I found this one on LRB’s forums. It’s a pretty simple video with a surprise ending; surprising enough to get 3.5 million views, and close to 1,000 comments. Created for the IBM Rational Software Conference this geeky romantic viral hit the mark.
It’s interesting what goes viral in China vs. the West. There’s a sweet innocence to the Chinese psyche, evidenced by 27 year old Chinese women with Hello Kitty dolls, stickers, pencils, cups, etc, all over their desks; commercials featuring introverted romance where lovers spend almost as much time brooding over each other than they do being with each other.
If I were to blindly stab the air hoping to hit an answer, I’d probably hit this: the modern Chinese seems to think the golden age of life is childhood. A state of innocence and purity; assumed protection and hazy fantasy. It’s a place where there are no real worries, no pressures; jut simplicity. This is the whole Hello Kitty symbology; that plain-faced, no-mouth cat represents childhood, and it’s purity.
This contrasts sharply with the West – whom I’d venture a guess worship their twenties; freedom from parents, ability to drink and party legally; the promise of something new on the horizon, but not the demands to fulfill the call just yet. Why do I think that? Am I retarded? Well I like to think that I’m not; and mostly when I see teen comedies and melodramas like “Gossip Girl” or select episodes in “Sex in the City” (mind you, I watch these shows with my girlfriend, not alone) you always see kids acting and dressing a lot older than they are; contrasted to the Hello Kitty Chinese; there’s a clear dichotomy in life-stage preference.
Anyway I digress, I was supposed to be talking about this viral video right? Ok, let’s see if I can pull my rambling bullshit back to this video. Hmm. I may need help with this one.
Related articles from around the web.
- Hello…Kidney? (cocoperez.com)
- You Don’t Want The New Hello Kitty Online Theme Stuck In Your Head [Clips] (kotaku.com)
- Brian McCarty’s photo of Hello Kitty (boingboing.net)
- This Halloween, I’m Dressing Up as Hello Kitty (thefashionator.ivillage.com)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I heard Hello Kitty is popular because it doesn’t have a mouth, and that’s the key, for psychologically, you can imagine any facial expression on a face without mouth, so the little doll seems to echo with whatever in your mind.
Sure; the whole face is neutral really; expansive and open and accepting. I have an easy time seeing it reflect innocence and a hard time seeing it reflect hatred; hello kitty as a saint, easy to visualize, but hello kitty as a perverted sadist? That requires a stretch of the imagination – and likely would be seen as a joke vs. a true reflection on the mind; rather hello kitty may represent a blank slate, vs. the average psyche’s chiseled imperfections.