pink globalization at its extreme: thus, no longer exclusively Asian, Asian American, youth, or female; simultaneously retaining all, some, or none of these at some level. Here lies the ambiguous wink of Hello Kitty. Not all Hello Kitty fans would necessarily agree with, for example, Giant Robot’s selection of items for sale nor the kinds of meanings given Sanrio’s cat by McDonald’s Happy Meals. Nevertheless, with the unmistakable imprint of Hello Kitty, the contradictory yet overlapping set of meanings is exactly the sweet punch of pink globalization in its trans-Pacific trek.

Hello Kitty as Mall Denizen, from Tweens to Adults

One of the most obvious links between Hello Kitty and at least some of her fans is her feline nature: it stands to reason that among Hello Kitty’s global fans, a number may be cat fanciers. One such fan is K. S., a

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white female in her sixties who works as an executive director of a social service organization in Minnesota and is a cat lover. She describes her encounter with Hello Kitty as follows:

I bought a ceramic Hello Kitty in the 1970s. I was a student at the University of Minnesota at the time and saw it in a gift store near campus. I didn’t know her name until years after. I bought it because it was cute. I used it for many years as a decoration on the placemats for my pet cats’ feeding and watering bowls.

Then about three years ago I was at a cat show and many of the exhibitors had maneki neko [Japanese figurines of begging cats used in business to encourage sales] on top of their cat cages. . . . So I started looking for one for myself. Last summer I went on vacation to Washington, D.C., and Baltimore and I finally found some in gift stores there. One of the clerks gave me an information sheet about maneki nekos. He said that a loose translation is “Welcoming Cats” and that that derived into “Hello Kitty.” I was so surprised! Here I had had a maneki neko all along! Last December while Xmas shopping at the Mall of America, I came upon a whole store full of Hello Kitties. It was like heaven for me! I bought a whole bunch of stuff then. So since then my husband and I give each other Hello Kitties and maneki nekos whenever we can. They look great massed in a collection. (Personal communication, June 16, 1999)

Although based on a fictitious (and erroneous, as far as I can tell) connection between the Japanese figurine maneki neko and Hello Kitty, what draws K. S. to Sanrio’s icon is cats. She shared with me photos of her cat display at home (see figure 3.1), which includes framed images of her cats (past and present), maneki neko, and Hello Kitty. K. S. changes the display seasonally.

Although some Sanrio consumers such as K. S. vividly recall their first encounter with Hello Kitty, others remember only a gradual coexistence with Sanrio’s cat from an early age. This may come about in the form of small gifts here and there, and then extend into active buying. For example, one Honolulu woman in her thirties recalls: “I can’t even remember how young I started. I only remember my mom giving me little gifts. But even now when I go into Sanrio stores I feel the same as I felt before [when I was a child buying Hello Kitty], excited. I want to buy everything! It’s weird. It doesn’t change. I’m like, ‘My god! I’ve gotta get that, I’ve gotta get this!’” (personal communication, July 2, 2002).

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3.1. Display of one fan’s Hello Kitty collection (1999).

What I find striking is the ways in which many adult fans express exactly this kind of helplessness in the face of such consumer desire. For them, to know Kitty is to want to own her—repeatedly, obsessively.

Interview: Adult Female Fan Profile—R. K. The first fan interview transcript I include in this book is with R. K., a white, middle-aged (b. 1962) female resident of Hawai’i (originally from Columbus, Ohio), who worked for the U.S. Navy as an information technology specialist at the time of our interview. I begin here and include this transcript as one of the longest in the book, embedding R. K.’s words within an interaction that often includes my own astonishment. R. K. represents an extreme fan—a “girlie-girl” by her own admission, known as “Ms. Kitty” to her coworkers, sporting a tattoo of Hello Kitty on her ankle, protective of Kitty’s image, surrounding herself in a Kitty bubble, 24/7. She takes Sanrio’s icon as her personal totem with equal parts humor and reverence. I arranged to meet R. K.at a bookstore in Honolulu on April 27, 2006. Unlike other fans whom I interviewed, R. K. was introduced to Hello Kitty as an adult—in fact, after moving to Hawai’i, while shopping for her son’s school supplies. R. K. remembers the first time she laid eyes on Hello Kitty and describes the moment as life changing. She talks about her own defenselessness in being drawn to Sanrio’s cat, so much so that she simply has to buy it. Indeed, buy it she does, from jewelry to furniture to the Kitty tattoo she sports on her ankle. She finds commonality between different women who also buy Hello Kitty, suggesting that liking the cat means a host of shared consumption patterns—feminine fashions, willingness to spend money on designer bags and jewelry—quite apart from any Sanrio goods. Off-tape she confessed that in planning her upcoming wedding, she wanted it to be a Hello Kitty ceremony, and that she plans to renovate their house with a Hello Kitty swimming pool and as much Hello Kitty decor as she can. Why? Because Hello Kitty represents an upbeat character and mood—in her words, “girly,” “happy,” and thoroughly, unremittingly pink. In R. K.’s words one may find echoes of Baudrillard’s notion of objects as mirrors upon their owners—here, not so much owner projecting herself upon the object, but the object projecting itself onto her (1996).

C. Y.: So tell me, how did you get introduced to Hello Kitty?

R. K.: Well, my son was going to Lanakila Baptist School, and we were shopping. I remember back in Waipahu [area of Hono-

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lulu] in the town center they used to have a Sanrio store. It was years and years ago. And my son wanted Keroppi [a Sanrio frog]. He said he wanted some school supplies like that and I saw Kitty in there, and I said, “She is just the cutest thing I have ever seen!” So that was just amazing!

C. Y.: And you had never seen Hello Kitty before?

R. K.: No, I had never seen her before.

C. Y.: About what year was this?

R. K.: Like ’91, when I moved here [to Hawai’i]. And I saw these Sanrio stores [in Honolulu], and I said everyone here is crazy about these things. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I just thought it was just so girly, so happy. It’s a happy thing. It makes you feel good. And so I just started getting little things here and there.

C. Y.: And when you saw Hello Kitty for the first time, what went through your mind?

R. K.: Well, the first thing is she had no mouth.

C. Y.: What did you think of that?

R. K.: I thought it was strange because it’s so happy but there’s no smile. Do you know what I mean? It’s like how can it put a smile on your face and she doesn’t have a smile? That was my first impression and then I thought, “It’s just too cute!” I just had to get it. Something draws you to it.

C. Y.: Now when you first saw it, did you know it was from Japan?

R. K.: I had no idea. It’s interesting ’cause when I was a kid and you saw a product from Japan, you immediately thought it was cheap. But now, when I learned it was from Japan, I thought it must be a quality product.

C. Y.: So the image of Japan has changed from when you were a kid?

R. K.: Tremendously.

C. Y.: Now, you were describing Hello Kitty as girly. Would you describe yourself as girly?

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C. Y.: From when you were little?

R. K.: From when I was little. So it was just like a natural evolution for me.

C. Y.: In what ways besides Hello Kitty do you express your girliness, now?

R. K.: Love of pink, love of anything feminine. Yeah, always got to get the pink nails. I have a lot of pink. I love Victoria’s Secret Pink; I love Juicy Couture and the pink bags.

C. Y.: What else do you like and feel is girly?

R. K.: I like scrapbooking, and Hello Kitty’s just gotten into that area as well. So I just bought their scrapbooking supplies. . . . I have Lucy Liu and Sophia, my two Chihuahuas, and they wear Hello Kitty by Little Lily [designer dog wear]. I always buy pink for them. So they have the pink outfit—it has like a little Marilyn Monroe kinda leopard collar and then it has Kitty on the back.

C. Y.: Oh my gosh.

R. K.: And they love Kitty, but they’re dogs; they like her. They have their own room and it’s all Kitty.

C. Y.: You’re kidding!

R. K.: I have like a four-bedroom house and it’s just me and my boyfriend and my son that live there, so we have a couple extra bedrooms. So I did one for the babies [Chihuahuas], so they have their own room with their clothes and a bed.

