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Friday May 10, 2024

What's in a name? For French baby pandas, politics

The official naming ceremony for the 4-month-old will take place on December 4.

By Reuters
December 02, 2017

The naming ceremony of this tiny panda cub will serve as an unlikely setting for international diplomacy. France's First Lady Brigitte Macron, the godmother to the new panda, will be joined by Chinese officials to choose a new name.

The cub, until now referred to as "Mini Yuan Zi" after his father was the first to be born in France after his parents arrived in 2012. Their arrival was hailed as a sign of warming diplomatic ties between Paris and Beijing.

The official naming ceremony for the 4-month-old will take place on December 4.