Nothing can stop my yearning for pandas.
Last week, I took on the review of Wolong: Skyfall. I thought that the difficulty of this job was how not to be beaten by the fierce men of the three countries, but surprisingly, what bothered me the most was how to let the panda in the game eat.
In the version I played at the beginning, this group of anti-color pandas called "Iron Beasts" were extremely "picky eaters". Even if the high-level equipment and rare materials I put in front of them are enough to be called "full of Han seats", they are still indifferent. Just when I suspected that one of me and one of the pandas must have a problem with the understanding of "food", the game was updated. Looking at the "iron beasts" who did not refuse to come in the new version and had a good appetite, I realized - it turned out that the ninja group did not put functions into it at that time.
So, after the version update, I went over the mountains to every place where I remembered the pandas and fed them all hard to make up for my previous sin of not feeding on their faces three times. Watching them yawn and rub their bellies in place when they were full, I showed a smile in front of the screen that I had only seen on my father's face.
Amazingly, when I quit the game and started surfing the Internet, I was surprised to find that while I was struggling to eat the game pandas, there was also a large number of Japanese friends, in the three-dimensional world, fanatically concerned about another panda's "food and vegetables" - En, which was really wonderful.
I've always heard about the Japanese love of pandas. But it wasn't until I saw the TAG "How reluctant the Japanese are to bear the fragrance of Chinese giant pandas" on the Weibo hot list, that I suddenly realized that their "love" may be quite different from what I used to know.
February 19, 2023 is the last day you can see the "national icon" panda "Xiangxiang" at Ueno Zoo in Japan. Two days later, the young panda, which is less than six years old, will return to China and settle in China. Faced with the opportunity that may be the last time to see "Xiangxiang" in this life, the fans of "Xiangxiang" have shown extremely high enthusiasm.
Source: Xinhuanet, photo by reporter Zhang Xiaoyu
Since January 21, a month ago, Japan's Ueno Zoo has limited the number of visitors to "Koka" to 2,600 people per day, and visitors can only qualify by drawing lots in advance. Even so, every day at Ueno Zoo there is a long queue, with queues lasting up to four hours, and some visitors wait until 3 a.m. to see the "fragrant" side.
After saying goodbye to "Xiangxiang", many people "couldn't help it" leaving tears
On February 19, it was even more difficult to see the "fragrance". More than 60,000 people participated in the day's draw, with an average winning rate as low as 1:24, which is lower than the overall winning rate of the two-color ball.
Source: Xinhuanet, photo by reporter Zhang Xiaoyu
The pomp and circumstance created by the departure of "Xiangxiang" is more than that.
Since learning that "Kaka" is leaving, a portrait of "Kaka" with a height of nearly 20 meters has been hung on the exterior wall of the Matsuzaka Department Store, a landmark building in the Ueno area. The portrait consists of 920 photographs of Kakaka, and the background of the portrait is covered with the words "I like you the most" written in Japanese.
Many people who could not see Xiangxiang on the last day of the visit spontaneously went to the zoo and airport to bid farewell to him on the day that "Xiangxiang" left on February 21.
People who did not rush to the scene watched the process through news reports. The official Twitter of Ueno Zoo, as well as Japanese television, broadcast live coverage of Xiangxiang's return to China on this day.
Interestingly, they not only reported the departure of "Xiangxiang" completely in the form of "social news", but even used prompts such as "Breaking News" in the live news screen to highlight the "national status" of "Xiangxiang" in the hearts of the Japanese people.
Source: Weibo @ Japanese sand sculpture daily
After "Xiangxiang" arrived in China, fans who cared about "Xiangxiang" still really cared about the "grain and vegetables" it obtained. They will worry about the new staff feeding it carrots that he doesn't like, while Ueno Zoo has updated Xiangxiang's "recipe" and mental state on Twitter every day after "Xiangxiang" arrived in China. Judging from these "recent situation" exaggerated reading data, there are still many people who cannot put down the "fragrant fragrance".
In addition, the so-called "eating men and women, people's great desires" is the same for pandas. After "Xiangxiang" became more and more edible, these fans began to care about its "marriage event" - after all, "Xiangxiang", who is almost six years old, has almost entered estrus. In order to confirm who "Xiangxiang"'s future partner is, some Japanese netizens even relied on translation software to read "Little Red Book", just to see what "Xiangxiang"'s future husband looks like.