C. Y.: Now you’re talking about your Chihuahuas?

R. K.: My Chihuahuas, yeah. They have the Hello Kitty thing over the bed. It’s netting. Their room is purple Kitty and my master bedroom suite is pink Kitty.

C. Y.: And what does your boyfriend make of all this?

R. K.: He buys me a lot of this kind of stuff—he puts up with it. All my friends always buy me Kitty. Although now it’s hard because they don’t know what to buy because I have so much.

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R. K.: Ummm [laughs] I’ve kinda given up on the dolls, and I go more towards the Japanese Kitty, the porcelain Kitty. In my job a lot of our folks go to Japan and they will bring me back the porcelain Kitty, the guys that go. So I’ve collected those, and then they have the pictures with the traditional Japanese ware—I have that in my room.

C. Y.: Have you ever been to Japan?

R. K.: No, and everyone tells me not to go because I’ll be broke. No one wants me to go there—that’s out of the question [laughs]. I’m forbidden, not allowed to go. My best friend, she’s from here and she’s Japanese [American] and she’s been [to Japan] several times. And she just says, “You can’t go.” First of all you’ll have a nervous breakdown ’cause there’s so much and you won’t know what to get. And Christmas stuff, oh good lord! I have a Christmas Kitty tree, I have pictures of it. ’Cause it’s all in the years of her, ’cause they come out with collector’s items, and they have the collector’s ornaments and bells and all that, so I have a white tree in my master bedroom. It’s totally Kitty Christmas, every year.

C. Y.: Is it strange or ironic that here you are working for the navy, which might sound like sort of a more masculine kind of thing, and you’re a real girly girl with the Hello Kitty kind of thing?

R. K.: Yes, and besides, there’s hardly any women who do what I do [information technology]. Computers, men have just taken over that—it’s crazy. And they kinda give me a lot of leeway and understand because I like doing graphics and I do a lot of content, I’m a content manager. So the guys, they know the graphics people like me are kinda different, so they kinda accept it that way.

C. Y.: Does anybody ever put any kind of constraints on you as far as work and Hello Kitty stuff goes?

R. K.: Oh no, never. In fact I was telling the department head that I was gonna meet you and he goes, “Make sure you tell her we’re

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an anti-Kitty environment!” [laughs]. But no, she’s [Kitty] all over my cubicle, screensavers, everything. In fact I think at one time while we were moving and I didn’t have ’em [Hello Kitty decor] up, some of the guys who always complain about it said, “Well I kinda really miss her” and “Are you gonna bring her back?”

C. Y.: Now you said some guys do complain. What do they complain about?

R. K.: I think they complain because they like to tease me about it. Like, “Oh I can’t stand her [Kitty’s] face” or like my boss will always go, “When are you gonna get rid of that stupid cat?” You know, she’s a Kitty, not a cat. And then he’ll just start laughing. Or he’ll e-mail me pictures of ugly-looking cats. They like to tease me about it. But they’re not serious. One of the developers—he’s real accurate with rubber bands—he can like get a cockroach off the wall just by shooting—you know what I’m talking about? So he used to say, “Look I can hit Kitty’s nose from this distance!” Like fifty feet! And he’d take the rubber band back and say, “See? I got the nose!” That kind of thing.

C. Y.: Do you think it works, does it affect them at all that you have a Hello Kitty space in their environment?

R. K.: I don’t know. I think it makes them happy. I think it’s something, people like to come visit when I’m helping them with web design and they enjoy looking at everything. And a lot of the guys will come in and they’ll say, “Oh, my daughter would love it here” or “I feel like I walked into a Sanrio store.” But really I don’t have that much there. I have lamps, Kitty lamps, all the stationery, and a few dolls, and well—I have a lot, OK [laughs]. But not compared to home.

C. Y.: Of all the things that you have, what Hello Kitty item is most valuable to you? Not necessarily in terms of money but in terms of how you feel?

R. K.: Oh, my tattoo.

C. Y.: Oh, tell me about getting your tattoo.

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R. K.: I saw on the website that girls were getting Hello Kitty tattoos and they were getting them like on their shoulders and stuff, and I always thought that I wanna get a Hello Kitty tattoo. And then I just happened to be in Waikiki and, actually this Kitty was on my checkbook cover, and he [tattooist] said he could do it, and he sketched it, and I got it done right on my ankle.

C. Y.: When did you get it done?

R. K.: Probably about a year and a half ago.

C. Y.: And how did you feel about it?

R. K.: Oh, I loved it. It’s my favorite. I have a couple of tattoos, like I have heaven and earth, the Japanese writing, and then I have a honu [turtle] the Hawaiian for my son on my back, but this is the only one that shows Kitty.

C. Y.: How do you feel now that you have a tattoo, a Hello Kitty tattoo on your ankle?

R. K.: Great! She’ll always be with me. I just wanted to have that happiness with me. I mean it may sound weird, ’cause I’m in my forties and I love Hello Kitty and it’s kinda odd.

C. Y.: So how much do you estimate you spend a month or a year on Hello Kitty?

R. K.: Oh gosh. I’d say when I make a trip to the Sanrio store and they have something new.

C. Y.: Which is every month?

R. K.: Yeah, like they just had the garden stuff, the wind chimes and the pots, too, I just bought all that. Maybe a couple hundred a month. Christmas a little more, the off-season a little less, you know, Neiman Marcus, ridiculous.

C. Y.: So can you just tell me what you bought at Neiman Marcus, sort of high-ticket-item Hello Kitty things?

R. K.: Oh, I bought the necklace, which is like my bracelet, and she has the Pave diamonds on the top, and then jewels with the white head, these went around $750 each. So the bracelet and

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the necklace that would be $1,400. And then the watch was $1,500 when I bought it, but they’ve gone up recently to $1,900, and I didn’t like the band so I bought the Neiman Marcus band to go with it. So that was another $200 to $300. And then the ring of course was $2,000. And then I do have the little ring, the white head ring and that’s only like $250 [laughs].

C. Y.: And you bought these over a span of about how much time?

R. K.: Well, this line only came out about a year ago.

C. Y.: Do you wear these things every day?

R. K.: Every day.

C. Y.: So it’s not as if you put them on for this interview or anything like that?

R. K.: No. I’m true to Kitty.

C. Y.: Is there anything in particular that you’re sort of coveting?

R. K.: Oh, yeah, the furniture.

C. Y.: The furniture?

R. K.: They have a Kitty armoire, and a computer desk, and a bed, and side tables.

C. Y.: How much are they? For example the armoire?

R. K.: They’re expensive, like $500.

C. Y.: What color scheme, in general?

R. K.: Pink and white. And it’s got the glass—it’s kinda like a smoked glass and then it has the etching, it’s really nice. I want the armoire to hang my Chihuahuas’ clothes in. But I just can’t justify it; I just can’t. Not when they have their own closet [laughs].

C. Y.: Now you said that there are other women who are collectors at the Sanrio store, so there’s kind of a connection, or something. Could you just talk about that a little bit?

R. K.: Yeah, it’s funny because sometimes you just kinda look around at the clientele and you see what kind of people are shopping

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in there. And I’m like, “Oh my god, they’re like me!” Like the girls in there, you can tell we like the same things outside of Kitty.

C. Y.: How can you tell?

R. K.: Because we’ll be wearing the same jewelry.

C. Y.: And it’s not even Kitty?

R. K.: It’s, yeah. Like I said Tiffany and Company seems to be really in with Kitty people [fans], with Sanrio people. And designer bags like Coach or L. V. [Louis Vuitton], that kinda thing, Prada.

C. Y.: So this is not even Hello Kitty, but it’s like a certain kind of person buying certain things?

R. K.: Right, yeah. Like I like Lilly Pulitzer clothes ’cause they’re bright and pink, and I see a lot of people [at the Sanrio store] with this same thing that I like. Or like Juicy bags, Juicy Couture is very pink and feminine, and so it’s just weird.

C. Y.: If you were to describe your type of people or this type of people, besides pink and feminine, are there any other adjectives that you could think of that could sort of get at that?

R. K.: I think you can’t be an unhappy person and like Sanrio. ’Cause I don’t think people who aren’t happy with themselves and happy with life would like it. It’s bigger than the Kitty; it’s something about the way you are. It’s not just about Kitty, it’s about being able to get what you like in life and be happy with it. And that kinda sums it up.

C. Y.: Do you ever find yourself projecting yourself onto Hello Kitty?

R. K.: The opposite maybe. I mean she projects onto me.

C. Y.: Oh, how?

R. K.: How I perceive her makes me feel better. Like if I feel really down or something and I go to the Sanrio store and buy something and I see her—I’m happy. So she projects out like, I can smile. It’s kind of an escape.

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R. K.: Yeah, the bad Kitty.

C. Y.: Do you like it?

R. K.: No.

C. Y.: OK, why not?

R. K.: I like pink; I like happy.

C. Y.: So that was more black and red.

R. K.: Yeah. And they had bad Kitty and she had piercings—I didn’t like that. So I don’t want Hot Topic products, ’cause she’s not bad. That’s awful. It’s just not right. There’s a lot of unsanctioned products out there. I don’t care for that. They’re cheap; they’re tacky. Someone mentioned one to me that really made me mad.

C. Y.: Really? What was it?

R. K.: It was the vibrator. That really upset me ’cause I think that’s disgusting. Some guy at work told me about it, “Hey, I was surfing on the web the other day and you won’t believe what I found.” I said, “I’m not speaking to you for a week,” and he said, “If that’s all it took I would have told you about it sooner” [laughs].

C. Y.: But at least they can kid with you. They wouldn’t even say that to you if they didn’t think you could take it.

R. K.: Oh yeah, definitely. In fact it’s funny ’cause the girls, the secretaries, call me “Ms. Kitty.”

C. Y.: They call you Ms. Kitty?

R. K.: Yeah, today we took them out for lunch, and I get them something and I write on the bag “From Ms. Kitty.” They say, “Thanks, Kitty!”

C. Y.: That’s great! This has been so interesting talking with you. Thanks, Kitty!

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Asian American Fans: Consuming Selves

Although white American fans may not initially recognize Hello Kitty’s direct tie to Japan, one segment of consumers knows that tie well—that is, Asian Americans. In fact, the place of Asian American females in the first wave of Hello Kitty’s overseas fandom is too often ignored by journalists and scholars eager to track the spread of Japanese goods in global markets. Asian Americans females were among Hello Kitty’s first North American fans, through both gifts sent from Japan and early distribution centered around Asian-linked stores. One Japanese American woman I interviewed, who grew up in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s, recalls that during her childhood Hello Kitty was considered such an Asian American item that one of her girlfriends was nicknamed “Hello Kitty” because of her fondness for Sanrio’s cat, as well as the roundness of her face. In fact, she notes with regret that Hello Kitty’s widespread availability in the 2000s makes her nostalgic for the days when the cat was “exclusively theirs” [Asian Americans’] and stood as an ethnic female symbol.

She is not alone. Other Asian American females I spoke with express a combination of ethnic pride, possessiveness, and identification with Hello Kitty. They feel both pleased that she has been so successful (“hometown cat made good”), as well as wistful that Sanrio’s very success has propelled Hello Kitty out of the confines of ethnic enclaves into the anonymity of Walmart or even online shopping. In fact, the trek of Sanrio’s cat parallels their own: just as many Asian Americans have left Chinatowns and Japan towns behind, so, too, has Hello Kitty. Leaving ethnic separateness for more integrated neighborhoods have been marks of a certain kind of assimilative achievement, both for Asian Americans and for Hello Kitty. This parallel suggests that “blending in” among goods on Walmart’s shelves may coincide with “blending in” of Asian Americans in corporate boardrooms, government offices, and university settings. Indeed, Hello Kitty may serve all too well as a modelminority symbol—a quiet, unobtrusive, feminized presence.

There is yet another aspect to Asian American consumption of Hello Kitty—the possibilities of diasporic “remittances.” For instance, Kandice Kido, an assistant manager of the Sanrio store in Honolulu at the time of interview, noted that among her regular customers are Asians (Chinese, Filipinos) whom she strongly suspects are sending Hello Kitty items back to Asia. “There’s this one customer—she spends a lot. Like maybe every time she’s there [at the Sanrio store] she spends maybe

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like $500. I think she’s from, she’s Chinese, I think she’s foreign. She might be sending it to her family, I think. And there’s some Filipino families that spend a lot of money to send it over to the Philippines for their kids. They spend a lot of money!” (personal communication, July 2, 2002). In this sense, then, Hello Kitty can be thought of as the Japanese cat who crosses the Pacific to the United States and effectively becomes part of refracted transnational gifting from one Asian setting to another. The lines of gifting follow gendered and kin ties, maintaining trans-Pacific relationships and obligations. Within this context, Hello Kitty is the quintessential Asian diasporic commodity of choice.

Interview: Asian American Fan Profile—Becky Hui One of Hello Kitty’s biggest fans I interviewed is Becky Hui (b. 1975), a second-generation Chinese American (parents born in Hong Kong) who grew up in San Francisco. At the time of my interview in 2002, Hui worked for Sanrio, Inc., as a Home Office Stores supervisor—a dream job for a Hello Kitty fan. In fact, she is Sanrio’s dream employee because of her enthusiastic fandom, and she has been featured as a superfan on the company website. With long, straight black hair and eyes that sparkle whenever she talks about Hello Kitty, Hui recounts at length her Sanrio-filled life history. She talks about her life as a series of encounters with different Sanrio characters, from My Melody the bunny and Little Twin Stars, boy and girl siblings; to Keroppi the frog; to BadtzMaru the black penguin; and finally to the most intense, long-lasting relationship—or inexplicable “obsession,” as she puts it—with Hello Kitty. Here is Baudrillard’s concept of “serial intimacy” (1996). Hui’s story is particularly valuable as a frank discussion of a relationship with Hello Kitty as an “evocative object” (Turkle 2007). In no small way, Hello Kitty has been Hui’s “thing to think with” (Fiske, quoted in the introduction; Turkle 2007), and even more significant, a “thing to feel with”—braving dentist offices (see the following interview) and friends’ censure, extending a hand of sociality, confident in her mantle of Kittyinfused happiness. In other words, Hello Kitty acts as a material conduit for Hui’s thoughts and emotions. Aside from Hello Kitty offering her cute, comforting companionship, Hui says that she cannot explain the attraction she initially felt toward her. For Hui, though, Kitty’s message is clear and simple: happiness and friendship, believed with a fervor that can approach the evangelical. She shares that belief with other Sanrio employees (see chapter 2) and collectors, most of whom support

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each other, and a few of whom vie with each other for particular objects to add to their stash, resulting in what Baudrillard calls a “sequestered object”—a prize rendered valuable for its hoarding (1996:105). The following is a condensed version of my interview with Hui, conducted on June 21, 2002, at Sanrio, Inc., headquarters in South San Francisco.

C. Y.: When did you start working for Sanrio?

B. H.: In 1993. Eight and a half years ago. I actually started in the Union Square store downtown, San Francisco. And I moved here [corporate headquarters] a year later, in 1994.

C. Y.: What made you want to work for Sanrio?

B. H.: It was my childhood dream.

C. Y.: Really? Tell me something about how you got interested in Sanrio products.

B. H.: Well, when I was little, my sister used to take me to the Sanrio store right across the street from Union Square; I used to shop there. Every Saturday, my mom would bring me and then my sister would bring me to another mall to visit a Sanrio Surprises, and I used to buy surprise bags, you know, you don’t know what’s inside, but it’s exciting. And I’d get little things like pens and candies and my mom would buy me things before I’d go to school on Saturdays, ’cause I’d go to Chinese school, every Saturday. It started with little things like that. Here and there. And then I guess as I got older, things got bigger, purchases got a little bigger, and then when I had my own money to spend, things got really big.

C. Y.: What did you think of those Sanrio things that you had?

B. H.: I loved it! I actually used to keep everything. I don’t throw anything away, and I even have albums where I would have candy wrappers from when I was little. And I have the little pencils that are sharpened down to like an inch size, and I still have all of them, all the pens that ran out of ink, everything, in drawers.

