Once a neglected figure in ancient China’s folklore, literature and artefacts, the panda has become a national treasure and a defining symbol of the modern nation.How did this black-and-white creature, long overlooked, come to occupy such an iconic place in a country’s cultural imagination?Palaeontologists have discovered panda fossils across China, some dating back eight to nine million years.According to early human scholar Wei Guangbiao, many of these ancient specimens show butchery...