Shandong Lion Cat – a Chinese purebred cat?

I’ve just bumped into information about the Shandong Lion Cat. I had never heard of this supposedly exclusive Chinese cat breed before. It is a well-kept secret and I am not convinced that it is actually true. One website promotes the idea that there are, in fact, five different kinds of exclusive Chinese purebred cats namely: Three Flower Cat, Sichuan Jianzhou Cat, Yellow Civet Cat, Chinese Civet Cat plus the Shandong Lion Cat. I think you have to be quite cautious and even cynical when you read about these sorts of cats on the Internet. Incidentally, years ago I wrote about the Chinese Harlequin and Dragon Li, two supposedly Chinese cat breeds. At the time I was somewhat bemused as to whether they were genuine. You might like to comment if you can help and click on this link if you want to read about these breeds. So, that makes 7 Chinese cat breeds. A fanciful idea. I’d be surprised if there was one.

The International Cat Association (TICA) does not have any Chinese cat breed listed. This cat association as can be seen by their name would accept a Chinese cat breed if an application was made indicating that the Shandong Lion Cat is not a cat breed. Wrong? Tell me please in a comment. Neither has the World Cat Federation (WCF) has no semi-longhaired Chinese breeds registered.

In each instance the Shandong Lion Cat is described as a white cat with an appearance that looks pretty well like a standard medium-longhaired cat. There are no outstanding features and the Shandong Lion Cat, in the West, would be mistaken for a non-purebred cat.

Because they are all-white, they sometimes have odd-eyes which is typical of all-white cats because of the dominant white gene. This so-called breed is also referred to as the ‘Linqing Lion Cat’. One website says that they are mainly “produced in Linqing City, Shandong Province”. That presumably is the reason for their name. This brings to mind the possibility that this cat is not a purebred cat but a random-bread cat which is seen more commonly than normal in this area of China. That’s the more likely explanation.

I don’t think I can justify writing any more about this cat because I just don’t think the information that I am reading is entirely genuine. As mentioned, the impression I get is that this is a moggy and therefore not a cat breed. That said sometimes ‘informal cat breeds’ can exist. These are often street cats in various places such as in this instance China or Egypt (Egyptian Mau) or Turkey (Turkish Angora) that are not recognised by a cat association in the West but because they’ve existed for hundreds of years in a certain area and interbred over that period, they become a sort of informal cat breed. That might be the case in this instance.

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