C. Y.: From the beginning then, when you were a child, you had a collector’s kind of mentality. Like not wanting to throw anything away?

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B. H.: Yeah, I guess so. Because I still have all my albums of all my stickers and wrappers and everything.

C. Y.: Oh my god! Now you said you went through different characters, you went through different phases. Can you tell me what they were? And about how old you were?

B. H.: When I was little I actually didn’t like Hello Kitty for some reason. I don’t remember exactly but when I think back I must have liked My Melody and Little Twin Stars [other Sanrio characters], because I notice that’s what I have.

C. Y.: Is this about elementary-school age?

B. H.: Younger, younger. Like when it really started, maybe like, six or younger. Probably but just like right from the beginning. Because that’s when I had little coin bags, you know those really classic looking ones and then in, probably junior high, I think I started liking Keroppi [Sanrio frog character], because from then I went to high school and in my high school book somebody drew me a really large Keroppi and everything was Keroppi. Right after I graduated from high school was when I started working at the store, and I remember every time a different line of Keroppi would come, I’d buy it, almost every single item in the line, after work. So I went through my Keroppi phase. And then when Badtz-Maru [a Sanrio black penguin character] came out, I went through my Badtz-Maru phase. Everything was Badtz-Maru—I had to buy everything Badtz-Maru. And then when My Melody was refeatured, ’cause they brought her back for a while, I went through my My Melody phase. And then after that, around my early twenties, I started liking Kitty and from then ’til now it’s just all about Kitty. . . . And I’m wearing Hello Kitty shoes!

C. Y.: Oh! So in your mind, why did you go from one character to another?

B. H.: I don’t know exactly what it was. But with Badtz-Maru I think it was because he was brand new and he was so different, and that just caught my attention and I just like fell in love with him for awhile. But with Keroppi I was seriously in love with him. People used to joke that my kids would turn out looking

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like Keroppi and I would name my kids Keroppi because I was so into him. And I was even Keroppi for Halloween one year. And with My Melody it might have been because it made me reminisce from before ’cause I used to like My Melody. That’s the only thing I can think of. But Kitty, I don’t know, I just have this obsession with her. She makes me really happy, I don’t know. I just love Kitty. I just can’t explain it with Hello Kitty.

C. Y.: Really? I wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about Kitty. You said she makes you feel happy. Can you think of examples of when you sort of needed a Kitty fix or something like that?

B. H.: I don’t like going to the dentist and I avoided having to take my wisdom teeth out for years. And just recently maybe, last year, I had to have them removed. . . . And so I was absolutely terrified and I took a small Kitty Angel plush with me to the dentist and it really helped me because I was just really really scared, and the nurse was really nice. I was sitting down in the chair, and she actually had it taped up, and she stuck the Kitty Angel between my legs so that it would stay up, and I could see it. And it made me feel more comfortable and more relaxed. And I got through it! Every time I see the plush now—it’s on my bed—and it kind of reminds me of it. Like, I actually accomplished getting my wisdom teeth out. So Kitty helped me.

C. Y.: I’m just wondering how your friends react to Kitty and things like that?

B. H.: I have a few coworkers [at Sanrio, Inc.] that are into it almost as much as I am. But besides that I don’t really have friends that actually collect it or use it because everyone’s more grown up now. I guess they grew out of it. But I never grew out of it.

C. Y.: What do guys think about this?

B. H.: When I would have a boyfriend, they were very supportive. They actually learned about it and people were laughing because . . . they would say, “You know, you’ve got them trained.” I could take them to a store and they could name all the different designs of Kitty—that’s how bad it was. And just recently, my

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last boyfriend—he really wanted to learn more about it because it was so important to me. So he would learn all the different characters and little stories behind them and he would actually use the product and he was very interested in it because it was so important to me. So I thought that was nice.

C. Y.: Now, when you buy Hello Kitty things, to what extent do you buy it to use, or to what extent do you buy it to collect?

B. H.: I think I buy more of it to collect than to use. There are a lot of things, ’cause, everything I use is Kitty, like, if you were to look at my purse, everything in it is Kitty. But I buy more that I collect, I think, like in terms of stickers, when we [Sanrio, Inc.] come out with stickers—sometimes we come out with twenty different stickers at a time—I’ll buy all of them. Because they go into an album. Or like pens. I have a whole fixture for my pen collection. Those just don’t get used. But then I have separate ones, extras, that I use.

C. Y.: What’s the most expensive Hello Kitty item thing that you own?

B. H.: I think it’s the crystal watch.

C. Y.: About how much is it?

B. H.: I think it was $250.

C. Y.: Retail?

B. H.: Yeah. I don’t remember anything else that’s superexpensive. Oh, I do have the snowboard.

C. Y.: How much is that?

B. H.: It retails for $550, but I got a discount on it, I didn’t pay full retail for it.

C. Y.: So you have a snowboard?

B. H.: I have two.

C. Y.: Two snowboards! Do you use them both?

B. H.: Different design. I’ve never gone snowboarding. I need to get boots and binding.

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B. H.: Not specifically, but I love to kind of spread the happiness that Kitty brings me by giving it to other people. There was one time where we went out to dinner somewhere and there was a table next to us with a little girl. She was celebrating her birthday, and I noticed that she had some little grab bags that were little Hello Kitty ones, and so I had an extra pen in my purse and I happened to be with a bunch of coworkers, so I went over to the table, and I go, “Oh, are you celebrating your birthday?” and they went like, “Yeah,” so I gave her this grapeflavored smelly Kitty pen. So small stuff like that. I love to see it bringing the same happiness that it brings to me to other people. It makes me feel good when I see that.

C. Y.: Where do you see all this leading?

B. H.: Everybody keeps asking me if I’ll ever grow out of it, but I don’t think so. Because they keep making things that are useful on an everyday basis, so I don’t think it will ever end.

C. Y.: If there were somebody that came into the room, never saw Hello Kitty before, didn’t know anything about Hello Kitty, and you were trying to describe what Hello Kitty is, or Hello Kitty’s world, what would you say to them?

B. H.: I would probably just stress to them that she spreads friendship and happiness to everyone ’cause that’s what she basically is about. And even when you know how I told you the dentist story? I had a friend who had to go get a root canal, and she was freaking out because she had to go by herself, and somebody gave her a little Hello Kitty stuffed animal key chain, and so she took it and she went off and had her little root canal done. I think I would just stress that Kitty’s there to kind of cheer up people and just spread friendship and happiness because no matter what it is that you give someone, even if it’s just the tiniest little piece of paper or just a little sticker, Kitty always puts a smile on someone’s face even though they don’t know what it is or if they’ve never even seen it. You know, when you see it, nobody would say it’s not cute. Everybody would smile just seeing Hello Kitty.

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C. Y.: As a collector, is there any item that you just covet or do you have any sort of goals?

B. H.: To get a bigger house? [laughs]. That’s what everybody says I need. If I were to ever move, I could never go to a smaller place, because I just took over the entire house. It’s just like out of control. . . . But you know, it just depends on what I’m in the mood to collect.

C. Y.: Is there such a thing as competition between collectors?

B. H.: Yes. I’ve noticed that once, there was this girl. I heard she collects almost as much as I do, and so I happened to be shopping at the store one day and she was shopping at the same time, and there was some item—I guess it was a different type of cup or glass thing that comes with a plush—and I picked out the cutest one for myself, and I pulled it, put it into my basket, and she goes, “You’re not gonna get all of them?” And I was like, “No, I don’t have enough room for all of them,” because if you open my kitchen cupboard, all of the different cups are all Sanrio. So she would just be on me, everywhere I went, every section I went, she goes, “Are you gonna buy that?” or “I got this. Aren’t you gonna get that?” I think that’s the only time I ever noticed competition, ’cause other times that I speak to other collectors we share information or actually help each other out. Like if we’re trying to get a collection of a certain line, we’ll try to help each other, and if one doesn’t have it, we’ll help them buy it. If we see an extra. So most of the time it’s just wanting to help each other in the collecting.

C. Y.: Are there ever any collectors who want to buy things from you?

B. H.: Not really, but, that’s always another joke, too, because even if anybody were to offer me any money, I would never want to get rid of anything.

