Culture> News and Feature

Black-and-white star power

By Erik Nilsson ( China Daily ) Updated: 2014-04-01 07:27:37

A man enjoys a light moment at a panda-themed hotel near the base of Emei Mountain in Sichuan province. Liu Zhongjun / For China Daily

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Zoologist Desmond Morris suggested 20 reasons people adore the species in his 1966 book Men and Pandas. He examines their flat faces, the illusion of large eyes, baby-like proportions, fluffiness, playfulness and clumsiness.

The rest of the reason hails from history, says Henry Nicholls, journalist and author of the book The Way of The Panda: A Curious History of China's Political Animal.

"In the 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party deliberately began to fashion the panda as a national treasure, a creature owned by Chinese - valuable, rare and coveted by the rest of the world," he explains.

"Around the same time, (the World Wildlife Fund) fashioned the panda into the face of global conservation. These two acts combined to give the panda extraordinary cultural significance. As China has grown in economic strength, so the panda's power has grown."

The WWF chose the panda as its logo upon its 1961 founding, though the organization would not work in China until more than two decades later.

It based the image upon the likeness of Chi Chi, who'd arrived at the London Zoo that year.

"Max Nicholson - one of the founders - later said the WWF panda was 'one of the most valuable trademarks that has ever been devised, and it took about 20 minutes to decide," Nicholls says.

"The real reason for choosing the panda was threefold: It had to communicate endangerment, look good and, crucially, be recognizable when printed in black-and-white. In the 1961 launch of the charity, the brochure explained its logo by saying the panda 'owes its survival to the sort of careful conservation which all wild creatures deserve'."

WWF says this vision hasn't changed.

"Although other animals might not get the special attention pandas do, they're protected because of the panda," WWF China's species program director Fan Zhiyong says.

He cites as primary beneficiaries red pandas, black bears, golden monkeys, crested ibises and serows.

"Chinese people pay much more attention to pandas now," he says.

"Pandas receive better protection compared with 30 years ago."

That's partly because of the creature's branding mojo, experts say.