Move over, Easter bunny: cats are the stars in Hong Kong this holiday

Hong Kong has swapped the Easter bunny for a festive feline, with giant cat installations and murals delighting visitors and residents citywide. A gigantic ginger cat has been greeting travellers at Hong Kong International Airport while three inflatable marmalade felines lie sprawled across a lawn at the West Kowloon Cultural District, delighting visitors to the arts hub. In Yau Ma Tei, local artist German Li and his students have reimagined Vincent van Gogh’s classic painting The Starry Night as a cat-themed mural, while at Silvermine Bay Hotel in Mui Wo, a one-floor-tall mural features a three-dimensional cat sleeping belly-up. Most of these installations sprang up in the past few days. At the airport’s arrival hall, scores of people snapped selfies with the giant cat – eight metres (26 feet) long, seven metres wide and 3.5 metres tall – whose ears and tail move. One traveller shared online that the giant cat “totally recharged” her after a long-haul flight as she queued with her children to play with its interactive screen. “I hope this encourages all you adults who want to play but are too scared of being judged. Playing with cats has no age limit,” she said. Another posted a photo of her own British Shorthair sitting on a trolley, posing for a “meet-and-greet” with the giant cat. Asked why a cat was chosen instead of a bunny, an Airport Authority spokesman said: “Early April marks both Easter and Children’s Day, making it a peak season for family holidays and study tours. “Since animals are a universal language, the airport is using giant animal installations to bring festive surprises to travellers for the first time.” Clinical psychologist Amos Cheung Chuen-yih said that choosing a cat reflected one’s lifestyle and “psychological bandwidth”, noting that while dogs were affectionate, their high-energy demands might become a stressor for overworked Hongkongers. “It’s just that we gravitate towards a species that matches our current pace in life. Cats are mostly seen more at ease with their own living rhythm and preferences,” Cheung, who keeps a Maine Coon cat, said. “That is actually a psychological projection. They are doing what you want to do.” Cheung also attributed the appeal of the installations to their therapeutic nature. At the West Kowloon arts hub, the three giant inflatable cats from UK studio Air Giants are making their Asian debut and will remain on display until Tuesday. The interactive installation titled “The Cats that Slept for a Thousand Years” features felines that purr and move when touched, and recently received a visit from tourism chief Rosanna Law Shuk-pui. The Hong Kong-based group ArtDreamer has also been weaving feline charm into the city’s urban fabric by painting chubby cats on shop shutters and side alleys across old neighbourhoods. Its latest creation, located at Tung Nam Lou Art Hotel in Yau Ma Tei, is yet another feline-inspired reimagining of Vincent van Gogh’s iconic The Starry Night. The city also hosted events for real animals. “Pawfect Fest” at PopCorn shopping centre in Tseung Kwan O drew hundreds of residents and their pets on Sunday. Beyond being a local obsession, Hong Kong’s “cat economy” has become a booming industry worth more than HK$2.4 billion (US$306 million) annually, according to data from the Hong Kong Cat Expo 2025. The expo said the city’s 100,000 cat owners spend an average of HK$2,000 monthly per feline, a figure that has remained resilient despite broader economic fluctuations. Hongkongers’ passion for cats is also reflected on social media. There are multiple cat concern groups, with the largest counting 438,000 followers on Facebook, dwarfing the biggest dog concern group, with 57,000 followers, and bird-related community with 5,500 members.

Move over, Easter bunny: cats are the stars in Hong Kong this holiday

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Seasonal cat-themed artworks are stealing the limelight this Easter, tapping into the city’s booming ‘cat economy’

Seasonal cat-themed artworks are stealing the limelight this Easter, tapping into the city’s booming ‘cat economy’