Go to any antique market, design store or souvenir shop in this city and you're guaranteed to come across the vestiges of Shanghai's golden age of marketing - from the old thermoses, tins and bikes to the vintage Shanghai lady posters that never seem to fall out of favor.
Although not many of the homegrown brands featured on these posters survived China's tumultuous 20th Century, they all had a hand in producing the aesthetics of a uniquely Chinese modernity that remains familiar and well-loved worldwide. The Shanghai brand lives on, and through tenacious products like these, it can be a part of your daily life as well.
White Rabbit Creamy Candy (since 1943)
White Rabbit Creamy Candy originated in 1940s Shanghai, after an employee at the ABC Candy Factory tasted a milk candy from England and suggested that they replicate the sweet. When their own chewy, milky treat made it to market a year later, it was packaged not with a rabbit but a red Mickey Mouse.
Cheaper than their imported competitors, the sweets proved popular with the people of Shanghai. When the government took over the company after 1949, however, they decided Mickey had to go. Kids of the New China would not be brought up adulating foreign, capitalist mice. To that end, the mouse was replaced with a white rabbit and artist's palette. The resulting candies were reputedly even a favorite snack of Premier Zhou Enlai, who gave a bag to President Nixon during his historic 1972 visit to China.
The beloved brand was hit hard by the 2008 melamine milk scandal, which saw White Rabbits pulled from supermarket shelves all across the 50 countries and territories where they're sold. For many people of Chinese heritage, this was when the country's food safety issues hit the hardest: White Rabbit wasn't just a brand name, it was an icon, an emblem of millions of childhoods.
With the subsequent introduction of Gold Rabbits made using imported milk from Australia and New Zealand, however, it's still possible for future generations to grow up with this tasty tradition without having to worry about kidney stones.
Forever Bicycles (est. 1940)
Founded in 1940 and modeled after Britain's Raleigh Roadster, Forever (Yongjiu) Bicyclesdefined an era of transportation and urban life in Shanghai. People called China the 'Kingdom of Bicycles,' and it was these bikes,along with competitors from Phoenix Bicycles, thatthey had in mind. By some accounts, foreign dignitaries visiting the city were even treated to a Phoenix as a welcoming gift.
As Reform and Opening Up moved into gear in the 1980s, the wheels began to fall off for China's bike culture. From 1995 to 2005 alone, bicycle ownership dropped 35 percent nationally while private car ownership more than doubled. Compelled by constant gridlock and toxic levels of smog, however, cities across China are now trying to encourage bike use once again through the introduction of massive bike share programs. If they play their cards right, Forever and Phoenix Bicycles could be just as much a part of China's future as its past.
Warrior Shoes (since 1927)
When the first pair of Warriors rolled off the production line in 1927, China's first homegrown athletic shoes were made with thin, flexible soles and a light canvas body specifically designed for martial arts practitioners.
In the 1960s, the Chinese government chose Warriors to be the official athletic shoes of Chinese Olympians; but despite becoming the iconic footwear of 60s, 70s and 80s China, their popularity suffered a gradual downfall by the time the 1990s rolled around, as fashionable Western brands claimed ascendency and Warriors became the forgotten shoes of the working class.
Times are changing for the likes of Warrior and Feiyue, however. Parisian hipsters are now spending upwards of 99euros for a pair of the retro kicks that'll set you back nearer RMB30 here in Shanghai, and the qualities that initially made them attractive to martial artists are now endearing them to parkour enthusiasts.
Florida Water (circa 1908)
These days, a bottle of Florida Watergoes for less than RMB10 down at the local convenience store－ but when it was first introduced in 1908,it was the Chanel No. 5 of its day.A mainstay of any sophisticated Shanghai lady's dressing table, it was unthinkable to step out without a splash of thesubtle yet beguiling fragrance.
As the name would suggest, Florida Water first originated as a light perfumeand eau de toilette in America. When it made the jump to the East, it was infused with elements of Chinese medicine and given a name plucked straight from the verse of Song poet Ouyang Xiu.
Born in 1990, current market leader Liushen brought with it its own secret recipe of six traditional herbs,imbuing the concoctionwith yet more powers. Capable of cooling you down, stopping itching, perking you up and repelling mosquitos, it was gradually adapted as both a topical application and an ubiquitous, multifunction household tonic. Now, summer just wouldn't be summer without the languid smell of Liushen hanging in the humid Shanghai air.
Peh Chao Lin (est. 1931)
Not unlike Florida Water, Peh Chao Lin face cream was a home-grown luxury product humbled by the age of globalization, which brought with it the proliferation and glamorization of top-end foreign brands. Founded in 1931, Peh Chao Lin had been consigned to obscurity in twenty-first-century China - that is, until it was revived by the 'Peng Liyuan effect.'
Peh Chao Lin received a new lease on life last year after the First Lady gave a selection of the creams to her Tanzanian counterpart as an official gift from China. If it's good enough for Peng, ladies across the land reasoned, surely it's good enough for me. Overnight, the cream went from a quaint relic of Old Shanghai to, once again, one of the country's hottest cosmetic products.
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