大象传媒

Why are some things cute, and others not? And how did cuteness go global, from manga cartoons to Disney characters? These are questions explored in this book by Joshua Paul Dale.

Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have - the ones that elicit our care and protection - but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards.

Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the field of cuteness studies, looks at how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from emojis and Lolita fashion, to the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. He's a Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tokyo Gakugei University, and Irresistible delves into the ancient origins of Japan's culture of 'kawaii', or cuteness.

In this first episode, Joshua describes the sudden culture shock which made him realise that cuteness was everywhere around him in Tokyo.

He says: 鈥淚 walked out of my apartment to find the road blocked not by a row of prosaic red-and-white stripes signalling danger, but by a long line of large, plastic Hello Kitty characters, each holding a rainbow. I soon realised that 鈥榗utified鈥� construction barriers were popping up everywhere in Tokyo, sporting frogs, monkeys, ducks, rabbits and dolphins. It was a bizarre transformation of mundane city streets. It was like a switch flipped in my brain; suddenly I noticed that cuteness - kawaii - is everywhere in Japan. When did its relentless spread begin, and why did it happen here?鈥�

Reader: Adam Sims
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for 大象传媒 Radio 4