San Diego Zoo’s newest celebrities, Yun Quan and Zhen Bao, say they’re ready to take on the responsibilities of California citizenship.. Photo by Yun Quan; Courtesy of AP Photo/Derek Toskan.
Written by Yun Quan and Shen Bao | October 15, 2024
Nu Hu, JiaZhu!
Hello California!
We are two of the Golden State’s giant pandas, the first to enter the United States in two decades. And though it’s only been a few months since we left southwest China for the San Diego Zoo, we’ve already met the governor, celebrities, pun-loving TV hosts (“Panda-monium”), and thousands of everyday people, some of whom pay $115 to enter the zoo. Early in the morning and walk around with us for an hour. We now feel so at home in California that we wonder how we can shoulder the responsibilities of citizenship. For example, we hear a lot of people who visit us talking about the November election.
So why don’t you let us vote on it too?
When we ask this question, we want to assure you that we are reluctant to take a political position. Why take sides when we’re more popular than the Padres? (We never hit, and we’re nicer than Jackson Merrill.) We’re both laid-back types; Zookeepers describe Yun, a 5-year-old male, as “mild-mannered, gentle and lovable,” while Shin, a 4-year-old female, is described as “a gentle and witty introvert with a pretty round face and big ears.” “
Like many of our fellow Californians, we ignore the news. We prefer to spend our time sunbathing, sleeping and consuming as much grass as possible. To clarify, the grass we choose is bamboo, of which the zoo grows eight species because we are picky.
We must also walk a fine line as “envoys of friendship,” in the words of the Chinese government, which loans us to zoos abroad for $1 million a year. That means we and our fellow panda migrants — including our old friends from Sichuan who will soon be heading to the National Zoo in D.C. and perhaps the San Francisco Zoo — are truly diplomatic. We represent a tough client state that bullies its neighbors and inspires retaliatory tariffs and hate speech from a former and perhaps future US president whose team uses the term “panda hugging” as a pejorative. (Pro tip: Even if you love China, you’d better not hug us — we’re real animals, not stuffed bears.)
There are other reasons why it might be wise to stay out of the political arena. For one thing, we are now nonhumans living in a country that ranks low on the World Animal Protection Index. On the other hand, we are newcomers to an America so infested with xenophobia that a majority of voters support mass deportation of immigrants and their families. (Before J.D. Vance starts spreading lies about what we eat, let’s be clear: We are herbivores.)
Yet, for all the ways in which we are considered outsiders, we Pandas, by our very existence, offer Americans an opportunity to understand the real challenges facing them.
Try to look at things from our point of view. After all, we, like you, are weak creatures trying to survive on an increasingly inhospitable planet (there are fewer than 3,000 giant pandas in the world). We are also living proof that – in an age of moral relativism and politics based on lies – some important things remain black and white.
Such as the fact that true democracy requires the representation and participation of all living beings.
Including us.
For all the ways in which we are considered outsiders, we Pandas, by our very existence, offer Americans an opportunity to understand the real challenges facing them.
Your human media is certainly full of false accusations that foreigners will vote in this year’s elections. They’re not, but why can’t they? It has become increasingly common around the world for jurisdictions to open local elections to non-citizens. San Francisco has done this with regard to school board contests, for example.
If we could vote in San Diego’s elections, we might cast our ballot for anyone who could stop the constant noise of planes flying low above us here in Balboa Park, as they prepare to land at the airport. Our participation may also raise the question of why we are living rent-free in the expanded Banda Ridge complex while the city demolishes camps for unhoused people and allows the loss of hundreds of shelter beds.
There is nothing in your national constitution that prohibits noncitizen voting, which is decided by states like yours. It is unfortunate that the state of California, despite its claim to be a defender of democracy, has decided to deny the right to vote on the basis of citizenship to one in every six of its adults, even though these people pay taxes, abide by the laws, serve in the military, and raise children who are citizens. California could enfranchise six million people by allowing noncitizen residents to vote.
It could also bring people together across national borders and create a framework for global political solutions if it reaches “cross-voting” agreements to allow Californians and residents of other states and countries to vote in each other’s elections.
Such a mutual system would demonstrate human interconnectedness. But the interdependence on this planet includes all living things. Humans make up less than 1% of the world’s biomass, but enjoy 100% of the world’s democratic rights. Plants make up more than 80% of biomass and are underrepresented, even though humans cannot live without them.
Providing representation for us animals and plants is not a new idea. There are efforts around the world to envision democratic systems for various organisms, including the Multispecies Constitution Project at the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles, where the regular author of this column is a fellow.
This project asks questions such as: “What kinds of institutions can talk to the trees, birds, microbes, and diverse humans on this planet?” The idea is that by incorporating the intelligence, experiences, values, and interests of other organisms into governance, you humans will save ecosystems, and perhaps yourselves. Interestingly, some non-human creatures, such as whales, have started talking to you.
If the two of us could talk directly to you, instead of a human journalist’s imagination, we might talk about the difficulties we face raising a family in California. We are a couple facing reproductive expectations. And yes, San Diego is a great place to hook up, and not just for all the sun-kissed humans at beach-themed bars.
In fact, Yun’s grandparents lived at the zoo in the 2000s, and they had five cubs together here, including his mother, Chen Zhen. It seems unlikely that we will be so fertile. We cannot know how long we will stay here, given the conflict between our homeland and our new homeland.
But for now, we’re Californians. Shouldn’t we have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else?
