Is This Cat Possibly The Li Hua?

[Thestarcatcher]

im in china, and one of my Chinese friends has a cat. I think this cat has a lot of the colorations and eye color similar to the li hua. What do you think?

 

[jen]

Having only just now heard of this breed through google search, he does resemble one quite a bit. However with no papers it is a domestic short hair.

 

[StefanZ]

Being in China and owned by a chinese the prob is high he is one of Li Hua.

Count on it as your working hypothese.

 

[abyeb]

He does look like a Chinese Li Hua! He would be a Domestic Shorthair, technically speaking, though. He’s such a handsome boy!

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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I don't see the "smile spots" at the corners of the mouth, and can't see enough of the tail to see the ring pattern. Poorly written as it might be, the WikiHow article is actually a fairly good one:

How to Identify a Li Hua Cat
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[Willowy]

Isn't a Li Hua basically any Chinese street cat? A landrace, not a breed (except that now they do have selective breeding programs)? I would say that cat is almost certainly of the Li Hua landrace, but most likely not part of the selective breeding program.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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The landrace upon which the breed is based:

Chinese mountain cat - Wikipedia

A brief history of the breed, from it's debut as an Experimental Breed in 2003, forward:

Dragon Li - Wikipedia

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[lutece]

It is a landrace, but that doesn't mean that any brown tabby Chinese street cat would be considered a Li Hua. There are lots of non-native cats in China. I was under the impression that the Li Hua is not common even in China.

I am not sure how you would identify a native Chinese Li Hua, as opposed to a domestic cat descending from non-native cats. I do think that the cat in your pictures has a bit longer and more fluffy looking coat, and more of a sweet/domestic appearance, compared to the Li Hua that I saw when it was being exhibited in CFA some years ago. But, I am not an expert.