You may not know the name of this little penguin, but you must have seen/used its memes.
This little penguin with simple lines and clear black and white lines is not only very popular in the emoji world, but also once joined the spokesperson for the mental state of migrant workers.
In fact, this penguin is not just a simple emoji, these emojis come from the secondary creation of Chinese netizens, and the prototype of this little penguin is the mascot on the Suica transportation card issued by Japan's JR East Japan (East Japan Railway Company).
Source: ins "jreast_official"
As one of the most common bus IC cards in Japan, Suica Transportation Card was born in 2001, its name is named after the initials of "Super Urban Intelligent Card", because "suica" is the same as the pronunciation of "watermelon" in Japanese, so it is also known as Watermelon Card, which is the first transportation IC card in Japan and a transportation card that almost everyone knows when traveling to Japan.
Source: JR official website
Japan has one of the most complex and well-developed rail transit systems in the world, and at the same time, taxis are expensive, so public transportation such as trains, subways, or buses is almost indispensable for getting around in Japan. Unlike China's railway management system, many railways in Japan are operated by private railway companies, giving rise to a variety of "transportation cards".
Source: Chinese translation of JR official website
Because of the intricacies of Japan's transportation routes, first-time visitors can have a headache just by looking at the traffic map. For the convenience of boarding and transferring, and in order to avoid the time of queuing in front of the ticket machine to buy tickets, a convenient transportation card has become the best choice for many people.
As a smart card issued by JR East Japan, the Suica card not only brings great convenience in transportation, but can also be used to pay at almost any chain convenience store or restaurant, as long as the Suica card logo is displayed on the counter.
Suica cards can be used wherever the logo shown in the picture is displayed Source: JR Official Website
In short, the Suica card not only saves you the hassle of figuring out how to buy a ticket, but also says goodbye to coins crammed into your pockets and long queues waiting for change.
图源：Visit Japan Singapore
In the early days, Suica cards could only be used in the Kanto region, but since 2013, IC cards have been gradually used throughout Japan, and now it is possible to use Suica cards in Kansai without hindrance.
In May of this year, JR East Japan announced that it would launch the "Welcome Suica Mobile" app for foreigners visiting Japan from the spring of 2025 in order to make it easier for foreigners to use rail. With this app, you no longer need to stop at the counter or ticket vending machine, and you can pay freely online with a mobile phone.
图源：Transversospinales
JR Railroad adopted the penguin as the Suica mascot for two reasons:
--- JR felt that the penguins "swimming" in the Antarctic were in line with the meaning of allowing passengers to "flow" through.
--- Suica was in Japan at the time, and no one had ever touched the new type of transportation card at that time, just like penguins living in Antarctica who first touched watermelons, they would be surprised by the unknown.
Suica carins are so popular that Japan not only has its own penguin-themed café, but also a variety of penguin goods.
This spring, in order to better promote the Suica card, JR East Japan also made a special advertisement at Ikebukuro Station, making the belly of the little penguin on the Suica card protrude, so that passers-by can touch the penguin's belly to relieve pressure, and a "belly keeper" has been specially arranged to help those who wish to take pictures with the penguin's belly.
Source: ins "jreast_official"
Although most people know this little penguin through a Suica card, it is not actually original to JR, its creator is Chiharu Sakazaki, a picture book writer from Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Click on her personal website and you can see this little penguin that we are familiar with.
Source: Chiharu Sakazaki official website
With this penguin as the main character, Chiharu Sakazaki has created a series of picture book stories: "Little Penguin Brave Amusement Park", "Little Penguin Goes to a Department Store" and so on.
Source: "Little Penguin Brave Amusement Park" Illustration Author: Chiharu Sakazaki
JR did not give a specific name to the little penguin on the transportation card, but in Sakazaki Chiharu's picture book, the little penguin's name is Changchang, and he lives in a large penguin family with 4 brothers with different "cheering colors".
Source: "Little Penguin Brave Amusement Park" Illustration Author: Chiharu Sakazaki
Chang Chang is based on an Adélie penguin, and in the character design, Chiharu Sakazaki defines it as "a penguin who came to Tokyo from Antarctica, and his favorite food is fish sausage". As the traffic password of the penguin world, the Suica transportation card is not the only representative of Adélie penguins, it is also the penguin gangster in "Penguins of Madagascar", and it is also the prototype of QQ penguins.