C. Y.: So your collection is only gonna grow?

B. H.: Yes. Because I’d never throw anything away and I would never give up anything.

C. Y.: So in a year, what would you guesstimate your spending to be of Sanrio things?

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C. Y.: And this is with a discount.

B. H.: Well, we [Sanrio employees] don’t always get a discount, because the rule is that we cannot get a discount until after thirty days that it’s been on the floor [for general sale], to give the customers a fair chance. Because you know we don’t want it where a new item comes out and it’s sold out before it goes on the floor. So a lot of times I have to pay full price for it, because I don’t want to miss it.

C. Y.: Any other thoughts on how you feel about yourself and Hello Kitty?

B. H.: I feel like I’m a walking advertisement. It’s funny because any time I’m carrying anything Hello Kitty—little girls, of course, it attracts their attention right away and I see them start staring at the actual item, and then they stare at me with this funny look and then they pull on their moms. It’s just funny because there’s such a big age difference. That gets me sometimes. And people laugh at me ’cause they think I’m too old for this stuff. But it doesn’t bother me.

C. Y.: That’s great. And you have a career from it.

B. H.: My childhood dream! But I think it’s because I’m comfortable and I’m really confident, so it doesn’t matter to me what other people think. I don’t care if people think I’m weird if I’m wearing a Sanrio shirt. I actually got into a slight argument with an older white male that was taking the train with me. I was carrying my Kitty French backpack. And I sat down and he goes, he starts laughing, and he said, “That’s a backpack for a five-year-old.” And I said, “No, it’s not.” And he’s like, “Yes, it is.” And I go, “No, it’s not.” And then in my mind I’m thinking, “You have no idea who you’re talking to.” And it just bothered me that he was so narrow minded. Sometimes I feel like it’s my job to educate people that don’t know. If I ask, “Have you ever heard of Hello Kitty? Do you know who Hello Kitty is?” and if they say no, then I have to show them and tell them about it. It’s just really neat.

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C. Y.: Well I want to thank you for taking the time. It’s been fun. And amazing!

Hello Kitty Hispanic: Gender Construction, Family Values

The ardent evangelism of a fervent fan (and Sanrio employee) such as Becky Hui may not be so extreme when one considers the message that many true believers feel Hello Kitty represents—that is, happiness, friendship, and democratic access through “Small gift, big smile” practices. These values transmit cross-culturally beyond white America or Asian America to other ethnic enclaves.

When I first visited Sanrio, Inc., in 2002, one of the things that surprised me was the large place of Hispanics in Sanrio’s North American market. I had not previously equated Asian-based cuteness with my stereotype of Latina femininity. However, there are other connections to be made. In her study of marketing to Hispanics in the United States, the anthropologist Arlene Davila points out that American marketers amalgamate ethnic minorities—including Asian Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans—into a single category of consumer, whose characteristics include a shared emphasis on family values (2001:216–17). Peter Gastaldi, the executive vice president at Sanrio, Inc., at the time of my 2002 interview, agreed: “Yes! Hispanics, number two [Sanrio market, after Asian Americans]. Family values, children center of the family, buying things for the children, things that will make children happy. It also gets into interesting cultural differences that impact product design. For example, Hispanics, they love red products” (personal communication, June 19, 2002). When I asked Gastaldi whether Hispanics knew or cared that Hello Kitty was from Japan, he responded: “No, they’re buying cute. In the case of Hispanics, I don’t think that the fact that it’s from Japan really has a whole lot to do with it. It’s cute, it’s colorful, it’s child-oriented, it’s whimsical” (personal communication, June 19, 2002). Many consumers other than Hispanics would agree with Gastaldi’s assessment that it is cute—and not necessarily Japan—that they seek.

Walking into the Sanrio store in New York Times Square in 2003, I was struck by the number of Hispanics there. Most of the sales personnel are Hispanic, as was the Honduras-born manager, “Karen” (b. 1970). Karen explained the ethnic predominance of her staff: “They [Hispanics] are mostly the ones that walk through the door to apply” (personal

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communication, March 29, 2003). Moreover, many applicants who work in a Sanrio store are fans of the company’s products. The customers are a mix of tourists from Asia, Europe, and other parts of the United States, as well as locals, including many Hispanics. Although Gastaldi claims family values as the core reason that Hispanics form a large market for Sanrio, “Karen” could not quite put her finger on the appeal, except to simply say, “I’m Hispanic and I just like it. She’s cute and everything she has is cute” (personal communication, March 29, 2003). She characterized the majority of her regular customers as Hispanic women between twenty-five and thirty-two, buying items for themselves and for their children. “Karen” noted what her Hispanic customers tend to buy: “Hispanics mostly buy plush toys for their kids, I know that they do, they buy you know the cute stuff. Every other Hispanic person that comes in here wants to buy the little plush—it’s very selective items. They don’t want everything” (personal communication, March 29, 2003). The implication is that the Hispanic market for Hello Kitty tends to be more conservative, favoring straightforward cute products, and not some of the edgier extensions of the core brand. (In this, Hispanics share middle-of-the-road preferences for Hello Kitty with many others identified as a mass market globally.)

Interview: Hispanic American Collector and eBay Seller—Adeline Tafolla Adeline Tafolla (b. 1974)—or Ady, as she likes to be called—has been selling Hello Kitty through her online toy shop that she calls the Unbirthday Store for several years (going full-time at the time of the interview in 2006). Born in Los Angeles, Ady came from a conservative, poor Hispanic family who could only rarely afford new and comparatively expensive items such as Hello Kitty. What Hello Kitty items she could attain became particularly cherished treasures. A Hello Kitty fan, she gave up Kitty temporarily during middle school (Bill Hensley calls this “the Change”), but then revisited her later in high school and as a young adult active in the rave scene (Hensley’s “Re-discovery”). Hello Kitty—repurposed to subcultural effect—saw her through the rebellion of her teen years (parts of Ady’s interview could as well be placed within chapter 5) and reemerged as a friend and “business partner” in adulthood. Although self-described as a “rebel,” she echoes the family values that Gastaldi mentions and links them to Hello Kitty. A mix of class and Hispanic elements shape Ady’s meaning making of Hello Kitty—from the dream-filled childhood treat

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of a relatively expensive, “frou-frou” (feminine, fancy) item to the bodily notation of Hello Kitty as “short” or “butchy” (squat).

Ady began her online shop through eBay when she found that her own collection of Hello Kitty items had far surpassed the storage space where she lived. She sees selling Hello Kitty and other “toy” items as a necessary and creative form of “recycling.” In effect, Ady utilizes some of the same techniques of her Los Angeles childhood, scouring garage sales and secondhand stores for used items, reclaiming the least damaged, recognizing the particular niche market, and refurbishing them to sell at a profit. A collector such as Ady is happy to be eking out a living through Hello Kitty, with part of the excitement in the hunt itself, especially when hidden treasures may lie undiscovered in other people’s discards. I visited Ady in her cramped apartment in urban Honolulu on May 17, 2006, where she showed me how she photographs items for sale, posts them on her store website, and receives and processes orders. Although her space is extremely limited and operation small, she goes about her business with the enthusiasm and zeal of a treasure hunter.

C. Y.: So you started off kind of as a collector, and then you began selling off some of your extra stuff, and then you kept going as a business and this is what you do?

A. T.: And then I finally decided to make the jump to doing that full time because everything I sold, sold. So that’s a pretty good ratio—everything sells. And then the other thing was that I just had such a memory, and I had such a diverse upbringing, that I knew what many of the subcultures liked. So, there are certain clothes and toys and things that certain types of people like, that the raver community, the kids that party, they like certain toys, and then you got like the taggers and the skateboarders, and they like certain toys, and then you’ve got the gay community and they like certain toys. So if you can cater your toys to those communities, you’ve pretty much reached the whole darn market. Somebody, somewhere is gonna want some toy in some way.

