Right after I saw the news about this activity with photos of those
paper-made pandas coming off a plane, I was attracted by this event and decided
to see it if I got the chance to visit Hong Kong. After those pandas got off
the plane, they visited 10 famous landmarks of Hong Kong. During my trip in
Hong Kong, I visited the final stop of the activity “1600 Pandas World Tour in
Hong Kong: Creativity Meets Conservation” in PMQ.
Before landing in Hong Kong, those 1600 pandas have already been to
France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Taiwan. This activity
is a cooperation of WWF and artist Paulo Grangeon, who is good at making paper mache
animals. He made 1600 paper mache animals out of recycled materials. It’s worth
mentioning that 1600 is the number of living pandas in the wild. This activity
aims to promote the harmonious coexistence between humans and our environment.
At the same time, donations are accepted to help WWF with natural conservation
and sustainable development.
Those papier-mache pandas are made with recycled newspapers to accompany the theme of protecting environment and endangered animals.
The artist, Paulo Grangeon, was known as a wood sculptor. In 1997, he
was fascinated by the Thai craft of papier-mache and dedicated to making
papier-mache animals in his papier-mache workshop called “Matiere Premiere”.
Besides making paper-mache pandas for this event, he is also the cooperator of
several other activities that aim to protect the environment and promote about
endangered animals. For example, he made 120 papier-mache whales for the
Overseas Ministry of France and 200 papier-mache black bears for Taiwan.
The place where the event is hold is also pretty interesting. PMQ is a
creative industry landmark of Hong Kong. Lots of brands of creative products
are sold here. To accompany the 1600 pandas world tour, those brands also sell
panda related products. PMQ also has its history. Due to the special historic
background of Hong Kong as a colony, this place used to be the campus of the
Central School, which was the first public school that provided western
education. The building was severely damaged during the World War II. After
that, it was rebuilt into the dormitory for married junior police officers.
Nowadays, its building structure as a dormitory is skill kept.
The building structure shows its history as a dormitory for married police officers.
Though the weather was extremely hot the day I visited, there were lots
of visitors. Actually, most of those visitors are not strictly art lover or
environment lover. Almost all of them are attracted by the cuteness of those
pandas. It’s pretty obvious that the culture of cuteness is extremely popular
in Asia than other parts of the world. For example, the Rubber Duck designed by
Florentijn Hofman has become a phenomenon in Asia for its cuteness ever since
it was displayed in Hong Kong. Also, every city in Japan has its own cartoon character
as a mascot. Among them, Kumamon is extremely popular as the mascot of Kumamoto
prefecture. It is printed on lots of products from Kumamoto to promote the
products. Also, it has its own office where it is treated as an officer of the
local government and holds meeting with fans from all over the world. Except
those cute animals, cuteness is also the pursuit of most Asian girls. Such kind
of culture of cuteness is pretty rare in western culture.
The culture of cuteness is extremely influential in Asia. Here is the official music video of Kumanmon, the mascot of Kumamoto, Japan.
“1600 Pandas World Tour in Hong Kong: Creativity Meets Conservation”.
PMQ. Web. http://www.pmq.org.hk/event/1600-pandas-world-tour-in-hong-kong-creativity-meets-conservation/?lang=chps
“History of PMQ”. PMQ. Web. http://www.pmq.org.hk/heritage/history-of-pmq/
“"Kumamonmon" with English superimpose”. アップフロントチャンネル. Web. Sep 24, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwmeKHXYqzI
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