Cat Museum Kuching

22 December 2019

Visiting a museum that is devoted to all things feline was not in my original Kuching itinerary. Our plan for the day was to go on a mini foodie tour of Kuching before attending a wedding event later in the evening. However, the day started with heavy rain.

After a good breakfast at Chong Choon Cafe where we sampled some excellent local food like Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee, we told Brandon (the driver of our chartered van) to take us to the Cat Museum (Muzium Kucing) since the rain had not stopped. “Kucing” means “Cat” in Malay, so it is probably apt that Kuching has the World's first Cat Museum.

The museum is located on the Ground Floor of the Kuching North City Hall Headquarters Building at Bukit Siol, north of the Sarawak River. It was a short drive from Chong Choon Cafe. 

Entrance to the museum. Entry to the museum cost 3 MYR per person. 

Immediately opposite the ticketing counter is a large photo stop where our family has some fun. 

The museum is filled with paintings, articles, posters, toys, figurines and almost anything that has to do with cats. 

One of the cute toy cats on display.

We took our time to browse through the exhibits.
One of the interesting paintings on display at the Cat Museum Kuching.

Here are some exhibits that caught my attention:

In the early 1980s a young and energetic Japanese Creative Director named Satoru Tsuda has an idea that trained cats would be a big attraction in TV commercials. He appealed for strays and received many offers. He selected 4 cats and devoted a great deal of his time to teach them to perform various poses for cameras and wearing an extensive wardrobe of costumes, specially created for cats. His efforts paid off and his cats were a hit with advertisers. Story of Satoru Tsuda’s trained cats was quite interesting to read.

Examples of the trained cats posing in various costumes and sets. 

I thought Satoru Tsuda’s cats in the posters are really nice and innovative at his time. However, with modern technology like CGI or even Photoshop, such images can be created nowadays without the use of trained cats.

There is also an interesting section describing how black cats have played a major role in folklore, superstition, and mythology for centuries. Many cultures have stories about evil or bad luck that are associated with black cats.

An interesting folklore was about how the local people believes a black cat walking along on the roof of the house is bad omen. It signifies that someone in that house would soon pass away. I have heard similar folklore from my grandmother when I was child. But it was about a black crow on the roof, not a black cat.

Another local folklore is that a black cat jumping over a coffin would raise the dead! Hence black cats are not welcome near funerals or homes.

This exhibit is a bit more scientific. It claims that one can get an accurate idea of the room temperature by the position of a sleeping cat. I don’t think so. I have seen many sleeping cats during my visit to the Annah Rais Longhouse. All were sleeping in various positions at 30 to 35 degree C.

Maneki-neko is a common Japanese white cat figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. The cat beckoning good luck or money for the owner with their waving paw. If it’s the left paw, this is supposed to attract customers. If the right paw is raised, this invites good fortune and money.

There is a section on famous cat-related proverbs.

A lame cat is better than a swift horse when rats infest the palace. – Chinese Proverb.

I have not heard of the above proverb before.

I only heard of the following:

“Don’t care if it is a black cat or a white cat. As long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.”

The famous cats such as Garfield and Hello Kitty are not forgotten.

We ended our visit with a stop at the souvenir stalls where we each bought at least one Kuching cat-themed T-shirts for 30 MYR each.

Our new Kuching cat-themed T-shirts.

I normally don’t buy souvenir T-shirts when I travel, but these T-shirts were sold to raise funds for the School of Intellectually Disabled Children Kuching.

Overall, we spent about an hour at the Cat Museum. There was also a room in the City Hall showing a model of Kuching city and the surrounding areas. Most interesting for me were the many old black and white photos of Kuching in the colonial days.