Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek across the Pacific

Shipped right away. Good book.

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 readingI 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.Good Academic Read on Hello Kitty

Pink Globalization by Christine Yano explores the omnipresence of Hello Kitty both in Japanese culture as well as in Western countries. Aside from Hello Kitty's associations with Japanese identity, and how this has expanded to include the wider spectrum of Asian identities as well, Yano also interrogates the idea of Hello Kitty as being representative of the "emasculated" state of post-war Japan. This idea, that Japan has become increasingly "trivialized" as a result of cute-culture, also connects with the image of Japan being exported to the Western world. How this image affects Japan, and the rest of Asia, is part of Yano's interest in writing Pink Globalization. The exportation of this image, of this idea of Japan as cute-cool, also plays into the consumerism that is becoming more and more present in the global community. Sanrio is portrayed not only as an exporter of a product, but the missionaries of happiness that can only be bought in order to be experienced.

Excellent book! Christine R. Yano takes what is for most of us an average product and lays out for the reader the deeper cultural, historical, and anthropological significance of Hello Kitty. This book is not the simple history of a product, but rather an analysis of the global ramifications of Hello Kitty. It is a description and challenge of our understanding of both Japanese and American culture; and what that all means on a global level. Yano writes in a very captivating way that makes the reader never want to put down the book. Yano is successfully able to introduce new concepts of Japanese culture that would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the United States. Thus, this books lends itself to be a critique of Japanese culture, while at the same time challenging us to take a look at the world we THINK we live in, and widen our understanding so that we may begin to know the world we ACTUALLY live in.

In this book Christine R. Yano takes the reader into the world of Hello Kitty, where she sheds some light on the history, culture and global significance of Hello Kitty. Through each chapter the reader is taken on a journey following "Hello Kitty's Trek across the Pacific", analyzing the trends and social insights that Hello Kitty inspires across the globe. The author explains the trends of Hello kitty in Japanese culture and how it translates to American culture, she depicts the kawaii culture and sheds some insight to the adverse side of it. Cover to cover, it was a great read, it opens the reader to new views and different interpretations of Hello Kitty, I definitely recommend this book for an academic read or a read for fun.

So far I have only read a few pages but I am enjoying reading this book. The book was in very good condition.

excellent study of the pull HK has on humanity, all across the globe. it goes to explain my acute xaireailuridiosis.

Cracked open this scholarly-based book right away by Yano. I have been looking for a consolidated body of work on the topic of Hello Kitty from a sociological perspective, this hit the stop. Thank you for writing this book!

Fast delivery. Haven't finished the book yet but it seems a nice and interesting one for people who love hello kitty!