Overseas fans pose for a photo with MeiMei, an internet-famous rescued cat, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A cat in Guangzhou of Guangdong province is giving people the purr-fect reason to fly thousands of kilometers to meet her in China after she became an online sensation.

Yet the cat, MeiMei, is hardly the sort of celebrity who goes out of her way to charm an audience. She is aloof around strangers and often needs to be coaxed with food before she will cooperate.

Chinese netizens nicknamed her MeiMei after Shen Meizhuang, a character in the hit historical drama Empresses in the Palace, seeing a resemblance between the cat's distinctive face and the character's elegant, reserved look.

Concern emerged after MeiMei attracted international attention. Some overseas viewers noticed her short tail and missing teeth and launched an online campaign called "Save MeiMei", questioning whether she was being mistreated.

For Chen Jianye, MeiMei's owner, the sudden attention was bewildering. Posting videos under the social media handle "Tubomao Chen Meizhuang", he initially shrugged off the messages from overseas fans about visiting China.

"They were so far away. I thought they were just saying it," he recalled.

Then, in June, a Chilean fan named Felipe arrived in Guangzhou. He brought a gift: a clock featuring MeiMei's face. As all his family members were fans, he called home during his visit to show them videos of the cat, even though it was the middle of the night back home.

When Chen asked what made Mei-Mei so special, Felipe offered a simple explanation: "She is very special, and has a face like a human."

For Chen, what had seemed like a stream of comments from distant strangers had become something tangible: People were traveling across the world to meet a cat they had only seen on a screen.

Since then, overseas visitors from more than 20 countries and regions — including Chile, the United Kingdom, Romania, Morocco and the Netherlands — have come to see MeiMei, Chen said. He now prepares small souvenirs, including cushions and photographs featuring the cat, for visitors to take home.

MeiMei's story began on the streets of Guangzhou. In June 2022, a friend of Chen's found her near a railway station. Chen, 32, had begun rescuing stray animals after leaving his job in e-commerce, and although he usually found homes for them, he decided to keep MeiMei.

As Chen shared videos of her on social media, her appearance soon caught the attention of Chinese viewers, before her fame spread to international social media platforms.

Toward the end of 2025, Chen received a surge of comments from overseas users on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, with many voicing concerns about MeiMei's condition and suspecting she had been abused.

Chen said he found the reaction both amusing and frustrating. He spent nearly six months explaining that MeiMei's appearance reflected the hardships of living as a stray, rather than any mistreatment in his care. He estimated that she is more than 10 years old, though her exact age is unknown.

Eventually, he concluded that online explanations could only go so far. If people were genuinely worried about MeiMei, meeting her in person might help them understand her circumstances better.

What started with an online campaign fueled by concern gradually became a series of face-to-face encounters.

This summer, three young fans — Kacper from Poland, Daniel from the UK and Sinaa from Afghanistan — visited MeiMei during their trip to China.

The visitors' enthusiasm is striking partly because MeiMei is not an especially sociable host. While some of Chen's other cats readily approach people, she tends to keep her distance. Food is often the surest way to win her over, he said.

MeiMei herself remains largely indifferent to her international fame, Chen said. She is still particular about the company she keeps and, above all, about her food.