Giant panda Fu Bao celebrates her birthday on July 20, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Chinese Embassy in South Korea
The "top celebrity in South Korea" Fu Bao - the first ever natural-born giant panda in South Korea - is celebrating her 3-year-old birthday on Thursday, with visitors flocking to Everland's zoo and Chinese netizens joining in online to send their greetings.
Fu Bao was presented with a bamboo cake adorned with three carrots - one of her favorite snacks - as candles. As soon as she reached the scene and caught scent of the special "birthday cake," she started eating, beginning with wowotou, also known as Chinese cornbread, that was put behind the cake.
Fu Bao was born on July 20, 2020 in Everland's zoo and now lives with her mother, Ai Bao, and father, Le Bao. The sizeable fan base of Fu Bao has given her a number of cute nicknames such as Miss Fu of Yongin, Princess Fu and Chubby Fu.
At the birthday party, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming and her wife awarded certifications of appreciation to two zookeepers from Everland's zoo for taking care of the pandas.
Ambassador Xing said "we have giant pandas everywhere around the world but Fu Bao was taken especially well here. I would like to thank the zookeepers for their efforts and contribution they have made to China-South Korea friendship."
Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming and her wife award certifications of appreciation to two zookeepers from Everland's zoo for taking care of the pandas on July 20, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Chinese Embassy in South Korea
Kang Chul-won, one of the zookeepers at the zoo, won himself a nickname "Fu Bao's grandfather" for the special bond he shares with the panda cub. As South Korean fans gathered at the zoo for the birthday celebration, millions of Chinese netizens sent greetings to her, wishing her a happy life ahead and also sending their special thanks to the zookeepers.
The hashtag "Fu Bao is three years old" began trending on Sina Weibo, which has garnered millions of greetings from Chinese netizens.
Some Chinese fans even flew to Everland's zoo to celebrate birthday with Fu Bao. "Every time I see videos of Fu Bao I feel warm. She is like a friend to me. I have established the bond with Fu Bao, that's why I decided to come here to celebrate her birthday at the zoo," a woman who flew from Beijing to the zoo told China Central Television.
"I'm so excited to be here. I wish to deliver the love and greetings from Chinese fans to Fu Bao. She has quite a big fan base in China," another woman who flew in from China said.
The baby panda will be returned to China when it becomes sexually mature next year. Reminded the limited time that Fu Bao has left in South Korea, her fans have rushed to the zoo, even leading to a spike in sales of panda related products, media reports noted.
A commemorative album the "Fubao Growth Story" has seen a sharp increase in sales, with copies sold from May to June this year skyrocketing 749 percent compared with its publication in 2021, according to Aju Korea Daily.
The sale of the souvenir albums has always been good and driven by the birth of Fu Bao's twin sisters in July, sales of the souvenir album spiked, reports said.
Donghee Chung, the head of the Everland's zoo, was quoted as saying on the birth of the twin sisters that it was "another important achievement from the cooperation between South Korea and China on panda research."
The celebration of Fu Bao's birthday by Chinese and South Korean fans demonstrates the strong foundation of people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, despite the very low downturn in bilateral relations, Lü Chao, an expert on Korean Peninsula issues at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
The warm celebrations of Fu Bao's birthday by South Korean fans signals that the general public in the country still hopes to see warmer relations between with China, a fact South Korean politicians should open their eyes and see, Lü noted.
Easing bilateral ties relies on what course the South Korea will follow as it is the practices and words from the South Korean government that have sabotaged its relations with China and hit the red line of the Chinese people on issues such as the Taiwan question and being the pawn of the US in besieging China, the expert noted.
