Mandarin (cat)

The history of the Mandarin begins with that of the Oriental. Indeed, the Mandarin is one of the semi-long-haired varieties of the Oriental, directly descended from the Siamese. It was the English who brought the Siamese from Thailand, but also other cats, with identical physique but whose coat was not colourpoint. Legends tell that there they were sacred cats or that they were raised by the king of Siam. Arriving in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century, the Siamese, much more exotic and original than the Oriental, met with immediate success while its non-pointed cousin fell into oblivion. It was not until after World War II, when cat breeding was at its lowest, that breeders resorted to numerous crosses to restart or create certain breeds. This was the case of the Oriental which results from crosses between Siamese, Abyssinians, British Shorthairs, Russian Blues and feral cats. The result was a cat with Oriental type and attached to the origins of the Siamese but not pointed. It was named Foreign Shorthair. In the 1970s, Oriental cats were imported to the United States where Siamese and American Shorthair were crossed to introduce new colours. This resulted in a brown "Havana" coloured cat, but this breed evolved differently and is currently registered under the name Havana Brown. They were also crossed in the 1980s with Orientals and Balinese to obtain an Oriental with semi-long hair. This variety was recognized as a separate breed under the name Oriental Longhair for the CFA in 1994 and for TICA in 1998. In Europe, they are found under the name of Mandarin or sometimes Javanese. This breed is still rare in France where the LOOF registers fewer than twenty births per year. The Mandarin represented only 0.07% of the total pedigree cats in France in 2008. The GCCF registers fifty births of Mandarins per year out of a total of 30,000 new kittens registered each year.

The character of the Mandarin would be the same as that of the Oriental, that is to say talkative, lively, playful and very attached to its owner. Of course, character is above all individual and a function of each individual's history, regardless of its breed.