Panda (pronounced pan-duh)
(1) A black & white, herbivorous, bearlike mammal (in popular use sometimes
as “giant panda”), Ailuropoda melanoleuca (family
Procyonidae), now rare with a habitat
limited to relatively small forested areas of central China where ample growth
exists of the stands of bamboo which constitutes the bulk of the creature’s
diet.
(2) A reddish-brown (with ringed-tail), raccoon-like
mammal (in the literature often referred to as the “lesser panda”), Ailurus
fulgens which inhabits mountain forests in the Himalayas and adjacent eastern
Asia, subsisting mainly on bamboo and other vegetation, fruits, and insects.
(3) In Hinduism, a brahmin (a member of the highest
(priestly) caste) who acts as the hereditary superintendent of a particular
ghat (temple) and regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual.
(4) In colloquial use
(picked up as UK police slang) as “panda car” (often clipped to “panda”), a UK
police vehicle painted in a two-tone color scheme (originally black & white
but later more typically powder-blue & white) (historic use only).
(5) Used attributively, something (or someone) with
all (or some combination of) the elements (1) black & white coloration, (2)
perceptions of “cuteness” and (3) the perceived quality of being “soft &
cuddly”.
1835: From the French (Cuvier), a name for the lesser
panda, assumed to be from a Tibeto-Burman language or some other native
Nepalese word. Cuvier is a trans-lingual
term which references the French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier
(1769–1832) and his younger brother the zoologist and paleontologist Frédéric
Cuvier (1773–1838). The term was use of
any of the Latinesque or pseudo-Latin formations created as taxonomic names for
organisms following the style & conventions used by the brothers. Most etymologists suggest the most likely
source was the second element of nigálya-pónya
(a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim), which was
perhaps from the Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle) (relating to a certain species
of bamboo), the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo) (Drepanostachyum intermedium (a species of
bamboo)). The second element was a regional
Tibetan name for the animal, related in some way to ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya) (messenger). The
use in Hinduism describing “a learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar,
teacher (and specifically of the Brahmin (a member of the highest (priestly) caste) who
was the hereditary superintendent of
a particular ghat (temple) and
regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual, especially one who had
memorized a substantial proportion of the Vedas)” was from the Hindi पंडा (paṇḍā) and the Punjabi ਪਾਂਡਾ (pāṇḍā), both from the Sanskrit पण्डित (paṇḍita) (learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar,
teacher). The English word pundit (expert
in a particular field, especially as called upon to provide comment or opinion
in the media; a commentator or critic) entered the language during the British
Raj in India, the use originally to describe native surveyor, trained to carry
out clandestine surveillance the colonial borders. The English form is now commonly used in many
languages but the descendants included the Japanese パンダ
(panda), the Korean 판다 (panda) and the Thai: แพนด้า. Panda is a noun and
pandalike (also as panda-like) is an adjective (pandaesque & panderish
still listed as non-standard; the noun plural is pandas.
A charismatic creature: Giant Panda with cub.
As a word, panda has been productive. The portmanteau noun pandamonium (the blend
being panda + (pande)monium was a humorous construct describing the reaction which often
occurs in zoos when pandas appear and was on the model of fandemonium (the reaction of groupies
and other fans to the presence of their idol).
The "trash panda" (also as "dumpster panda" or "garbage panda") was of US & Canadian origin and an alternative to "dumpster bandit", "garbage bandit" or "trash bandit" and described the habit of raccoons foraging for food in trash receptacles. The use was adopted because the black patches
around the creature's eyes are marking similar to those of the giant
panda. The Australian equivalent is the
"bin chicken", an allusion to the way the Ibis has adapted to habitat
loss by entering the urban environment, living on food scraps discarded in
rubbish bins.
The “panda
crossing” was a pedestrian safety measure, an elaborate form of the “zebra
crossing”. It was introduced in the UK
in 1962, the name derived from the two-tone color scheme used for the road
marking and the warning beacons on either side of the road. The design worked well in theory but not in
practice and all sites had been decommissioned by late 1967. The giant panda’s twotonalism led to the
adoption of “panda dolphin” as one of the casual tags (the others being “jacobita,
skunk dolphin, piebald dolphin & tonina overa for the black & white Commerson's
dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii).
“Reverse panda” is an alternative version of “raccoon eyes” and
describes an effect achieved (sometimes “over-achieved”) with eye-shadow or
other makeup, producing a pronounced darkening around the eyes, an inversion of
the panda’s combination. It’s something
which is sometimes seen also in photography as a product of lighting or the use
of a camera’s flash.
