Singapore’s Giant Pandas Named Kai Kai and Jia Jia

After a six-month-long nationwide contest, the names of Singapore’s two cuddliest and soon-to-be “permanent residents” have been selected from nearly 1,000 entries submitted by the public last year.

A judging panel picked Kai Kai (凯凯) and Jia Jia (嘉嘉) as the new names for the two Giant Panda cubs as they bear special significance of the close relationship between Singapore and China. The names Kai Kai (凯凯) and Jia Jia (嘉嘉) won by a clear majority of the judges’ votes.

“Kai Kai”, the name for the male giant panda, was chosen as it means victorious in Chinese (as in 凯旋, 凯歌). For the female giant panda, Jia Jia means beautiful and fine.

 On another level, the Chinese character Jia (嘉) was used in the old Chinese reference for Singapore (星嘉坡) and the phonetic pronunciation of Jia is equivalent to the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese character 加, which is not only an integral part of Singapore’s current Chinese name (新加坡), but also means “to add” – representing the wish to expand the giant panda family in Singapore through a successful breeding programme at WRS.

“We can refer to our giant pandas by name, and that is an exciting development for us, especially since these names were submitted by Singaporeans. These are meaningful and beautiful names, chosen to reflect the symbolic ties we have with China, and the future these pandas will have in Singapore. People here have shown tremendous support for our giant panda conservation programme and we hope the community will continue to demonstrate their commitment to wildlife conservation,” said Ms Claire Chiang, Chairman, WRS.

The duo – a three-year-old male and his two-year-old female companion – will arrive in Singapore next year, as part of a joint collaboration between WRS and China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) to raise awareness for the conservation of these gentle creatures, and the development of a breeding programme for these critically endangered animals. Singapore is the seventh country to receive giant pandas from China since 1994.

The person whose entry was picked by the judges is a 38 year old Singaporean, Ms Angeline Fong, who will receive a complimentary three-night stay at any Ascott serviced residence worldwide, an exclusive preview of the giant panda exhibit when it opens in 2012, and other prizes.

The two furry black and white envoys are due to arrive in early 2012 and will be housed at WRS’ upcoming attraction, the River Safari, a river-themed park. Visitors at the River Safari will be able to observe the giant pandas up close in an environment similar to that of their natural habitat, naturally landscaped with a lush bamboo forest, shallow streams, trees and boulders for the animals to explore and play.

Giant Pandas are among the rarest bear species in the world with less than 1,600 left in the wild. They are classified as endangered under the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. The population of giant pandas in the wild continues to dwindle due to the loss and destruction of their natural habitat.

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