The 1915 Panama International Exposition Wine Award-Winning Examination | Moutai and Fenjiu Who is lying? (Top)
Text: Dead wood
In recent years, the liquor industry has been like a stimulant, soaring all the way, and the price has risen rapidly. Driven by huge profits, all kinds of capital are also frantically pouring in, all want to share a piece of the pie. Therefore, under the joint promotion of capital and manufacturers, liquor is more and more fried, and the price continues to break through the ceiling, which is dizzying and has a feeling of "flying away".
Among them, the most "pulling wind" is the "luxury goods in wine" Guizhou Moutai, not only the price soared, but also the market value growth is frightening. On January 15, 2018, the market value of Guizhou Moutai exceeded the mark of 1 trillion yuan for the first time; two years later, the total market value exceeded 2 trillion yuan on July 6, 2020; seven months later, on February 9, 2021, the market value of Guizhou Moutai exceeded the 3 trillion yuan mark! You know, in 2020, the total GDP of Shanghai is 3.87 trillion yuan, Beijing is 3.61 trillion yuan, and Shenzhen, which ranks third, is only 2.8 trillion yuan, a fast-moving consumer goods company, even among the top three, with "rich and invincible province" is not exaggerated at all.
About the market value of Moutai is not the focus of this article, but only to illustrate the popularity of the liquor industry! So, why is Moutai spiraling so high? People familiar with the liquor industry understand that in the past, "wine is not afraid of deep alleys" was wrong, and now even the best wine needs to be planned for packaging and publicity, and in layman's terms, it is necessary to tell (make up) stories. Will talk, dozens of yuan of liquor can be sold to thousands of yuan, will not talk, the cost of inventory will crush you.
In order to tell a good story, the copywriters of the marketing departments of various wine manufacturers are all racking their brains, exhausting themselves, and exhausting themselves, but they are nothing more than starting from two aspects. In terms of production, either the process recipe, the production process, pretending to be mysterious; or how the local raw materials, water, temperature and humidity are excellent, unique.
In the history of culture, the first thing to look for clues in the vast number of ancient books, as long as it can be attached to it, it will be taken immediately, the farthest can be moved out of the pre-Qin classics, and the most important is also written by the Han and Tang Dynasties to illustrate the long history, as if this makes the wine worthy of its name. Secondly, it is best to excavate historical sites nearby, such as cellars and tanks, so that you can connect with history. Finally, if there is a blessing from foreigners, it can be more famous in the world, after all, many consumers are eating this set.
In the author's humble opinion, if any kind of commodity wants to establish a brand for a long time, then high quality and low price are the only core competitiveness of the enterprise. However, in the information society, advertising (storytelling) is also an essential strategy for modern enterprises. To be fair, if the storytelling is based on basic facts, it is understandable to render it appropriately; however, if it is made out of nothing, confusing the concept, and misleading consumers, then it is suspected of false publicity, which is a matter of corporate culture.
Why do you sigh this? Because this will involve a multi-year historical "doubt", that is, about the "Panama International Exposition" held in San Francisco in 1915, who won the award, and even the two liquor companies quarreled, shooting cold arrows at each other and accusing each other. Although the other party's name is generally not mentioned, and "individual" or "certain" is used instead, but one south and one north, one says that the other lies and falsifies, one says the other is made up out of thin air, and the clear-eyed people can see that it is Shanxi Fenjiu and Guizhou Maotai.
(From the official website of Moutai Group)
This can be seen from the official websites of both sides, Shanxi Fenjiu said that "in 1915, it won the first-class gold medal of the Panama International Exposition", and in 2010, it publicly accused Guizhou Moutai of winning the gold medal as false propaganda. Guizhou Moutai now official website, there is also a conspicuous "1915 American Panama International Exposition Gold Award" (pictured), and in the cultural Moutai column "Legend Moutai" The first article is "Moutai wine won the 1915 Panama Gold Medal" (as shown below), the text contains insinuation, using the form of a story to explain that it is the real "world famous wine", and many other liquors "Dong Shi Gong" is "Li Ghost".
