Borderless bear hugs for black-and-white envoys of diplomatic goodwill
Female giant panda Ya Ya is pictured at the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, the United States, on February 14.
The news that giant panda Ya Ya will return to China from the United States has sparked heated discussion across the country, amid concerns about the health of the 22-year-old bear-like animal.
The "lease" that sent Ya Ya to the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee about 20 years ago expired on April 7. The exact date of the panda's return has not yet been announced, though preparations for her arrival are underway, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The Memphis Zoo said earlier this year that Ya Ya has a "skin and fur condition" that makes her coat "occasionally look thin and patchy."
In March, two veterinarians and panda specialists from Beijing Zoo, where Ya Ya was born in 2000, arrived in Memphis to take care of the panda.
Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press conference, "Other than some fur loss, Ya Ya's condition is relatively stable, and China will get her home safely as soon as possible."
Ya Ya was "leased" to Memphis Zoo, along with male panda Le Le, when she was 32 months old. The original 10-year agreement was extended for another decade.
Ya Ya and Le Le were loaded onto a FedEx Panda Express plane, ahead of their departure to Memphis Zoo in April 2003. Le Le died in February ahead of the pair's scheduled return to China. The death was caused by heart disease, according to an autopsy by Chinese and American experts.
The zoo announced last December that the two pandas would return to China. The death of 25-year-old Le Le in February sparked much anxiety in China and spurred calls for Ya Ya's immediate return.
For the past 20 years, Ya Ya has been a star attraction at the Tennessee zoo. More than 500 people attended a farewell party for her earlier this month, and online messages expressed sorrow at her departure.
"Ya Ya will be so missed, and I know she will miss what has been home for many years," wrote one Twitter user. "I wish Ya Ya a safe journey."
Ya Ya is now one of the 64 giant pandas living in 18 countries, under loan arrangements with China. Their numbers were pared by one just days ago, when 21-year-old giant panda Lin Hui died at Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo.
The "lease" of giant pandas is often nicknamed "panda diplomacy" because these adorable black-and-white bamboo eaters, indigenous only to China, have come to symbolize the soft power of China statecraft across the world.
Giant panda "Meng Meng" is seen at Berlin Zoo in Berlin in 2020.
Photo taken in 2021 shows two newborn panda cubs in Zoo Aquarium in Madrid, Spain.
Giant pandas were once among the world's most endangered species, mostly because of their extremely low birth rate. An estimated 78 percent of female and 90 percent of male giant pandas are infertile.
Artificial breeding has saved the species. Many giant panda cubs have been born in foreign zoos. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature downgraded the status of giant pandas from "endangered" to "vulnerable."
Giant panda cubs at the panda breeding station in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Artificial breeding is credited with saving the species.
"Panda diplomacy" is nothing new. In the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), Empress Wu Zetian gifted the Japanese emperor with two "white bears," as giant pandas were called.
During the era of the Republic of China (1912-49), more than 10 giant pandas were gifted as emblems of friendship.
Using panda as diplomatic envoys of goodwill continued after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The practice reached a climax in 1972, when US President Richard Nixon made an ice-breaking visit to China. Two giant pandas, Xing Xing, or Hsing Hsing, and Ling Ling, were gifted to the US to mark the visit. In the first month after their arrival at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C., more than 1 million people visited the zoo to see the pandas.
Charles Freeman, chief US interpreter during Nixon's 1972 visit to China, remembered the day he went to Dulles Airport in Washington to welcome the panda pair and a Chinese delegation.
"Everyone who sees pandas reacts the same way – they are cute, they're lovable and you probably want to hug them," he said in an interview with Xinhua news agency last year. "They were a symbol of a new start in US-China relations."
The Ouwehands Dierenpark in the Netherlands spent more than US$7 million to build "Pandasia," an imperial-style palace for the arrival of Wu Wen and Xing Ya, two giant pandas from China, in 2017.
In 1982, after China had gifted 23 giant pandas to nine countries over the years, "panda diplomacy" changed. Instead of outright giving pandas to foreign zoos, the animals were to be "loaned out" for specific durations. The Chinese government said pandas were "too precious to be used as presents," but pledged that mutual scientific studies of the animal would continue.
Giant pandas are usually "leased" for 10-15 years, though a contract may be extended. Cubs born in foreign zoos belong to China and have to be repatriated two to four years after they are born. If a giant panda dies overseas, its remains must be returned to China.
Hosting pandas is an expensive undertaking. To build homes for pandas on loan, Ouwehands Dierenpark in the Netherlands invested more than US$7 million and Memphis Zoo coughed up more than US$16 million.
Earlier this year, the cash-strapped Ahtari Zoo in Finland said it may have to return two giant pandas to China because it can no longer afford their upkeep.
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Of all the "panda diplomats," Xiang Xiang, born in Japan in 2017, has been a superstar. She returned to China two months ago.
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"Panda diplomacy" has turned pandas into celebrities with avid fans around the world.
In China, public concern about Ya Ya's health led to a spontaneous campaign by Chinese people abroad to visit foreign zoos with pandas and video their conditions. The videos were posted online, attracting millions of hits.
In Japan, webpage designer and photographer Takahiro Takauji has been photographing giant pandas almost every day for 11 years.
Known as "Mr Panda" for his obsession with the animal, Takauji started the website Mainichi Panda ("daily panda") in 2011 to display all the photos he has taken in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.
Takauji held a Tokyo photo exhibition of Xiang Xiang in February, before the popular panda returned to China. The exhibition included more than 900 pictures taken since her birth in 2017.
Takahiro Takauji is probably the most prolific panda photographer in the world.
In the United States, Danny Spungen, after a visit to China, has been collecting panda-themed coins for more than 10 years, and Belgian couple Celine and Andre Cornet have amassed more than 2,500 pieces of panda-related collectibles since 1978.
Chen Kangling, deputy researcher at the China Institute of Fudan University, said adoration for pandas is borderless and more international study of pandas is needed.
"Pandas as national treasures have attracted so many fans around world, and 'panda diplomacy' flows with the trend," Chen told Shanghai Daily. "Being envoys of friendship, these pandas bring people together."
Chen said China should do more to promote the history and culture of pandas.
"A record of giant pandas was found in the book 'Classic of Mountains and Rivers' more than 2,000 years ago," he said. "The panda's staple of bamboo is also a significant cultural element in China, so we can take advantage of panda popularity to spread information on China's long heritage with bamboo."
