Cats are Money's Best Friend

The phrase, "Dog's are a human's best friend," is the same in English as it is in Chinese. Dogs are seen as loyal and smart which is befitting of a human. If you go to any restaurant or store in China or Japan what you will see is not a dog but a cat waving you to enter. 

These cats are originally from Japan and called Maneki Neko or the beckoning cat. The left paw up means "welcome guest" and the right paw up means "welcome money/fortune" and both of them up is a welcome to both. The signs they hold up generally are statements about welcoming fortune and they will hold gold coins at times as well. These statues also serve as piggy banks. Maneki Neko are usually wearing red collars with a bell. This is believed to have been a popular way for Japanese cat owners to keep track of their animals back in the day (Pho, B. 2017). 

The cats can come in various colors but mostly they are white. They can be calico shaded, all gold, all black, or have spots in various colors like blue, red, and pink. Each color represents a different meaning. Calico cats are rare in Japan so it is supposed to bring more rare luck. Gold represents fortune and black is supposed to ward off evil. Black maneki neko are commonly carried by woman to ward off scary dudes! Blue cats are supposed to bring protection to families. Red is commonly used to represent luck and ward off evil. Pink cats are supposed to invite love (Pho, B. 2017). 

Where did these cats come from and why? No one is exactly sure but there are many folk stories floating around and even these stories have different variations. There is a story that a poor store owner took in a cat and fed it and the cat returned the favor by sitting in their window and waving customers in, making the store owner rich. Another story is that there were a group of samurais in a rain storm when a cat waved them into a temple where they finally could rest. The samurais were so grateful that they gave the temple a ton of land and often visited the shrine. The last story is that a woman was so poor she had to sell her cat to feed herself. The cat visited her in a dream and told her to make statues of itself to sell. The woman then became very profitable from selling the cat figurines (Pho, B. 2017). 

How did this Japanese cat get so popular in China? My answer is that I'm not sure. I can't seem to find any definite answer online as to when and where the cat gained popularity in China. Chinese culture is very ingrained in the idea of luck and wealth so it could be that some Chinese people learned about the beckoning cat's powers and were eager to get their own. You can find these cats not only in Japanese and Chinese stores but you may spot them in Chinese and Japanese businesses in the USA. Keep your eyes peeled for them. 

A dog may be a human's best friend, but if you looking to increase your piggy bank, cats should be the one you befriend. 

Source

Pho, B., Dang, D., Pan, E., Youn, S., Chirk, R., & Condon, T. (n.d.).  Maneki Neko: The 

Beckoning Cat. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from http://www.anthropology.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/courses/anthro_money_2006/maneki.html