Hong Kong's Ocean Park is discussing with various live broadcast platforms from various regions to live broadcast the daily life of the park’s giant pandas in the not-far future, chair of the park Paulo Pong Kin-yee said during an exclusive interview with China Daily on Friday.
Currently, the park is in negotiations with teams from the Chinese mainland, local and overseas, but no specific partnership has been confirmed yet, revealed Pong.
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When questioned about whether he had personally seen the twin panda babies born in the park in mid-August, Pong chuckled and said, “I can't even go in there (the panda pavilions)”, adding that the pavilions are currently closed to ensure the optimal care and protection of the baby pandas.
Pong, like many Hong Kong residents, follows the official Instagram account set up to record the pandas’ progress and closely monitors their growth through photos.
Some residents have complained that photos posted on the account only show the cubs from a single angle. Pong explained that the current images are captured by the caregivers responsible for the panda babies. As the pandas grow larger, there are plans to use a professional photography team to capture more diverse and high-quality photos of the babies, he said.
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Pong also noted that the park is in discussions with various professional teams to develop intellectual property over the pandas.
With the recent births of the baby pandas and the arrival of two pandas in the special administrative region from the Chinese mainland, Ocean Park has been garnering a great deal of attention; even some of Pong’s foreign friends have expressed a desire to visit Hong Kong to see the pandas, he said. All these responses have boosted his confidence in the potential for a “panda economy”, Pong added.
However, Pong said that no matter how much attention and online traffic the pandas may attract in the future, Ocean Park will always prioritize the well-being of the pandas in all policy decisions.
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Ying Ying and Le Le, the pair of giant pandas gifted to the HKSAR government in 2007, celebrated the birth of their twins, a male and a female, on Aug 15, marking the city's first locally-born panda cubs. Following the twin’s birth, Ocean Park launched official Hong Kong giant panda accounts on Instagram and Xiaohongshu, a Chinese mainland social media platform, to provide updates on the national treasures.
To commemorate the twin’s first month of life, Ocean Park collaborated with local vendors to organize a giveaway event, distributing to residents gift cards that can be used to redeem pork knuckles and ginger stew – a traditional Cantonese dish made with pig trotters, ginger, sweet vinegar and eggs. The dish is often used to celebrate the arrival of new babies.
Fang Xue contributed to the story.
