Chinese student’s thesis on 'cyber cat petting' stirs debate

World
Europe

A postgraduate student majoring in communication has caused a stir on social media because of her creative thesis topic – "cyber cat petting", a trending phenomenon among Chinese youths.

A postgraduate student's thesis that looks into the "cyber cat petting" phenomenon among Chinese youths has drawn online attention. /Wenhui Newspaper Photo

Also known as "raising cloud cats," the phenomenon refers to "addictive behaviors" such as watching videos and looking at pictures of cute cats on the Internet in a bid to make up for the loss of not having a cat in real life.

For many cat lovers, owning a cat is an absolute dream that may be difficult to fulfill. Therefore, the option of "raising cloud cats," has taken social media by storm with the group of devotees naming themselves "cat sniffers."

Online devotees call themselves "cat sniffers." /Gif via Weibo

A student surnamed Wang, a "cat sniffer" herself, aimed to find out the ultimate reason behind these behaviors, calling “cyber cat petting” the “spiritual opium” in her 62-page thesis for her course at Zhejiang University in eastern China.

Many netizens doubted whether "cyber cat petting" was a proper topic for a postgraduate thesis.

"I think it is an interesting issue that deserves to be written about. My research looks into a kind of sub-culture that reflects the changing of times," Wang said in responding to the doubts, reported Wenhui Newspaper.

Some also showed their support to her research as they found the thesis really innovative and to some extent, reflective of modern young Chinese lifestyles.

"Why can't the thesis focus on issues that are close to people's daily lives? 'Cyber cat petting' does reflect young people's psychological state," commented a user @Shaoniantingyu on Weibo, China's Twitter-equivalent.

A "cat sniffer." /Gif via Weibo

At the end of her thesis, Wang came up with the conclusion that the trend of "raising cyber cats" reflected Chinese young people's spiritual emptiness, which is linked to the country's growing number of "empty nest youth," the term used to describe single or unmarried people who live alone in big cities.

China's "cat economy" has been booming in recent years due to the Internet-driven craze for cats on social media. According to the white paper on Chinese pet industry in 2018, the domestic pet (dog and cat) consumer market has hit 170.8 billion yuan (about 24 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 27 percent.

The number of urban dogs and cats in the country has reached 91.49 million, in which the number of dogs and cats in cities and towns has reached 56.48 million.