Source: Weibo @ Japanese sand sculpture daily
Although no one will dislike the "top cute" such as "giant pandas", the "fragrant fragrance" that is so loved is obviously not an ordinary panda. In fact, as the "top stream" of the Japanese panda world, "Xiangxiang" has many legends, making it a favorite from the day it was born.
"Kaka" was born in June 2017 at Ueno Zoo, Japan, to parents such as the traveling pandas "Bili" (Japanese name "Lili") and "Fairy" (Japanese name "Majin"). Before it, Japan had not had a naturally born and grown baby panda for 29 years - its brother, who was born five years ago, survived only 6 days before dying of pneumonia.
"Internet celebrity fragrance plain face photo"
Under such special circumstances, the birth of "Xiangxiang" is undoubtedly great news for the Japanese people who love pandas. Yoshihide Suga, who was Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time and later Prime Minister of Japan, couldn't help but sigh after seeing the news of the successful birth of "Kaka", "This is news that makes the whole of Japan happy." ”
At that time, in order to name the newborn baby panda, the Japan Panda Conservation Association even formed a "selection committee" and launched a certification campaign for all of Japan. The campaign received tremendous support from the public, and in just over a month, the committee received more than 320,000 submissions, and the name "Xiangxiang" was chosen out of these 320,000 submissions.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike held a press conference to announce the name of "Kaka"
The confirmation of the name made the people of the entire Ueno area overjoyed. It is no exaggeration to say that since that day, the streets, malls, and buses of the entire Ueno area of Tokyo have been chanting its name - Xiangxiang. Countless public facilities and shops have hung signs to celebrate the birth of "Xiangxiang", a series of panda-related peripherals have been launched, and some malls have even launched promotional activities for this purpose.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the exaggerated influence of "Xiangxiang". Driven by the Japanese people's fanaticism about pandas, the birth of "Xiangxiang" has directly become the initiator of local economic redevelopment.
When "Xiangxiang" first opened for visits, the situation was much more exaggerated than the "farewell performance" when it left Japan.
December 19, 2017 was a working day, which was supposed to be the "off-season" for the zoo, but the number of visitors who participated in the lottery to see the first side of the "Xiangxiang" was still raging - according to statistics, the ratio of the number of winners to applicants reached nearly 1:46 at that time. The following Saturday, the gap widened further to 1:144. If the winning rate of the visit before "Xiangxiang" leaves is comparable to the total winning rate of the two-color ball, then if you want to see it in the first appearance of "Xiangxiang", you basically have to have the luck of the two-color ball jackpot.
Such an exaggerated situation will naturally lead to many people not seeing the giant panda. In this case, the live streaming platform Ueno Panda Live.jp developed by Japanese video operator developer J-Stream has become an inevitable choice for many tourists. This live broadcast platform broadcasts the "life facts" of Panda "Xiangxiang" and her parents "Lili" and "Zhenzhen" throughout the day through eight different cameras, meeting the needs of many tourists who cannot draw lots, and thus becoming famous - since the appearance of "Xiangxiang", their stock price has been rising every day.
Live footage Live.jp Ueno Panda at the time
Also affected in terms of stock prices are two catering companies near Ueno Zoo, Higashitenhong, and French restaurant KK Seiyoken. The stocks of these two companies are famous "panda stocks", and everything related to the panda in Ueno Zoo will affect their stock prices.
Previously, every time the panda "Zhenzhen" showed signs of suspected pregnancy, the stocks of these two companies would rise, and when "Zhenzhen" gave birth to "Xiangxiang", the stock price of "Dongtianhong" rose by 38% on the same day, and Intensive Xuan also rose by 11%.
The news that "Xiangxiang" will be publicly exhibited caused the stock price of Intensive Yangxuan to rise for eight consecutive days, doubling by 2.5 times
It is estimated that since its birth in June 2017, the economic benefits of "Xiangxiang" have been about 26.7 billion yen. In an interview, the president of the Ueno Tourism Federation Association bluntly said that before the birth of "Xiangxiang", the Ueno business district shrank by about 15% due to the lack of panda topics. After the birth of "Xiangxiang", it also brought at least a 20% increase in sales to the Ueno shopping district.
Although talking about money is a rather "tacky" thing, what consumption can reflect is indeed the most direct enthusiasm of the people. "Xiangxiang" is a special panda, and the huge economic value and mass influence it brings are undoubtedly a good part of the Japanese people's love for "panda".
