Cat Cafés: The Purrrfect Catmosphere (702 words) for Off the Beaten Path (500-900 words) When you take off your shoes and step into the Hello Cat! cat café in Cheongju, Korea, you step into a feline lover’s paradise. Soft meows mingle with the fluffy electronic pop playing in the background, and a smiling Asian woman with short, curly hair takes your 8000 won (approximately $7) S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:22 AM
cover charge. Mint green walls, red molding, and twinkling lights combine with eclectic wooden furniture and decorations made of yarn to create the cozy, homey feeling that hangs in the air. Western tourists and native Koreans sip coffee, boba tea, and fruit smoothies on pastel-colored
Comment [1]: Is this from experience? Does she really have curly hair? Most Asians I know have straight hair, but if you or someone had an experience with a curly-haired woman specifically at Hello Cat! that works. (Maybe elderly women curl/perm their hair like they do here)
chairs, but the true guests of honor are the eating establishment’s twenty-odd cats. Felines short and stocky, long and lean, brown, black, and white mill around visitors’ slippered feet, recline on whatever S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:28 AM
furniture they wish to, and playfully investigate the bags and belongings of the people who have come to adore them. Different colored ribbons on the cats indicate varying temperaments and friendliness toward
Comment [2]: To prevent confusion or it sounding too drawn out I might switch the order of this sentence so it starts like “Short and stocky, long and lean, black, brown, and white, felines mill around visitors’ slilppered feet . . .”
guests. Many of the cats have haircuts fluffy and styled enough to make any self-respecting alley cat S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:28 AM
blush. Tabbies and angoras “on break” rest in illuminated glass cases, surveying their feline brothers and
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sisters on duty.
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Cat cafés like Korea’s Hello Cat! are now found in numerous cities, but have their roots in Japan in the early 2000s. They have since spread to major urban centers across Asia and Europe, and are S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:38 AM
beginning to pop up across North America. As internet culture and cat-based trends sweep the globe, cat cafés offer visitors in major cities across the globe a unique way to experience quirky elements of local culture, and simultaneously unite disparate locations under a worldwide umbrella of cuddly cuteness.
Comment [3]: Here the focus goes back and forth from “spread” of cat cafes, to roots, and back to “spread” of them. Could we reorder the first sentence to be something like “Cat cafes like Korea’s Hello Cat! actually have their roots in Japan from the early 2000s. However, they are now found in numerous major urban centers across Asia and Europe . . .”
Adam Farrell, a university student who lived in Korea for two years, feels that cat cafés have thrived in Asia because of their foundation in Asian culture. Farrell is majoring in Asian Studies and S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:41 AM
visited Hello Cat! in 2012. “I think the biggest reason cat cafés have done so well in Asia is because of the cultural need there for communal spaces and the need for cutesy and innovative ideas,” he says. “The idea of the communal space where you go meet with your friends is so prevalent in Korea and throughout
Comment [4]: This makes it sound like the reason for the success of cat cafes is that cats have a foundation in Asian culture. But Farrell’s reason is completely different and regards to communal spaces. Maybe try to make it more clear that you’re referring to the communal space of a café, not the cats or because there are cats there. J
Asia.” Farrell believes that the sense of community that draws Asian patrons to mingle in cat cafés goes all the way back to Confucius’ teachings on togetherness and the importance of focusing on others before oneself. Regardless of what Confucius would say about teahouses full of purring, beribboned kittens, it is evident that the citizens of major cities all around the world approve. Lady’s Dinah’s Cat Emporium, a cat café in London, requires bookings months ahead of time. Le Café des Chats in Paris recently opened a second location to accommodate the swelling number of guests, and visitors at the unrelated Café des Chats in Montréal don’t seem to object to a giant placard that reads “Le chat est Roi” (The cat is king) on the café’s wall. This last year, intentionally temporary cat café pop-up shops in California and New York S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:46 AM
were all the rage during the brief period of time they were open, and various entrepreneurs and cat enthusiasts are clamoring to open up permanent shops in Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Denver, and Cincinnati. Though the cat cafés in the United States have had a bit of a hard time overcoming pesky
Comment [5]: I’m not sure if this is needed. I think if you just mention “temporary” and “permanent” in the next sentence the meaning would come across. Just a thought, though. Do whatever you feel is best for the understanding of your readers.
health codes that currently don’t permit animals in commercial eating spaces, it is clear: the people have spoken, and cats are in. What is responsible for the sudden rise of the cat café? Some suggest that cat cafés are a real-life extension of the internet cat craze perpetuated by an endless supply of cat videos, Grumpy Cat, Princess Monstertruck, and the general hipster propensity for all things different and just a little bit odd. Regardless of whatever cultural influences led to each café’s origins, cat cafés are a downright delightful place to grab a cup of tea and cuddle with something snuggly. So next time you are in Korea, Japan, Paris, London, Montreal, Spain, or Munich, take a step off the beaten path, through the kitty door, and into a café full of cats and happiness. S&N Browning 10/28/2014 7:48 AM Comment [6]: I love this!