In
English, the first known reference to the panda as a “carnivorous raccoon-like
mammal (the lesser panda) of the Himalayas” while the Giant Panda was first described
in 1901 although it had been “discovered” in 1869 by French missionary Armand
David and it was known as parti-colored until the name was changed which
evidence of the zoological relationship to the red panda was accepted. The giant panda was thus once included as
part of the raccoon family but is now classified
as a bear subfamily, Ailuropodinae, or as the sole member of a separate family,
Ailuropodidae (which diverged from an ancestral bear lineage). The lesser panda (the population of which has
greatly been reduced by collectors & hunters) is now regarded as unrelated
to the giant panda and usually classified as the sole member of an Old World
raccoon subfamily, Ailurinae, which diverged from an ancestral lineage that
also gave rise to the New World raccoons, most familiar in North America. As late as the early twentieth century, the
synonyms for the lesser panda included bear cat, cat bear & wah, all now obsolete.
Panda
diplomacy
Although the first pandas were gifted by Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek’s (1887-1975; leader of the Republic of China (mainland) 1928-1949
& the renegade province of Taiwan 1949-1975) Chinese government in 1941, “panda diplomacy” began as a Cold War
term, the practice of sending pandas to overseas zoos becoming a tool increasingly
used by Peking (Beijing after 1979) following the Sino-Soviet split in
1957. Quite when the phrase was first
used isn’t certain but it was certainly heard in government and academic
circles during the 1960s although it didn’t enter popular use until 1972, when a
pair of giant pandas (Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing) were sent to the US after Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) historic visit to China, an event
motivated by Washington’s (1) interest in seeking Peking’s assistance in handling
certain aspects of the conflict in Indochina and (2) desire to “move Moscow into check on the diplomatic
chessboard”. Ever since, pandas have
been a unique part of the ruling Communist Party of
China’s (CCP) diplomatic toolbox although since 1984 they’ve been almost always
leased rather than gifted, the annual fee apparently as high as US$1 million per
beast, the revenue generated said to be devoted to conservation of habitat and
a selective breeding program designed to improve the line’s genetic diversity. Hong Kong in 2007 were gifted a pair but
that’s obviously a special case ("one country, two pandas") and while an expression of diplomatic favour,
they can be also an indication of disapprobation, those housed in the UK in
2023 returned home at the end of the lease and not replaced.
It’s one of a set of such terms in geopolitics including “shuttle diplomacy” (the notion of a negotiator taking repeated "shuttle flights" between countries involved in conflict in an attempt to manage or resolve things (something with a long history but gaining the name from the travels here & there of Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1937-1977) in the 1960s & 1970s)), “ping-pong diplomacy” (the use of visiting table-tennis teams in the 1960s & 1970s as a means of reducing Sino-US tensions and maintaining low-level cultural contacts as a prelude to political & economic engagement), “commodity diplomacy” (the use of tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers as “bargaining chips” in political negotiations), “gunboat diplomacy” (the threat (real or implied) of the use of military force as means of coercion), “hostage diplomacy” (holding the nationals of a country in prison or on (sometimes spurious) charges with a view to exchanging them for someone or something) and “megaphone diplomacy” (an official or organ of government discussing in public what is usually handled through “usual diplomatic channels”; the antonym is “quiet diplomacy”).
A case study in the mechanics
of panda diplomacy was provided by PRC (People’s Republic of China) Premier Li
Qiang (b 1959; premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2023)
during his official visit to Australia in June 2024. Mr Li’s presence was an indication the
previous state of “diplomatic deep freeze”
between the PRC & Australia had been warmed to something around “correct but cool”, the earlier state of
unarmed conflict having been entered when Beijing reacted to public demands
(delivered via “megaphone diplomacy”)
by previous Australian prime minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian
prime-minister 2018-2022) for an international enquiry into the origin of the
SARS-Covid-2 virus which triggered the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a thing might have been a good idea but
underlying Mr Morrison’s strident call was that he was (1) blaming China and
(2) accusing the CCP of a cover-up. Mr
Morrison is an evangelical Christian and doubtlessly it was satisfying for him
to attend his church (one of those where there’s much singing, clapping,
praising the Lord and discussing the real-estate market) to tell his fellow
congregants how he’d stood up to the un-Christian, Godless communists but as a
contribution to international relations (IR), it wasn’t a great deal of
help. His background was in advertising
and coining slogans (he so excelled at both it was clearly his calling) but he lacked the background for the
intricacies of IR. The CCP’s retributions (trade sanctions and refusing to pick up the phone) might have been an
over-reaction but to a more sophisticated prime-minister they would have been
reasonably foreseeable.
Two years on from the diplomatic blunder, Mr Li arrived
at Adelaide Zoo for a photo-opportunity to announce the impending arrival of
two new giant pandas, the incumbent pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, soon to return
to China after their 15 year stint. Wang
Wang and Fu Ni, despite over those years having been provided “every encouragement” (including both
natural mating and artificial insemination) to procreate, proved either unable
or unwilling so, after thanking the zoo’s staff for looking after them so well,
the premier announced: “We will provide a
new pair of equally beautiful, lovely and adorable pandas to the Adelaide Zoo.”,
he said through an interpreter, adding: “I'm
sure they will be loved and taken good care of by the people of Adelaide, South
Australia, and Australia.” The duo, the
only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere, had been scheduled to return in
2019 at the conclusion of the original ten year lease but sometime before the
first news of COVID-19, this was extended to 2024. Although their lack of fecundity was
disappointing, there’s nothing to suggest the CCP regard this as a loss of face
(for them or the apparently unromantic couple) and Wang Wang and Fu Ni will
enjoy a comfortable retirement munching on abundant supplies of bamboo. Unlike some who have proved a
“disappointment” to the CCP, they’ll be spared time in a “re-education centre”.
