07. August 2023

Although cocoa was introduced to Europe sometime in the 16th century it was not until the Industrial Revolution that new processes emerged which sped the production of chocolate and with that the development of an affordable mass market product. In 1824, John Cadbury, began selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate in Bull Street in Birmingham, England. In 1847, John became a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company became known as "Cadbury Brothers”. The new firm began exporting...

27. June 2023

This week’s post about an artifact from our collection, is a short follow-up to an article we published a few weeks ago, and reveals the surprising international origin of the Shanghai cult sneaker brand Warrior’s Chinese name. Warrior sport shoes first gather mainstream attention across China, when in 1956 the classic Warrior WB 565 was specifically designed for China’s national men’s basketball team participating in the Olympics. During the 1960s & ‘70s the brand became the...

28. March 2023

Like no other, this vibrant ad for the trifecta of Victor Sassoon’s hospitality empire, symbolizes the unprecedented real-estate boom and architectural splendor of Shanghai in the early 1930s. Join us on a journey through the history of the three edifices, all of which still house hotels today.

17. October 2022

-“Gee, honey look there’s a dragon in the sky!” -“Yay!” A classic example on how symbolism in marketing differs between the West and East-Asian countries. While in the culture of the former dragons are depicted as evil, in China they are traditionally seen as friendly and the bringers of good luck. A fact the historic Yutai flash light factory (裕泰电筒厂) from Shanghai cleverly used for its “Dragon head” brand (龙头牌).

10. October 2022

My Dear, or Měilì (美丽牌) meaning “beautiful” in Chinese, was the most popular Chinese cigarette brand out of Shanghai during Republican China. Since its inception it was famous for the attractive, confident and modern “new women” featured in its advertisements, ubiquitous across billboards, magazines and newspapers. Its Chinese slogan 有美皆备，无丽不臻 literally means “everyone wants the beauty because without beauty there is no completeness” but in more creative...

07. August 2022

In the autumn of 1930, the national government of Shanxi province established the Jinhua Cigarette Factory (晋华卷烟厂) in the city of Taiyuan by merging several smaller private tobacco producers. The state-owned enterprise produced cigarettes throughout the 1930s until November 1937, when the Japanese army occupied Taiyuan and took over the operations. It remained active under the name “No 13 Factory” until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War after which it was nationalized again...

09. May 2022

02. May 2022

The American Safety Razor Company was a personal care brand founded in 1906 by a merger of the Gem Cutlery Company & Ever-Ready and was a principal competitor to Gillette for over a century. The Ever-Ready brand had been created in 1905 and razors were continued to be sold under that name until the early 1960s.

08. March 2022

The 1930s marked the first “Golden Period” of Chinese cinema and catapulted its key performers to superstardom. In 1933, the newspaper Star Daily conducted China's first public poll for the most popular movie stars with Hu Die “Butterfly” Wu (胡蝶) as the runaway winner with 21,334 votes, more than twice as many as the first runner-up Chen Yumei, and almost three times the votes her friend Ruan Lingyu (阮玲玉) received. Hu Die was crowned China's first "Movie Queen", but Ruan...

01. February 2022

Happy Chinese New Year from the M.O.F.B.A.! 恭贺新禧! Brought to you by BASF Indanthrene - the bluest of blue since 1901.