Municipality may offer 2 local icons a job
A Shanghai legislator has proposed adopting two locally made cartoon images — the hero of Black Cat Detective animations and the White Rabbit creamy candy logo — as symbols of the city.
“The black cat stands for justice and rules. As a megapolis that attracts migrants from many places in China and abroad, Shanghai attaches great importance to rules. The white rabbit is a symbol of intelligence and flexibility. These qualities are inseparably interconnected in the core philosophy of the city,” Li Qi, a deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, the city’s legislative body, said during a meeting in the ongoing annual legislative session on Tuesday.
“It’s like Hello Kitty and Doraemon representing Japan, and bears speak for Berlin. We should also have something typical of our culture and spirit,” said Li, who is also deputy director of the Shanghai municipal Party committee’s publicity department.
The widely popular Black Cat Detective was created by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and first aired in China in the 1984.
Creamy candies were first manufactured in 1943 and soon became so famous that they became popular gift items nationwide. In 1972 then- premier Zhou Enlai gave White Rabbit candies to then- US president Richard Nixon during his visit to China.