Witness History
Witness History
The first cat cafe
Up next
September 29, 2023
10 minutes
Available for over a year
The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998.
It started with just five street cats.
For the first few months they hardly had any visitors. Then a film crew made a TV programme about the cafe, and it eventually became a global tourist destination.
Cat cafes have become a worldwide phenomenon.
Tracy Chang, founder and owner, tells her story to Gill Kearsley.
(Photo: Inside the first cat cafe. Credit: Tracy Chang)