C. Y.: That’s great.

A. T.: So because I could remember who liked what, that is the little niche that sets me apart from regular toy people. Because regular toy people just take whatever Sanrio gives them, and I

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actually go and hunt out ones. And a lot of times when I go to yard sales or I go to the Goodwill, there are toys that are left behind that nobody wants, and I realize, “That’s a really rare toy. That’s something someone’s gonna really want, ’cause it’s a rare one. Someone who’s a collector will know. And that’s where I do make the money. If I find those one or two toys, they’ll sell for $40, and I buy them for maybe a dollar or fifty cents.

C. Y.: Fantastic! Now tell me something about your interests in Hello Kitty.

A. T.: When I was a kid—I can’t even remember how old I was—I think I must have been about six or seven, and my godmother lived in Burbank [California] and there was a fancy frou-frou store, privately owned frou-frou toy store.

C. Y.: What do you mean when you say “frou-frou”?

A. T.: Like fao Schwartz, but not corporate, it was just one familyowned the toy store. And at that time Hello Kitty wasn’t common, so I went in there and I saw the Hello Kitty, and I’d never seen that kind of toy before. So it’s bright red, ’cause the original’s red, and I was like, “Oh, it’s so cute!” It was a lunch pail, and I still have the lunch pail!

C. Y.: You’re kidding, your original one.

A. T.: Yeah, the very first one. And I thought it was so cute, it was the roll-top kind of a lunch pail, and I dragged that lunch pail everywhere. I was so proud of that lunch pail, and that’s what started it. And then every time I went to visit my aunt I would say, “Oh let’s go to that toy store—I want to get some more of those Hello Kitty kind of toys.”

C. Y.: Did you know it was from Japan?

A. T.: Not at that time I didn’t. I just knew that it was some kind of rarer toy line, that the regular Toys R Us places didn’t carry. That’s why I knew it was kind of neat, ’cause it was different— you could only get it at these certain special toy stores. You see, we were really poor and most of the time when I got anything, it was from the secondhand store, so it was just kind of what was available, and wasn’t too broken. So it [new Hello

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Kitty] was a real treat. My aunt had money, so she could take me to the frou-frou store and buy me a brand new toy.

C. Y.: What did other kids say, like at your school?

A. T.: I didn’t take it to school with me, but I took it everywhere else with me.

C. Y.: What about say, when you were in intermediate school?

A. T.: Well, I think it kinda died out during junior high. I liked it, but I was just doing the whole teen thing. Fighting for my independence and fighting with my family, rebelling and all that stuff. So I just kinda put it over to the side. But when I got into high school that’s when the whole hip-hop thing came in, with bright colors, they were wearing the very cross colors, with the bright colors. And one of the things to do was to start wearing baggy clothes, and it was actually when using a lunch pail as a purse came in. So I dug through my toys and I found that Hello Kitty lunch pail and I brought it back—I started taking it to school and everyone thought that was really cool, they were like, “Wow, where’d you get that thing, that’s an oldie.” So it kinda came back in.

C. Y.: As part of hip-hop?

A. T.: Yeah.

C. Y.: Would you characterize yourself as pretty rebellious when you were a teenager?

A. T.: Oh yeah. I would characterize myself as independent; my family would say rebellious.

C. Y.: But it’s interesting how Hello Kitty was actually part of it?

A. T.: Yeah. Well what I like about her is that she’s cute, she’s short— in my family we would use the word “butchy.” The word butchy means that it’s kind of stout or squat, but cute. That, and she was just very pleasant, her world and her life was just very pleasant, very cute and nice. Everyone got along and you got along with your neighbors, and it’s kind of how everyone would like the real world to be. You know, family and everything. So that’s what appealed to me.

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A. T.: No. But that’s what I wanted and no one would let me do that. My way! I already had in my mind what I wanted and everyone else had in their mind what they wanted for me—I was just like “no”! After high school and I started going to college, and it [Hello Kitty] again went back on the shelf, and I started doing the, you turn twenty-one you start going out drinking, go clubbing, and my family had never let me go do anything, at all. They were super overprotective, I mean lockdown. I didn’t go anywhere; I didn’t speak to nobody; I didn’t spend the night at nobody’s house; I didn’t do nothing. It was just school, strictly school. So I hit twenty-one, I was like “I’m outta here.” I just went out and saw the world. I lived with drag queens while in Hollywood, went nightclubbing, I got a little job for a radio station doing some promotions. So then I was running around with a bunch of the radio station people, and that whole nightlife. And then I started going to raves and learned about that whole atmosphere. Just saw a lot , did a lot of traveling in the U.S., went to Alaska, went to Boston, New York, New Mexico, a lot of the Western areas, all up and down California, even down into Mexico. Just seeing the world and meeting people, and then one of the places that I wanted to come was Hawai’i. And as soon as I got here that was it—I was like, “I’m moving!” Went home, told everyone, “I’m moving to Hawai’i!” Packed up my stuff and came back.

C. Y.: Now all through this period of going to raves and traveling all around, I’m assuming Hello Kitty was not very much a part of your life?

A. T.: No.

C. Y.: So then what resurrected her in your life?

A. T.: Well the last stage of that whole finding myself stage, was the rave scene. Which, they have in the rave scene these things called “Candy Kids,” and they are all about bright rainbow— basically you dress up looking like Rainbow Bright. And you go to the party in your fabulous, put-together costume, so to speak. And you just are happy—that’s the whole point is

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to be friendly and meet people—and that’s the whole point. So what you would do is, kids would make these bracelets, and when you would meet somebody you would give them a bracelet, and they would give you one. Or if you didn’t have bracelets sometimes it would be just a sticker. That’s what I would do is hand out Hello Kitty stickers to everybody that I met. And you just meet people, but some kids liked Teletubbies, some kids liked Rainbow Bright, some kids liked Hello Kitty, others liked Super Mario Brothers. So everyone would come wearing their favorite character, so I was like “Wow, this is cool!” ’cause I liked toys and I found a whole genre of people who liked toys and bright happy things.

C. Y.: And about how old were you then?

A. T.: I was about twenty-two, and went through until I was about twenty-five. And that was pretty much the peak of it, ’cause after that is when the government started cracking down on them [raves] and making this whole “Oh, all these people are doing drugs and they’re od-ing.” It basically killed it, killed the scene.

C. Y.: Was it much of a drug scene?

A. T.: Oh lots! Lots and lots of drugs.

C. Y.: What kind of drugs?

A. T.: Mostly E—Ecstasy was the main one. There was the harder stuff like coke and speed, but those are kinda frowned upon. That’s missing the mark of what this is about. To me, I was like, toys! Kids who like toys! Let’s dress up. I was having a great time ’cause I could run around and wear Hello Kitty and be silly and no one cared—it was the greatest thing! I could be a nerd and everyone thought I was cool.

C. Y.: And you’re saying that within this Candy Kids group of people, there were a bunch that liked Hello Kitty, besides you?

A. T.: Oh yeah. I mean there were some that would make, that would get pants like this and they would unseam them, and then sew in fabric that had Hello Kitty in the seam, and they would customize their clothes.

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A. T.: No, no, I didn’t get that fancy. But I knew that scene, what types of toys appeal to them. Yeah, the raves. So they like backpacks. Or fanny packs, or things with pockets because they have to carry everything. So then I know to sell those, to gear those things towards those kids, ’cause they’ll be looking for them.

C. Y.: So do you think Hello Kitty is still popular with that scene?

A. T.: Oh yeah. All of it is.

C. Y.: Do you have any personal stories about Hello Kitty in your life?

A. T.: Well, my sister said, “You found a way to fund your addiction!”

C. Y.: Would you call yourself a Hello Kitty addict?

A. T.: Oh yeah.

C. Y.: What do you think Hello Kitty gives you? How does Hello Kitty add to your life, besides the business?

A. T.: Well, it seems that she’s given me a life, basically. Like I said I don’t function well in normal parameters of society. So if I had to go out and get a real job in the real world, I wouldn’t make it, I couldn’t do it, so because of her [Hello Kitty], and the other toys I sell. And I can work with my quirks and things I have in my personal life. That’s good, which is something I needed to find with my own limitations and things.

