Panda mum Ying Ying and her twin cubs, Jia Jia (left) and De De, at Ocean Park’s Giant Panda Adventure on Tuesday. -- Photo: Eugene Lee Lo Hoi-ying / SCMP
Hong Kong’s nine-month-old twin panda cubs, previously known only as “Elder Sister” and “Younger Brother”, have been named Jia Jia and De De, respectively, conveying the Cantonese slang term for encouragement “add oil” and the notion of virtue.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui revealed on Tuesday the results of the panda naming contest, which received more than 35,700 entries from members of the public since submissions opened in February.
“All suggestions reflected beautiful blessings for the giant pandas,” she said.
The Chinese characters for Jia Jia conveyed a message of support, “add oil” in Cantonese, and had the same pronunciation as the words “home” and “auspices” in Mandarin, the park said.
“Younger Brother” has been named De De, after the Chinese word meaning “success”.
De shares the same pronunciation as the Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciation for “virtue”, suggesting that giant pandas possess virtues cherished by the Chinese.
Jia Jia is also the English name of another panda who lived at Ocean Park until her death in 2016, although the Chinese characters for the name of “Elder Sister” are different.
Chairman Paulo Pong Kin-yee said visitor numbers and revenue had increased during the Easter and Labour Day holidays.
“What’s worth noting is that the per cap spending has also increased,” he said. “We feel that this will continue well into the summer.”
He added that the park had benefited from increased exposure and intellectual property fees brought in by the Panda Friends series’ product sales.
“It’s been a very good first half of the year for the park,” he said.
Pong also added that exclusive VIP tours that allowed visitors to see the twin cubs brought in more than HK$2 million (US$255,177) in March and April.
The tours, which cost HK$1,500 per person, provided visitors early access to the facilities and a half-hour to capture pictures of the cubs.
Ocean Park earlier said that the nicknames “Elder Sister” and “Younger Brother” would be kept as usual, while the Mandarin pinyin of the selected Chinese names would be adopted as the English names.
On the same day, the cubs and mother Ying Ying were to be moved to the Alpine Zone of their enclosure at the Giant Panda Adventure.
Pong said that the cubs already weighed more than 21kg (46lbs) and visitors no longer had to be separated by a glass panel when visiting them in their new enclosure.
The enclosure will be open from 10am to 4.30pm daily starting on Wednesday for visitors to catch the twins together with their mother.
The twins’ father, Le Le, is housed at the Giant Panda Adventure but separate from Ying Ying and the twins, in line with their natural solitary behaviour, according to Ocean Park.
The cubs have been drawing fans to the enclosure every day since they made their public debut on February 16, six months after they were born on August 15 last year.
Ying Ying became the oldest first-time panda mum in captivity when she gave birth to the cubs. The journey to parenthood for Ying Ying and Le Le took more than 10 years, with multiple phantom pregnancies and miscarriages.
