Your favorite characters are now part of the Who HQ library! Say hello to the premier title in the What Is the Story Of? series. Hello Kitty! This cute cartoon character who's shaped like a bobtail cat and wears a bow in her hair has become an icon of our times. Hello Kitty, as she is known, is a piano-playing, cookie-baking darling from London with a heart of gold. Readers will learn all about Kitty, who was first created in Japan, but has since gone on to capture the imagination of people all around the world. Super fans of the super-fashionable Kitty will be thrilled to see her debut in the Who HQ brand.

Now in paperback, the inside story of the cartoon kitty that became a multibillion-dollar global enterprise The only business book to offer an in-depth exploration of the Hello Kitty phenomenon, Hello Kitty tells the amazing story of how the Japanese company Sanrio bucked the odds and transformed a bulbous, all-but-featureless cartoon critter into a multibillion-dollar global business powerhouse. Readers will learn how and why the Hello Kitty brand clicked with children and adults, across cultures, and how it continues to successfully compete, internationally, with Disney and Warner Brothers. This book is packed with valuable lessons about the awesome power of branding, marketing, and licensing to capture the hearts and minds of consumers. Ken Belson (Tokyo, Japan) covers Japanese business, economics, and government policy for the New York Times. His work has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Bloomberg News, the International Herald Tribune, and Barron's, among others. Brian Bremner (Tokyo, Japan) currently serves as Asia Economics Editor for BusinessWeek and writes a weekly column called "Eye on Japan" for BusinessWeek Online.

Hello Kitty and her friends use teamwork to put together a winter play for their class.

In Pink Globalization, Christine R. Yano examines the creation and rise of Hello Kitty as a part of Japanese Cute-Cool culture. Yano argues that the international popularity of Hello Kitty is one aspect of what she calls pink globalization—the spread of goods and images labeled cute (kawaii) from Japan to other parts of the industrial world. The concept of pink globalization connects the expansion of Japanese companies to overseas markets, the enhanced distribution of Japanese products, and the rise of Japan's national cool as suggested by the spread of manga and anime. Yano analyzes the changing complex of relations and identities surrounding the global reach of Hello Kitty's cute culture, discussing the responses of both ardent fans and virulent detractors. Through interviews, Yano shows how consumers use this iconic cat to negotiate gender, nostalgia, and national identity. She demonstrates that pink globalization allows the foreign to become familiar as it brings together the intimacy of cute and the distance of cool. Hello Kitty and her entourage of marketers and consumers wink, giddily suggesting innocence, sexuality, irony, sophistication, and even sheer happiness. Yano reveals the edgy power in this wink and the ways it can overturn, or at least challenge, power structures.

It's Hello Kitty's birthday, and she's inviting all her friends over for a party to celebrate. Readers can join Hello Kitty as she plans her party, opens presents, spends time with friends, blows out her candles, and makes a wish. Includes stickers. Full color. Consumable.

On the outside, twenty-eight-year-old Fiona Yu appears to be just another Hello Kitty--an educated, well-mannered Asian American woman. Secretly, she feels torn between the traditional Chinese values of her family and the social mores of being an American girl. To escape the burden of carrying her family's honor, Fiona decides to take her own virginity. In the process, she makes a surprising discovery that reunites her with a long-lost friend, Sean Killroy. Sean introduces her to a dark world of excitement, danger, cunning, and cruelty, pushing her to the limits of her own morality. But Fiona's father throws her new life into disarray when he dupes her into an overnight trip that results in a hasty engagement to Don Koo, the spoiled son of a wealthy chef. Determined to thwart her parents' plans to marry her off into Asian suburbia, Fiona seeks her freedom at any price. How far will she go to bury the Hello Kitty stereotype forever? Fiona's journey of self-discovery is biting and clever as she embraces her true nature and creates her own version of the American Dream, eliminating--without fear or remorse--anyone who stands in her way.

From modest beginnings as a simple character sketch adorning t-shirts and schoolbags, Hello Kitty has become one of the world's most recognizable “It” Girls. As a never-static status symbol, she has interpreted lifestyle trends for her vast audience of admirers in the form of irresistible clothing, accessories, stationery, candy, home furnishings—even jet airplanes. The Hello Kitty Sweet, Happy, Fun Book! features a collection of irresistible ephemera and art, allowing readers to learn the behind-the-scenes story of Hello Kitty and her vast, fanciful world. Alongside hundreds of images and seven interactive treasures, the lively text sees Hello Kitty from her early development to the worldwide phenomenon that she has become over the past 36 years. A steadfast symbol of fun, friendship, and happiness, Hello Kitty gives fans a reason to smile, and even to celebrate, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Sanrio brand.