C. Y.: So how do you get your things to sell? Do you just go and cruise around Salvation Army and Goodwill?

A. T.: Yes, and a lot of times just people’s yard sales—they’re moving and they don’t want to take all these toys with them, or their kid is too cool now; they’re older and they don’t want the toys anymore. And so I just bring them home and wash them, and they’re fine. Perfectly fine. I feel good because one thing—I even put it on my website—all these toys would end up in the rubbish. And so, to me, I feel like I am almost recycling.

C. Y.: In effect you are!

A. T.: Yeah, and then, too, it makes me feel good knowing that someone’s been able to get something they couldn’t normally af-

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ford. They couldn’t afford a $60 or $80 comforter set for their kids. And now because on eBay I fished out this one that just had this sewing problem, they were able to get this nice new set for their kid, and make their kid really happy. So, it makes me feel good. And a lot of people say, “Well don’t you put a lot more work into it than you’re making,” but I remember hearing an old saying one time—it said, “If you find a job that you love, you’ll never work another day in your life,” ’cause it’s not work to me. To me it’s playing with toys, ’cause every day I go out, I never know what I’m going to find; it’s like a treasure hunt. I never know what’s the next cool thing I’m going to find, and I’ll go, “Wow, that’s great” and I get all excited. And I know someone else is going to think that same thing when they get it. So, that’s a nice rewarding feeling.

C. Y.: Well thanks so much—it’s great that you have this business. And it all started with Kitty!

Hello Kitty for Men

Ady’s self-confessed “addiction” to the “bright and happy” world of Hello Kitty in which she trades, positions her both at the margins and mainstream of Sanrio consumers. At the very least, she has managed to pursue her passion for Hello Kitty developed within a specifically classed position in a Hispanic enclave of Los Angeles to a broad range of consumers through her Internet business. As a fan and seller, she could be anybody, anywhere, as could be her customers.

In fact, the anonymity of an online store such as Ady’s (and others mentioned previously) may be more appealing to those one might least expect as customers. Although most people associate Hello Kitty with females, Sanrio’s cat does have male fans. And some of these male fans are not gay (see chapter 5 for more on gay male fandom). The notion of a heterosexual male Hello Kitty fan flies in the face of stereotypes, especially as reinforced through masculinist hazing. For example, in American sports, because he missed the traditional rookie hazing, the Mets 2008 baseball rookie pitcher Joe Smith was forced to wear a bright pink Hello Kitty backpack when he walked from the dugout to the bullpen before games, to which one of his teammates Billy Wagner crowed, “It’s not Hello Kitty, it’s Hello Smitty—mee-oww!” (Hubbuch 2008).5 The sports bloggers went wild. In the meantime, recognizing such a

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strong bias toward female consumers and wanting to extend their market, Sanrio in 2008 launched a new product range for men that includes what company officials described as “a more rugged, cool look to appeal to men in their teens and early 20s” in items such as men’s watches, toiletry kits, and T-shirts (Kageyama 2008). The modest success of this line, however, does not negate the overall stereotyping of Kitty clientele by the population at large.

Although it is difficult to generalize about a heterosexual group of male consumers, the few with whom I spoke all agree that their own fondness for Hello Kitty—especially as a straight male—takes people by surprise. One older German American man in his sixties—originally from Detroit, Michigan, who moved to Hawai’i in 1974, and teaches math at a community college in Honolulu (at the time of our interview in 2006)—confesses great fondness for Hello Kitty. He says that he was introduced to Hello Kitty about five years before through a young Japanese woman in her twenties who was a former student. Although he does not yet purchase Hello Kitty items for himself, he enjoys browsing at the Sanrio store and finds the cat irresistible: “It’s [Hello Kitty] just something that’s totally without any negative connotation at all. No way can you not like it! Even sometimes in advertising if something is overdone, you get tired of it, you see the same commercial over and over again. And so, it could be that way with Hello Kitty, since it’s on so many different things, it could be overkill, but I never feel that way. Never get tired of seeing it ever” (personal communication, April 26, 2006). Furthermore, not only is Hello Kitty irresistible, but so too is her purported message of innocence and hope. “I think it’s the fact that the world nowadays, it seems to me, has more problems, more conflicts, more reasons to get discouraged, and Hello Kitty is the great and wonderful thing to bring a smile to anyone’s face at anytime. So other things will come and go but Hello Kitty will stay. Or at least I assume and hope it will stay” (personal communication, April 26, 2006). What he expressed parallels Sanrio’s company ethos of happiness, of “getting it” (chapter 2), which parallel’s Tsuji’s emphasis on the smile (chapter 1). The confluence of messages presents a seamlessly unproblematized relationship between producers’ encoding and consumers’ decoding.

Interview: Heterosexual Male Fan Profile—M. G. I met M. G. (b. 1982) at Sanrio’s San Francisco store, where he was working part-time. I was struck, first of all, by the sight of M. G.—a very hip, cool, young guy in a hoodie and jeans—stocking the shelves at the store.

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He readily agreed to meet me during his break, where I learned that he is a college student (at the time, soon to be a San Francisco State University history major) who plays in a rock group. It was M. G.’s interest in Japanese popular culture—from videogames to music—that originally got him interested in Hello Kitty. He sees Hello Kitty as not mainstream America, and appreciates the fact that his liking Hello Kitty sets him apart from the majority culture. In M. G.’s mind, Hello Kitty is alternative culture. But M. G. has his limits in going public with his Hello Kitty fandom. Although his close friends know of his preferences and may even give him Hello Kitty gifts, he is wary of overtly displaying Hello Kitty items in the general public sphere. He obviously understands the stereotyping of Hello Kitty’s appeal (females or gay males) and critiques he might face, even as he likes to set himself apart from mainstream American culture. At the time of our interview, M. G. had been working at Sanrio for three months. Here is part of our conversation that took place on November 19, 2004.

M. G.: I, myself, am a fan of Miss Kitty.

C. Y.: Are you!?

M. G.: Yes, of course! Let’s see, she, of course, is cute, and—I don’t know. A lot of my friends back home [Anaheim, California], they liked her as well, so that was just something to talk about. And one of the things I used to love to do was to go to swap meets and look for old toys and Hello Kitty memorabilia that you can’t find in stores.

C. Y.: When you say you and your friends, which friends are these?

M. G.: Some girlfriends, I don’t know [laughs].

C. Y.: Girls and boys?

M. G.: Girls, primarily girls. Lots of people think, you know, they assume that, especially at work, that I’m a guy that works there and they think that maybe I’m homosexual because I work with that type of retail. With Hello Kitty they kind of put two and two together . . .

C. Y.: But you’re not?

M. G.: I’m not. Yeah, I’m straight. I just like Kitty!

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M. G.: Let’s see—it’s probably been just within the last three or four years. Yeah, I was introduced to Japanese pop culture back with videogames, and Nintendo, and everything. So as my interests grew from videogames to comic books to, more, art and stuff like that I picked up on music from Japan and stuff like that.

C. Y.: What was the first Hello Kitty object that you owned?

M. G.: I don’t really remember what my first one was, maybe it was something that my friend had brought back from Japan— because she was from Japan—and she would bring stuff back, and “Oh this is cute, you’d like this,” and stuff. But, my most prized possession is—you know I play in a band, and we go on tour around the country and the last time in June we were in New York and I guess the creator of Hello Kitty, I’m not familiar with her name, but she was doing an in-store appearance and signing and I got her to sign a suitcase for me. It has my name on it and everything!

C. Y.: Wow!

M. G.: I show my friends that and they’re just like so envious of it and all. And now, since I work here, you know I buy the stationery and I’ll write them letters and say, “From San Francisco Hello Kitty,” you know, “Hey, how’re you doing? This is what I’m doing now.” And my last job, I was a teacher at the Boys and Girls Club of Anaheim and the kids would always ask—I’d have like a [Hello Kitty] wallet—and they would ask, “Why does your wallet have Hello Kitty?” They’re like, “You’re not a girl. Why do you do that?” And they were confused because they just associate Hello Kitty with being, that’s for girls, and I was just like, “Hey it’s really cool. I can like it, too, you know. You don’t have to be a girl to like Hello Kitty.”