The name Adélie penguins originates from Adélie Island in Antarctica. In 1840, France explorers Jules · Dumont · Duville discovered the continent and named it after his wife.
Adélie penguins are the only of the 18 surviving penguin species to live with emperor penguins on the Antarctic continent, with most of the other penguins living in Subantarctica and nearby islands. Unlike the large emperor penguins, Adélie penguins are not large among penguins, with an average length of 30 to 50 cm and an average weight of 4.5 kg. The head is blue-green, the feathers are composed of black and white, and the beak is black with slender white feathers at the corners of the mouth. The most distinctive feature is a white ring around the eyes, and the tail is a bit longer than that of other penguins.
In the penguin world, it has been repeatedly favored by many brands, and there must be its "goose place".
Scientists at McMurdo Station in Antarctica have found that every year on April 25, Adélie penguins living in Antarctica begin to migrate north to better obtain food when the sea ice expands in the winter and wait for summer to return to the coastal beaches of Antarctica to nest. In order to document this phenomenon, later penguin enthusiasts designated April 25 as "World Penguin Day" every year.
What's more, if you type in the name of the Adélie penguin on the Internet, you will find that the reputation of the adorable Adélie penguin is difficult to describe.
It has been described as the "underworld" of the penguin world, a gang that advocates the aesthetics of violence and immorality, and the penguin family mudslides, known for its "operations" including but not limited to same-sex mating, bullying cubs, addiction to stealing, and kicking brothers on the edge of cliffs......
· Because there are natural enemies such as seals in the sea, the affectionate Adélie penguins will kick the brother in front of them before going to the sea, if the brother who was kicked down is not dead, they will line up to go to the sea to fish, if the brother in front of them burps, they will find a new point to go to the sea and continue to kick the brother.
· Adélie penguins often compete with emperor penguins for territory, but Adélie penguins are smaller and not as big as emperor penguin cubs, so "if you can't play with the yin", Adélie penguins will go to pluck the fluff of the emperor penguin baby, so that the emperor penguins will go to sea earlier and make room for it.
When encountering a baby emperor penguin that does not dare to jump into the sea, the Adélie penguin will also "kindly" kick it in the back, so it not only kicks its brothers, but also kicks outsiders.
· Every breeding season, Adélie penguins will find stones to decorate their love nests, and the luxury of the nest determines whether they can find a girlfriend, so the beautiful "pebbles" have become the most precious hard currency among geese, they can fight for a stone, steal, and even sell their flesh.
Stealing the pebbles that the brothers next door have worked hard to find is almost an unspoken "unspoken rule" in the Adélie penguin world, but you steal and I steal, everyone steals, and the inner circulation of the pebbles is perfectly realized, so many geese are busy all day, and the pebbles are still not increasing.
· Adélie penguins are the only known birds known to humans to engage in "sex/trade", and some female penguins will go to the "next door" when their mates go out to find the "old king next door" when they feel that the stones are not enough to support the hatching of the little penguins, and will go home with the stones after the transaction.
Some female penguins will even "jump" during the transaction, first make the action of agreeing to mate, and wait for the male penguin to take the bait, turn around and leave with a stone in his mouth, leaving only the big wronged species who have strayed into the fraud trap with a confused face.
Despite all the "evil deeds" that are not understood, as one of the only two penguins in Antarctica, Adélie penguins are an important part of the Antarctic ecosystem.
Although the most abundant penguin in Antarctica, Adélie penguins also face indirect threats from human activities.
Adélie penguins are used to hatching their pups on bare rocks without snow and ice cover, and this dry environment helps to improve hatchability and the survival rate of their pups. However, due to a warming climate, 2023 saw a record low of Antarctic sea ice, and premature melt left many Adélie penguin cubs with wet feathers, reducing their survival rates.
Separately, in April, researchers at the Federal University of Australia reported that more than 532 Adélie penguins on the island of Rewana in Antarctica had died suspected of dying from H5N1 avian influenza.
As a result of the decline in sea ice, so has the number of Antarctic krill that depend on sea ice for breeding, and they are an important food source for Adélie penguins, and the high demand for Antarctic krill over the years has also led to the difficulty of competing with humans.
Even though they live on the Antarctic continent, which is far away from humans, the Adélie penguins, which are popular with humans, have not escaped the effects of human activities.
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Editor: Erlang Operation: Xiaoshi, Yidan