My celebrity daughter
A friend in Shanghai told me Feng Yi*, my adopted panda, was on TV recently.
Why was she on TV? Well, she’s one of eight cubs from the Wolong Giant Panda Conservation and Breeding Centre to be selected to go to Beijing for the Olympics. No, not as a participant – the last time I checked, the Olympics hadn’t added a new category called “cuteness overload” – but as part of China’s efforts to showcase the country’s success at rescuing the giant panda population from the brink of extinction.
The eight cubs will be going to Beijing at the end of this month where they will stay at the Beijing Zoo through to the Olympics in August. There, they will be entertaining the numerous international visitors who will be in Beijing for the Games. What sort of entertainment will the cubs be expected to put on? They will be eating, sleeping, and playing with one another – nothing extra or strenuous that they don’t already know how to do, but such basic activities when carried out by giant panda cubs have immense entertainment value that must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated!
Ever since I heard she was on TV, I’ve tuned in more often to Astro 509, which is CCTV 9, a news channel from mainland China included in the Astro News package.
In addition to appearing on TV – I expect there’ll be more appearances closer to the time they move to Beijing – the Olympic pandas have their own blog written by their keepers. Lots of updates and pictures there, including one of Feng Yi bullying Huan Huan. Unfortunately, the blog is in Chinese, but just enjoy the cute pictures, anyway!
*Feng Yi is her officially given name, which I’m beginning to use, altho she has another name, Yoong Ping, which I’d given her as part of my adoption “right”.
