Kuching has been dressing a cat since 1988. In July it wore a Pepsi can. Look at the paw.
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| BORNEO TALES |
Field notes / Aug 2026 |
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| Field notes |
WHY THE CAT
IS WAVING |
| Kuching has been dressing a cat for thirty-eight years. In July it wore a Pepsi can. |
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| LOOK AT THE PAW. |
| On 1 August 1988, the day Kuching became a city, a white cat went up on the Padungan roundabout with its left paw raised. Thirty-eight years later it is still waving at traffic. |
| It is also still getting dressed. |
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| This July, Pepsi Malaysia returned as Official Main Sponsor of the Kuching Festival Fair and released the first limited edition can in the festival's forty year history. Borneo Tales works on Pepsi's presence at the festival, and on the design that carries it. |
| There is a cat on that can, and on the campaign artwork it has one paw raised. Same gesture, same city, thirty-eight years apart. |
| Strangers are photographing it at the food stalls. Nobody briefed them to. |
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| The full piece covers the rest: the cat on the city's own coat of arms, what the drawing had to survive to work on a can, and why this one had to be made here. |
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| Photography full size, with sources. Four minutes. |
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