A Family of Li Hua Cats

Li Hua cat, known in Chinese as "狸花猫", is a type of cat with strong hunting instincts and a relatively independent nature. Chen Yu, a poet from the Southern Song Dynasty of China (1127CE–1279 CE), once wrote a poem about Li Hua cat:
穿鱼新聘一衔蝉，人说狸花量直钱。
旧日畜来多不捕，于今得此始安眼。
牡丹影晨嬉成画，薄荷香中醉欲颠。
却是能知在从息，有声堪恨复堪怜。
I cannot capture the beauty of the original Chinese verse in translation, so I can only give you the general idea. Essentially, Chen Yu is saying: I traded fish for a Li Hua cat, whose facial markings look like it's holding a cicada in its mouth. The cats I kept before mostly failed to catch mice, but now with this one, I can finally sleep soundly. In the early morning, the cat plays beneath the shadows of peonies, looking like a living painting; intoxicated by the scent of catnip, it staggers about. It knows when to accompany me and when to rest on its own. Its noise is sometimes irritating, sometimes endearing.
Meanwhile, "Li Hua" is also a common Chinese name. It is usually written as "李华" and shares the same English spelling as "Li Hua Cat," but has a different pronunciation and writing form in Chinese. Therefore, a Chinese person named Li Hua does not necessarily have a cat’s name lol.

Maybe some English websites refer to Chinese Li Hua cats as "Dragon Li cats", but I have never heard this expression used in Chinese.Because in Chinese, the term "Dragon Cat" (龙猫) means chinchilla. The chinchilla is a rodent native to South America. This name probably comes from the Japanese animated film となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro), where the character "Totoro" is translated into Chinese as "龙猫", literally meaning "Dragon Cat".However, there is obviously no such usage in English, so it’s quite interesting to call Chinese Li Hua cats "Dragon Cat".
Some people believe that "li hua" only describes a coat pattern rather than a cat breed, while others regard the Chinese Li Hua cat as a naturally formed native breed. As we all know, the CFA has granted recognition to the Chinese Li Hua cat, and you can view the relevant breed standard here, on page 16.
Nevertheless, certifications from American institutions sometimes carry little weight for Chinese native pet breeds. For example, the Chinese Xiasi Dog has not been recognized by any American pet breed organizations either, yet these distinctive dogs do exist in southwestern China. Therefore, I will not make a definitive judgment on whether the Chinese Li Hua cat counts as a breed; I simply say they are just a type of cat.