After reading Ken Belson book for a Hello Kitty panel I did at a fan convention, I was made aware of Pink Globalization Hello Kitty’s Trek across the Pacific by Christine R Yano, a professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Her thesis concretes on what she called Pink Globalization, how ideas and products like Hello Kitty that is cute and seeped in the Kawai culture is exported and adopted outside Japan. She argues her point very well using lectures and interview with Hello Kitty Fans, detractors, and artist. As such, Miss Yano does not dwell on the history of Hello Kitty or Hello Kitty in Japan but how we on the outside imported and adapted Hello Kitty into our own lives and culture. This book is not a historical narrative but an academic work on Hello Kitty. It is not light reading
I do have a few two problems with the book. First is it’s over long introduction section, I really wanted to dig into the meat of the book. The second on chapter on Kitty Backlash she mentions Landover Baptist Church as a source of fundamentalist Christian opposition but fails to recognize Landover Baptist is a fictions parody site. I would expect Christine You a professor writing an academic would have been more diligent in her research, I see this as an oversight.
Being a social science buff this book gave me very good insight on How Hello Kitty is a popular Icon outside Japan and of my in interest of collecting Hello Kitty and Sanrio items as an 52 year old Male and part of furry subculture; how and how and why I was able to adapt Hello Kitty into my part of the furry subculture.
This book, even with its flaws, is good for somebody wants to look deeper into the social science of Hello Kitty.