(Moutai official website promotional text)
So, what was the state of the Panama International Exposition in 1915? Have Shanxi Fenjiu and Guizhou Moutai won awards? Or one of them, or both won? Since the article on the official website of Moutai in Guizhou cites the "Documentary of China's Participation in the Panama Pacific Expo" (hereinafter referred to as the "Documentary") published by Chen Qi, director of the Supervision and Preparatory Bureau of the China Race to the United States in 1917, this is first-hand information, facts speak louder than words, the author in order to sort out this "public case", so I went to the National Library to check the historical materials, by the way, refer to other historical materials, try to restore the original historical appearance, see who is lying?
First, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition began and ended
According to the "Outline of the Panama-Pacific Exposition" (hereinafter referred to as the "Essentials"), compiled and published by Li Xuangong (1876-1953), one of the founders of the Commercial Press, in the third year of the Republic of China (1914), in February 1912, the US government, in order to celebrate the imminent opening of the Panama Canal, scheduled to hold the "Panama-Pacific Exposition" in San Francisco on the west coast in the spring of 1915, so all countries were invited to participate enthusiastically. (Located in the Central American country of Panama, the Panama Canal crosses the Isthmus of Panama, connects the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, is an important shipping route, and is known as one of the seven engineering wonders of the world as the "bridge of the world".) The Panama Canal was built by the United States and was then under American rule, thus celebrating).
Since the United States was the first of the great powers to recognize the government of Yuan Shikai in Beijing and attached great importance to Sino-US relations, in March 1914 it sent the counselor Ai Danmu to China to lobby China to send a delegation to participate in the exhibition. On March 26, Aidan mu arrived in Shanghai and was summoned by Yuan Shikai on April 4. Despite the domestic political turmoil at the time, the Beijing government regarded the matter as a major event for China to move toward the international stage.
In 1914, Yuan Shikai, the president of the Republic of China government, gave instructions to Chen Qi (1878-1925) to "learn from Hongtong and travel to Europe and the United States", and appointed him as the superintendent of the Games in the United States and the director of the Bureau of Preparation for the Panama Games. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce designated the Old Hanlin Institute office of West Chang'an Avenue as the office address, and on June 28, the third year of the Republic of China (1914), the "Panama Games Bureau" was officially established, and Liu Yiyi (1878-1950), the chief minister of industry and commerce, went to announce the opening.
After Chen Qi took office, he set up a review committee, selected members, compiled the work charter and the classification method of China's exhibits to the competition, notified and mobilized the provinces to prepare for the exhibition of products, and the provinces have also successively established the "Association for The Production of the Competition" to be responsible for collecting products. Finally, in two months, a total of more than 100,000 kinds of hundreds of thousands of items were raised in 19 provinces, and by the winter of 1914, the screening, classification, numbering, packaging and other work of all the entries had been completed, and they had been shipped to San Francisco, USA, and 50 people were sent to the San Francisco Exposition site to build the Chinese Pavilion, brick by brick.
The Panama Pacific Exposition opened in San Francisco at 12 noon on February 20, 1915. San Francisco Mayor Rolfer delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, which was attended by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. U.S. Vice President Thomas Marshall and former President Theodore Roosevelt and other national dignitaries attended the venue to help. The number of visitors reached 216,000 on the first day, driven by the mystery and curiosity of ancient China, the number of visitors to the Chinese Pavilion reached 80,000 people on the same day, including the president of the United States, vice presidents and former presidents, as well as senior officials of various departments.
At the end of 1915, the Panama International Exposition, which lasted for nearly 10 months, came to an end. The expo has 31 participating countries, more than 200,000 kinds of exhibits (pieces), and more than 19 million visitors, and its scale is unprecedented in previous national expositions. In January 1916, the first exhibits shipped back by the China Postal Shipping Company arrived in China, and by the autumn of 1916, all the exhibits and personnel returned to Shanghai. All the buildings of the Expo, except for the magnificent Chinese Government Pavilion, were donated to the Golden Gate Grand Park in San Francisco, which was moved to a permanent memorial at the expense of the government, and all others were demolished.