Although Xiangxiang is a panda ah feed
The Japanese people's resistance to pandas seems to be a negative number, and anything related to pandas has endless attraction for them.
At the beginning of last year, we witnessed the explosion of the Winter Olympics mascot "Bingdundun", a panda wrapped in gel, which is a rare case of the explosion of the mascot of the Games since "Fuwa". Although the sudden rise of the "ice pier" has many factors combined with various factors, the most inseparable of them must be the "gold medal goods" of Yoshido Tsujioka, a Japanese journalist.
This journalist friend, known as "Yidundun", can almost be regarded as a portrayal of the Japanese people who are fanatical about pandas. When people asked him if he had any new news about figure skating, he not only said no, but also lifted his clothes like a businessman in Resident Evil 4 shouted "Welcome" and began to build the perimeter of the "Ice Dun Dun".
Under his "ruthless Amway", Japan has also set off a wave of "ice piers", even more fierce than ours. On the Japanese second-hand platform at that time, the price of a set of "ice dun dun" figures was incomprehensibly high.
This love for pandas is quite "nonsensical" throughout the development of "Japanese panda history". There has been almost no evolution of this, and since the arrival in Japan in 1972 of the first generation of pandas in Japan, "Kangkang" and "Lanlan", the enthusiasm of Japanese residents for pandas has never waned.
They who had not yet seen giant pandas would write welcome greetings on the outside wall of their Chinese houses and stand on the roof of their houses to welcome them.
When "Kangkan" and "Lanlan" were first exhibited, the crowd of visitors at the entrance of Ueno Zoo remained about two kilometers in length for a long time. In order to see the pandas for 30 seconds, these tourists can queue for hours and enjoy it. According to statistics, the year after Kangkang and Lanlan arrived at Ueno Zoo, the number of visitors reached a record 9.2 million, a direct threefold increase.
Since then, a "panda craze" that swept across Japan has begun, and it has continued to this day.
We can see the "panda" in all Japanese entertainment works, especially in anime works, you may not see the ball head cheongsam girl, but you can often see a panda with a sense of presence.
Going back to "ancient times", there is an episode of "Cherry Maruko" dedicated to the story of Little Maruko going to the zoo to see pandas. In this episode, you can not only see the "realistic" panda long dragon, but also see the adults who "teared the macho" after witnessing the real appearance of the panda, and you can also see the "panda craze" products such as the bizarre "panda chick".
More recently, in "One Piece", which has been serialized for nearly 20 years, there is an Easter egg that is quite famous in both anime and manga - Panda Man. He often appears as a passerby in a variety of scenes, throughout the entire "One Piece" - some marketing numbers will also specifically use him to do some "shock articles" such as "the true identity of the panda man turns out to be him".
Then to recent works, such as last year's eye-catching "Akihabara Underworld War", in a "pig"-themed maid coffee shop, the mascot is actually a panda who knows nothing, which is really confusing.
In the field of games, the panda is everywhere. The famous fighting game series "Tekken", almost every generation has a panda with a very restored shape and a super "hard" action style - and the name is "Panda".
In the "True Three Kingdoms" series, "Panda" is also an evergreen character, and in the latest work "True Three Kingdoms 8" a few years ago, you can even take the panda out shopping.
These pandas, which are both serious and strange, are still in the daily life of Japanese people. All news related to pandas has the possibility of becoming social news. And to some extent, the pandas in their daily lives are even more magical than those creations in entertainment works.
In their eyes, anything can become a "panda".
In the same way, "panda" can be anything, but it will not be "panda".
Source: Weibo @ Japanese sand sculpture daily, in a park with the theme of "bear", a "panda" statue suddenly appeared, but the staff insisted that the statue was a "bear" and not a "panda". Finally, after the program group took out a set of photos for a quick Q&A, the staff member showed his stuffing
To some extent, these "sand sculpture pandas" have merged the Japanese people's love for "pandas" with their unique sense of humor, and turned them into something that permeates all aspects of their lives.
The unique, secular "panda culture" has also become a distinctive part of Japanese culture.
And why the Japanese people like pandas so much is probably because for them, who regard "kawaii" as their daily mantra, the panda, an all-round "cute thing" without dead ends, is simply the darling of the god of "kawaii".
Even the ninja group had to let Second Master Guan sigh when the tense and exciting battle was intense-
"There are such cute demons."