Fans of Hello Kitty, a popular Japanese cartoon character, yesterday morning lined up outside the Taipei Beimen Post Office, as Chunaghwa Post and Sanrio Co launched a series of cobrand products featuring the cartoon cat.
Hello Kitty is a global superstar, whose popularity has already lasted for 45 years, Chunghwa Post chairman Wu Hung-mo (吳宏謀) said at the product launch ceremony, marking the company’s first cooperation with the Tokyo-based firm that designs, licenses and manufactures products featuring popular Japanese cartoon characters.
The secret to the character’s enduring popularity is that Sanrio continues to design products that keep up with the times, Wu said.
Photo courtesy of Chunghwa Post
Some who fell in love with Hello Kitty 45 years ago are now grandparents and share their passion with their grandchildren, he added.
Hello Kitty does not have a mouth, so she does not have to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wu said, adding that the cartoon character helps keep people happy and healthy.
Chunghwa Post and Sanrio have worked together to develop nine Hello Kitty-themed products that people can send as gifts to their relatives during the holiday season, Wu said.
The products include greeting cards, tote bags, thermo bottles, a cooking pot, sticky notes and tape.
“We hope that the products will draw younger people to our services, which few of them purchase nowadays,” he said.
Some Hello Kitty fans said that they started lining up outside Taiwan’s oldest post office before 6am to buy the entire set.
The company has only 888 sets available for sale, Wu said, adding that it hopes that the products would generate NT$35 million (US$1.23 million) in revenue.
More Hello Kitty merchandise would be introduced in the next few years, he said.
People can place orders for the Hello Kitty products at post offices, the Postal Museum in Taipei and on the company’s online stamp shop at stamp.post.gov.tw.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS