Night at the mewseum: Ancient Egypt exhibition welcomes cats

A cat peers out of a case while attending cat night at the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai on July 27, 2024. Tickets sold out for Shanghai Museum’s first ‘cat night’ at its ancient Egypt exhibition, which saw customers allowed to bring their pet cats to enjoy the show. (Photo by AGATHA CANTRILL / AFP)

A queue of glamorous visitors stood outside Shanghai Museum twitching impatiently, tails flicking and whiskers quivering as they waited to be let in for the institution’s inaugural ancient Egypt cat night.

Feline tickets for Saturday night’s event sold out within days, as Shanghai’s devoted pet owners seized the chance to share an educational experience with their animals — and share the photos on the mostly pedigree cats’ personal social media accounts.

One pet owner told AFP she had postponed a trip to Europe to ensure she could nab one of the 200 available tickets for her regal ginger “son”.

Trump — named for his physical and psychological resemblance to the US presidential candidate — was dressed as a Chinese emperor, and blinked haughtily as journalists flocked around him with cameras.

“I cannot imagine my life right now without a cat,” his owner Amy told AFP. “So I really can have the same feeling why Egyptian persons, they valued cats on such a level.”

The number of pets in China has soared, reaching over 120 million in 2023, and cats are the most popular.

The trend is being driven largely by younger generations, many of whom see their “furred kids” as a cheaper substitute for human children, experts say.

Shanghai Museum is capitalising on that interest — Saturday’s event, heralded as a first in China, is just one of 10 planned cat nights.

As the guests of honour filed in, perched on shoulders or peering out of handbags, they had their vaccination and insurance records checked before they were transferred into a fleet of specially designed kitten-eared prams.

A woman carries her cat while attending cat night at the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai on July 27, 2024. Tickets sold out for Shanghai Museum’s first ‘cat night’ at its ancient Egypt exhibition, which saw customers allowed to bring their pet cats to enjoy the show. (Photo by AGATHA CANTRILL / AFP)

Claire, who had dressed herself and her German Rex Tiedan in matching Egyptian costumes, said the exhibition showed “cats have always been humans’ good friends”.

“Now young people are under great pressure, cats help us relieve a lot of mental pressure… probably the same as in ancient times,” she said.

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Cats were considered sacred in ancient Egypt, and associated in particular with Bast, a goddess of fertility, birth, and protection.

“In the modern world, kitties are a symbol of cuteness, which is very different from (ancient Egypt),” said a young woman named Feifei, clutching a resplendent white furball named Sticky Rice.

A cat looks at an exhibit while attending cat night at the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai on July 27, 2024. Tickets sold out for Shanghai Museum’s first ‘cat night’ at its ancient Egypt exhibition, which saw customers allowed to bring their pet cats to enjoy the show. (Photo by AGATHA CANTRILL / AFP)

That cuteness has led to a surge in feline influencers and hopefuls.

Many of the cats at the exhibition had their own social media accounts, and one or two appeared to have small teams helping produce content.

A section on Saqqara, a historic necropolis where archaeologists recently unearthed dozens of cat mummies and artefacts from a newly discovered tomb, was filled with confused mews as the star visitors were photographed next to a Bast statue.

“There are many ancestors of cats here, I wanted to bring (Sticky Rice) to have a look,” said Feifei.