A classic UK police Wolseley 6/80 (1948-1954) in black, a staple of 1950s UK film & television (top left), Adaux era Hillman Minx (1956–1967) (top centre) & Jaguar Mark 2 (1959-1969) (top right), the first of the true "black & white" panda cars, Ford Anglia 105E (1958-1968) on postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail in 2013 (bottom left), in one of the pastel blues which replaced the gloss black, Rover 3500 (SD1, 1976-1984) (bottom centre) in one of the deliberately lurid schemes used in the 1970s & 1980s (UK police forces stockpiled Rover 3500s when it was announced production was ending; they knew what would follow would be awful) and BMW 320d (bottom right) in the "Battenburg markings" designed by the Police Scientific Development Branch (SDB).
Until 1960, the fleets of cars run by most of the UK’s
police forces tended to be a glossy black.
That began to change when, apparently influenced by US practice, the
front doors and often part or all of the roof were painted white, the change
said to be an attempt to make them “more distinctive”. The new scheme saw then soon dubbed “panda
cars”, the slang picked up by police officers (though often, in their
economical way, clipped to “panda”) and use persisted for years even after the
dominant color switched from black to pastels, usually a duck-egg blue. Things got brighter over the years until the
police developed the high-visibility “Battenburg markings” a combination of
white, blue and fluorescent yellow, a system widely adopted
internationally. Interestingly, although
the black & white combination was used between the 1960s-1990s by the New
Zealand’s highway patrol cars (“traffic officers” then separate from the
police), the “panda car” slang never caught on.
The Fiat Panda
Developed during the
second half of the troubled and uncertain 1970s, the Fiat Panda debuted at the
now defunct Geneva Motor Show in 1980. Angular, though not a statement of high rectilinearism in the manner of the memorable Fiat 130 coupé (1971-1977), it was a starkly functional machine, very much in the utilitarian
tradition of the Citroën 2CV (1948-1990) but visually reflecting more recent
trends although, concessions to style were few.
Fiat wanted a car with the cross-cultural appeal of its earlier Cinquecento
(500, 1957-1975) which, like the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) Mini
(1959-2000) was “classless” and valued for its practicality. It was designed from “the inside out”, the
passenger compartment’s dimensions created atop the mechanical components with
the body built around those parameters, the focus always on minimizing the
number of components used, simplifying the manufacturing and assembly processes
and designing the whole to make maintenance as infrequently required and as
inexpensive as possible. One innovation
which seemed a good, money saving device was that all glass was flat, something
which had fallen from fashion for windscreens in the 1950s and for side windows
a decade later. In theory, reverting to
the pre-war practice should have meant lower unit costs and greater left-right
interchangeability but there were no manufacturers in Italy which had maintained
the machinery to produce such things and the cost per m2 proved
eventually a little higher than would have been the case for curved glass. Over three generations until 2024, the Panda
was a great success although one which did stray from its basic origins as European
prosperity increased. There was in the
1990s even an electric version which was very expensive and, its capabilities
limited by the technology of the time, not a success.
The name of the Fiat Panda came from mythology, Empanda, a
Roman goddess who was patroness of travelers and controversial among historians,
some regarding her identity as but the family name of Juno, the Roman
equivalent of Hera, the greatest of all the Olympian goddesses. Whatever the lineage, she was a better choice
for Fiat than Pandarus (Πάνδαρος) who came from the city of Zeleia, Apollo himself
teaching him the art of archery. Defying his father’s advice, Pandarus marched to Troy as a foot soldier, refusing to take
a chariot & horses; there he saw Paris & Menelaus engaged in single
combat and the goddess Athena incited Pandarus to fire an arrow at Menelaus. In this way the truce was broken and the war
resumed. Pandarus then fought Diomedes but was killed, his death thought punishment for his
treachery in breaking the truce.
Press-kit images for the 2024 Fiat Grande Panda issued by Stellantis, June 2024.
In June 2024, Fiat announced the fourth generation Panda
and advances in technology mean the hybrid and all-electric power-trains are
now mainstream and competitive on all specific measures. The Grande Panda is built on the new
Stellantis “Smart Car platform”, shared with Citroën ë-C3, offering seating
capacity for five. Unlike the original,
the 2024 Panda features a few stylistic gimmicks including headlights and
taillights with a “pixel theme”, a look extended to the diamond-cut aluminium wheels,
in homage to geometric motifs of the 1980s and the earlier Panda 4x4.
