Chanpon

Today is Licca-chan's birthday! Now, you may wonder why chanpon.org would be wishing Licca, the enduring Japanese fashion doll from the sixties, a happy birthday. But did you know that Licca-chan is a chanpon pioneer?

I first realized this after reading Anne Allison's paper, "A Challenge to Hollywood? Japanese Character Goods Hit the US." in Japanese Studies. I suppose it is not surprising given her hair that ranges from brown to blonde, and the round eyes. But I had always considered her a Japanese alternative to Barbie and had assumed that she was more or less ethnically Japanese. Actually, she is a bi-racial and bi-cultural, cosmopolitan youngster. Her dad Pierre is a French cellist, and her mother Orie is a Japanese fashion designer. They live in the town of Heart Hills which apparently didn't suffer from dicey racial politics even in the sixties.

Photo courtesy of Connie's Licca Page.