TRAVEL: Taipei Airport: Hello Kitty is With Me

Ruskin said (in the late 1800's) "...modern travel...is like becoming a parcel", and so  my bundled self flew to Indonesia through Taipai to Jakarta on EVA Air, of which no one seems to have heard. It is the national airline of Taiwan, established in 1989. 

I was very amused to see the special group of planes on the ground in Taoyuan International Airport dedicated to the beloved Hello Kitty anime of my daughter's childhood. I am always engaged by Japanese anime and manga, with its derivations from uki-o-e and the charming world of enjoyment it depicted.

Hello Kitty anticipated Super-Flat, a Japanese art and design style, and actually distills a certain singular Japanese aesthetic despite its popularity and longevity. Kawaii is "cuteness", important in Japanese culture because it recalls the freedom of childhood, and allows escape from rigid adult gender roles, and fear of aging. We're also biologically programmed to respond to small, round, dependent, soft creatures. The color pink has the engendering psychological property of sweetness and kindness. 

Another theory is that kawaii one leg of a triangular assault, a second wave of Japanese imperialism via consumer domination. (The other two are Poke-mon and Dragon-Z.)

Sanrio Industrie's research has shown that Hello Kitty fans maintain their loyalty even in adulthood, purchasing various items as mementos of childhood. I find her much more appealing that Mickey Mouse, and it's compelling that her iconic face has no mouth - very peculiar and unusual when one looks at cartoon and toy face designs.  Lego minifigure faces amaze with their brevity and particularity of expression, but mouths are essential to the appealing Lego panoply of characters.

I transferred planes in Taipei to continue to Jakarta, and as I fumbled around trying to find my gate, found the dedicated departure lounge EVA Air maintains for the Hello Kitty 6 airplane fleet. A sweetly cherry-blossom-pink-lit shop beckons, so softly appealing I couldn't go in.  Perhaps I was keeping my mature adulthood intact in some oddly threatened way.   

Kitty has no mouth, according to Sanrio, because she speaks the "the language of the heart", understood by everyone.  There is a Kitty-themed maternity hospital in Taipei. Thai police are punished for minor rule-breakings with the requirement to wear a Hello Kitty armband, an acid critique of Good Cop, don't you think?

So, I passed the long hours of flight to Raja Ampat speculating about many things, admitting that my aging self loves to hold dear the dreams of childhood.