2. Achievements in participating in the Universal Exposition
In February 1917, Chen Qi published the "Documentary of China's Participation in the Panama Pacific Exposition", which is a very detailed historical material, which belongs to Chen Qi's debriefing report, which not only records the preparatory process, rules and regulations, the use of expenses, the participants, the beginning and end of the event, and the achievements, but also records in detail a lot of details, such as the details of each award, the detailed figures of various expenses, and the numbers are accurate to individual positions, which is of great historical significance for the study of the current situation in China and world history at that time.
Chen Qi introduced in the "Documentary" that the budget cost in China is the lowest, only 240,000 US dollars, a total of 610,000 yuan for Huayin, while the largest South American Arrentin (Argentina) is 1.7 million US dollars, Canada is 665,000 US dollars, Japan is 610,570 US dollars, Italy is 400,000 US dollars, France is 400,000 US dollars, australia is 300,000 US dollars, all more than China.
However, in the end, China prepared the most commodities, the participation of the pavilion is also the largest, the Expo has a total of 11 pavilions, China participated in 9 pavilions, namely agricultural pavilions, industrial pavilions, education pavilions, art galleries, literary and art museums, transportation halls, mineral pavilions, food pavilions and horticultural pavilions, plus the Republic of China government pavilion a total of 10 pavilions, exhibiting more than 100,000 kinds of hundreds of thousands of items from 19 provinces and government ministries.
The review committee on the review of the awards, a total of 500 members, because China has the most items and the venue has the most participation, China gets 16 seats. Finally, through the evaluation, China won a total of 62 medals, 64 honorary medals, 258 gold medals, 337 silver medals, 258 bronze medals, 227 award words and 1211 (the actual total of 1206). The San Francisco Daily reported that China has won a total of 74 medals and other awards totaling more than 1200.
Why the discrepancy? Chen Qi also explained in it, that is, in order to avoid "the pearls of the sea", he personally sent a letter to the senior jury to request that the Chinese exhibits be reissued and upgraded, so that there was a slight statistical error. For example, Chen Qi recorded that he sent a letter to reissue the first-class medals of tea in 7 provinces (Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Jiangsu), but all of them were clearly recorded. (The author is mainly to explain the liquor, so did not go to detailed statistics, please do not be surprised)
There are some interesting numbers in the "Documentary" and "Essentials" that can be used as a comparison for the study of people with hearts, and I will list them below for the time being. For example, the "Essentials" detailed statistics and comparisons of the number of Chinese and Japanese people in the United States at that time, in 1900, 89863 Chinese in the United States, 24326 Japanese in the United States; in 1910, 71531 Chinese in the United States and 72157 Japanese in the United States, indicating that Japan is more active than China in studying abroad.
Li Xuangong called for the cultivation of talents and the use of local students in the "Essentials", for example, he counted 26,895 Chinese in The United States in 1904 in The United States In Galikoune (California), and suggested that the Bureau choose to hire from local Chinese. In fact, many of the World Expositions rely on local Chinese, in Chen Qi's "Documentary" recorded that only 50 people from China went to San Francisco to build the Chinese Pavilion, and a huge building complex was built in more than a month.
Chen Qi compared China and Japan in the "Documentary", the exhibition area of both countries is more than 50,000 square feet, but Japan's funding is 610,000 US dollars, and more than 50 official exhibitors; China only has 240,000 US dollars and 20 formal personnel. However, in the end, China won 64 medals, a total of 1211 medals, the first place in the participating countries; Japan only won 35 medals, the total number of more than 1100. Therefore, Chen Qi felt very proud.
(Limited in space, to be continued, the following details on the awards of the liquor industry)
2021/1212 Elm Jai
Key References and Image:
"Panama-Pacific Exposition Essentials", compiled by Li Xuangong, published in April 1914
"Documentary of China's Participation in the Panama Pacific Exposition" written by Chen Qi and published in February 1917
The "Classification Outline of the Panama-Pacific Exposition" prepares for the Panama Games Bureau of the Republic of China
Guizhou Moutai Group official website (Internet page)
Shanxi Fenjiu Group official website (Internet page)