C. Y.: OK. So at the time that you started liking Hello Kitty, what were people’s reactions? Like your parents, your friends?

M. G.: Oh, I don’t know about my parents’ reaction. I mean, my mom, she really knows that I like Japanese culture and stuff

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like that, so she was kind of like, “It’s just another one of those Japanese things that you like.” And with my friends, they’re just—everybody knows that I’m kind of weird in my own little way, so they were just like, “Oh, I guess it’s cool.”

C. Y.: So do you like Precious Moments [American cute figures with Christian overtones]?

M. G.: No, I hate a lot of like American things. I’m really biased. I guess it’s just like what’s considered to be mainstream and what’s considered to be. Since it’s coming from Japan and you might look at it more like it’s more original because not everybody in America will be exposed to it.

C. Y.: And if Hello Kitty were overexposed, would you stop liking it?

M. G.: Well, I’m sure I wouldn’t because with Hello Kitty, it’s just, you make a connection. There’s definitely a connection made because it’s not mainstream; you feel a more personal level, because not everybody else knows what you’re talking about, you know what I mean?

M. G.: No, I’m not that big of a freak—I guess even though I do work at Sanrio I guess I’m kind of a closet Hello Kitty fan.

C. Y.: You’re not really out? [laughs]

M. G.: Yeah, well I am sort of. My friend gave me a Hello Kitty key chain, and I have that on a backpack.

C. Y.: That’s as public as you go?

M. G.: I guess, yeah. If the store wanted me to go outside [in Hello Kitty wear], I would do that. I would put on Hello Kitty, but as far as myself, like buying a backpack, I’d kind of have to think of what people are going to think before I do that, because I’d like to not be self-conscious about myself. But you have to face it. People are going to criticize and that’s just society as a whole. It’s gonna do that.

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Kitty as Global (Winking) Friend

The fans I interviewed above—adults all—face a certain amount of social ostracism in their deep connection to a mouthless cat whom many in the larger society would characterize more readily as a child’s figure. They face a certain amount of risk in going public, and yet many of them take distinct pleasure and even pride in just this distance from what they consider to be mainstream society. Their talk about the object of their desire weaves confessional disclosure—even revelation and evangelism—with easy laughter. They themselves recognize the humor in an adult so enamored with what might be taken as the “charm of muteness” in a child’s toy. Their laughter, then, may be seen as part of the wink on pink.

I return to the questions I posed at the beginning of this chapter: How does Hello Kitty become a friend, and what kind of friend is she? First of all, Hello Kitty has become a friend to these fans most typically through other social relationships. Whether it is a mother giving small Hello Kitty gifts to her daughter or a rich godmother who takes a child to a Sanrio store as a treat, those consumers who established their fandom at an early age tend to embed their relationship with the Sanrio object within other warm, emotionally rewarding social experiences. These social relationships are often intergenerational and female to female. In this sense, Hello Kitty’s nest is already feathered with those core elements of friendship, happiness, and intimacy.

Second, in many fans’ accounts of their relationship with Hello Kitty, Sanrio’s cat appears mysteriously benign, even powerful. She possesses inexplicable powers of seduction that catch her fans unaware. She draws them to her irresistibly in what can become an obsessive relationship— extreme fan to Kitty. They position themselves as powerless in the face of her charms; collectors surround themselves with more and more of her to live a Hello Kitty lifestyle. Although this kind of narrative may sound akin to stereotypical orientalist accounts of a mysterious, seductive Asian female presence, in fact such talk is not unlike that of other Euro-American fan relationships with objects of affection, whether that object is a singer, movie star, or comic book. However, here the object is a mute presence with little narrative, in spite of a backstory and cartoon series. These narratives are far less important than her simply being there. They care less that she is supposed to be from London or that she has a twin sister or that she is perpetually in the third grade. They do care that she is there whenever they need her, whether in the deep

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recesses of a backpack or on the backpack itself. Fans draw upon her sheer materiality, Kitty’s visage (if even boiled down to a bow) reassuring them of her constancy.

Third, fan interactions center around buying and thus ownership as an irresistible urge. The consumers of Hello Kitty are many and varied, ranging from the casual to the fanatic. They represent a spectrum of activity that may be episodic or may lead into progressive commitment. Baudrillard distinguishes between the accumulation of material goods and the collection: the first is gathered without necessarily greater intent or design; the second is gathered as part of an internal system of order and meaning (1996:111–13). Note, however, that one may lead to the other, as the accumulator of objects may eventually create order and meaning in the ongoing creation of a collection. The hallmarks of the collection are a combination of desire and order—the irrational and the rational—whose relationship Susan Stewart describes as follows: “In the collection such systematicity results in the quantification of desire. Desire is ordered, arranged, and manipulated” (1993:163). It is this emotive quality in the act of collecting that drives the practice. Baudrillard remarks: “Collecting is thus qualitative in its essence [i.e. desire, passion, fanaticism] and quantitative in its practice. . . . The whole attraction may be summed up as that of an intimate series . . . combined with serial intimacy” (1996:94).

The intimate series of objects and serial intimacy of the encounter come to a head in extreme fans—the accumulator-cum-collectors, who typically cannot emerge from a Sanrio store empty handed. They buy regularly, obsessively, compulsively, their collection never complete. Sanrio, of course, taunts with hundreds of new items issued monthly, so that there can never be a truly complete collection. Collectors structure their practices around assumptions of constant desire: with mounting numbers of Hello Kitty objects at home (and work) and shrinking storage space, they strategize and dream of their next purchase. Even when financial resources are low, they embark on continual Hello Kitty treasure hunts, searching for bargains online, at garage sales, or in secondhand stores. The thrill lies in the hunt, whether at the mall or on eBay.

Fourth, ardent fans frame Hello Kitty within a long-standing relationship to which they express loyalty. After all, Sanrio’s cat has been loyal to them, seeing them through good times and bad times, helping them face crises, brokering the challenges of daily life with her constancy. Hello Kitty represents the transitional object—the physical object that assists in the transition from home/mother to the outside

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world—that will never leave them (Winnicott 1953). In holding onto the object, they retrieve both the neediness of dependency and its sufficiency. They express their loyalty through the very fan practices that make her such a success—ownership, display, even protection. They become her protector against detractors who might criticize her (see chapter 4), as well as police her image for unwanted associations. And in doing so, they establish a tightly codependent bond.

Finally, they identify with her. They become Kitty (much like designer Yamaguchi Yūko)—or at least some part of them merges with what they feel is the Kitty essence of happiness, innocence, emotionality, and soft femininity. Some of them inscribe her onto their bodies (so that she will always be there). Others recognize the commonality between Kitty fans, buying not only Sanrio objects, but other accoutrements to the same “girly” aesthetic. Even the male fans of Hello Kitty share an identification with Sanrio’s cat as a common badge, although they may wear that badge more furtively.

In all, Hello Kitty becomes a friend to these most enthusiastic global fans within the idiom of being “best friends”—that is, through intimacy. The affective labor of Sanrio’s cat draws fans in close as one with whom they may share freely and unconditionally. This is one friend who will never leave them or talk back. Hello Kitty’s muteness works well, as Ursula LeGuin (quoted at the beginning of this chapter), notes for human-animal interactions: a “cat” creates the constant presence of the blank slate that reflects, supports, and affirms. She represents the knowing nod of empathy and understanding that spans oceans. This best-friend relationship finds renewal with every purchase, every piece in the mounting pile of plush, every glance at a Hello Kitty wallet or key chain. These are the pleasures of the collector: Hello Kitty’s ubiquity only serves to strengthen her magnetism. Within this framework, there can be no such thing as Kitty overload, but only more and more extensions of her comforting presence that verifies fans’ relationship to her. Just as intimacy among such best friends knows no bounds, the presence of Hello Kitty knows no limits. Moving inward (intimacy) and moving outward (presence in the world) alike confirm that more is better—at least for the insatiable appetites of her most avid consumers. For these fervent fans, the “here, there, nearly everywhere” extensions of Hello Kitty and pink globalization represent nothing less than achievements of the obsessive heart. She is their (not so) guilty pleasure.

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