Ho Tam, Plate with nine Hello Kitties (FC-013) (2025)

Ho Tam  
Plate with nine Hello Kitties (FC-013) 
2025  
inkjet on glossy photo paper  
edition of 5  
22 x 17 inches
unframed
 
 
Hello Kitty is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. Introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the international market in 1976, Hello Kitty is a staple of the ‘kawaii’ (cute) segment of Japanese popular culture and has groomed into a global marketing phenomenon worth $5 billion a year. Today Hello Kitty appears on every conceivable product, ranging from pencil cases and chainsaws to passenger jets. 
 
In May 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in China, where the character is exceptionally popular among children and young women. In 2012, a Hello Kitty theme restaurant opened in Beijing. Since then, China also had a Hello Kitty maternity ward and officially opened a Hello Kitty theme park in 2015, in Anji County of Zhejiang Province.