Asian

History
In 1981 a service accidentally took place in Great Britain between a long-haired Chinchilla tomcat and a lilac Burmese female cat. The result: 4  Black Shaded Silver Shorthair female cats with a nice figure and a lovely character.

It was an enormous surprise for their breeder Miranda von Kirchberg. After consultation with the genetic experts and the GCCF (The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in England) she got the idea to breed a new breed with this nest.

Miranda made a breeding plan for, at first, the  Shaded Silver Shorthairs of the Burmese type (the Burmilla).
 

Shaded Silver Shorthairs of the Burmese type (the Burmilla). However, also other kittens with other signs were born, which also became part of the breeding plan. It concerned the Golden Shadeds, Smokes, Tabbies, Selfs and half-longhaired kittens. This group is now called the Asian and the half-longhaired kittens are called Tiffanies More and more breeders started to cross the Burmese with a number of other breeds, such as Abyssinian. British short-haired etc in order to get other colors and fur patterns in the Burmese breed.

These lines were bred back to the Burmese in order to be sure that the character, the temperament, the extrovert and the intelligence of the Burmese were kept. Still, this breeding way is used in order to get a larger group of Asians.
Almost at the same time an other breeding program was developed for the Self Black Shorthairs of the Burmese type. 
A Burmese was crossed with an European house cat. This group is called the Bombays and was added to the Asian group.

The Bombays can be divided in the English and the American variant which differ quite a lot from each other since the American descends from Burmese x American shorthair.

Developments in the Netherlands.
In 1979 Margaret Henderson started her own breeding program in the Netherlands with ticked tabbies with the Burmese color restriction. It probably was the first born nest of Asians in the whole world since the Asian as such didn’t exist yet. These kittens were registered as Tabby Burmese.    

It is unthinkable nowadays since a Tabby Burmese is not a Burmese but an Asian even if he has the Burmese color. Strokes, as sign with a Burmese, are altogether wrong.

Development in New Zealand
At the same time a breeding program was developed for Asians in New Zealand. They started breeding the Silver Burmese. A crossing between a Burmese/Siamese and a Silver Tabby domestic shorthair was used. The first Silver tabby Burmese was born on  25/12/1982. After having used a precise breeding program during a couple of years, in which silver was the underlying color, the silvers were acknowledged by the NZCF (New Zealand cat Fancy Inc.) in 1986. Asian Selfs were also born, i.e. in not-Burmese colors which are called Mandelays in New Zealand. They occur in the colors, black, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream. 

Acknowledgement of the Asian breed in the Netherlands
Unfortunately not all coordination organizations acknowledge the same breeds. If a new line is started with a Burmese versus a breed which isn’t in the same breeding group as the Burmese, for example a British shorthair, the first, second, third generation receives a descent proof and only the fourth generation receives a family tree.

Crossing between themselves with family tree preservation only goes for breeds which are in one and the same breeding group such as Burmese x Asian, Persian x Shorthair.

Breed classification
This also differs sometimes. The description Asian is used for cats which have the traditional Burmese type, but differ from the Burmese as it comes to color, pattern or fur length. The name is however only used for Asian Smoke and Asian Tabby’s, Asian Burmilla, Asian Self (completely colored amongst others Bombay), Tiffany etc. The Tabby’s are bred in: marbled, spotted, striped or ticked.    

Just like the Burmese cats the Asian cats are elegant. They are relaxed, nice, intelligent, charming and born entertainers. They love playing and they are very adventurous. An ideal family cat! But also for older people they can be a loyal and devoted friend. The saying “once a Burmese/Asian always a Burmese/Asian” goes for each house hold with such a cat. Most of the times a second Burmese/ Asian is purchased. They however don’t like to be alone, so they love to be placed with other cats/dogs.
   

Exterior characteristics
Their voice is usually soft. The fur length is short and feels like satin. The body is half-long, muscled with a straight back and a wide breast. The forepaws are shorter than the muscled hind paws and they walk on solid oval feet. The tail is long and tapers. The eyes are wide and a bit slanting. The nose has a clear stop. All cats of the Burmese type however without a Burmese fur color, pattern or fur length are Asians as you can read in above mentioned story. Asians occur in complete uniform color, the matching tortoises, tabbies, ticked and silvers. In England someone has once calculated that there are 600 possible color/pattern variations available. Nowadays there are even Asians in the colors apricot, caramel and cinnamon. The eye color is yellow, chartreuse and green.

Written by Susan van Keulen (Cattery Oppidum Ubiorum). Many thanks to Laura Boshoven (Cattery Blue Velvet) for reading it. 

Source: Vervain Cats, UK, Cattery Kallistra, NL