At the beginning of April, the Rongqingtang sachet became popular again, and more than 2,500 inbound tourists arrived at the Wusongkou International Cruise Port in Shanghai on the "Mai Shifu No. 5" cruise ship.
"It's so fragrant!" "This is my 'first sight' of China!" ...... Tourists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries enthusiastically held this "meeting gift" and started a two-day trip to Shanghai.
China's sachet culture can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Today, this sachet has "traveled" through the millennium and derived multiple forms and connotations, and has become an important part of opening up Sino-foreign exchanges and connecting the old and new inheritances.
枚香囊,
"Bag" to catch the eyes of China and foreign countries
In order to welcome cruise passengers, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism set up an intangible cultural heritage booth in the arrival hall of T2 in the port area, and presented "a bag of Shanghai" cultural and creative gifts to many tourists at home and abroad, including Rongqingtang sachets.
One sachet, all-encompassing. The red cloth embroidery bag, by the abbot of Longhua Ancient Temple, a thousand-year-old temple in Shanghai, is personally given "blessing", and the interior is made of a century-old traditional Chinese medicine formula. Many people held it up to take pictures and group photos to record the "first face" of traditional Chinese culture.
Founded in the 90s of the last century, Rongqingtang's sachet making skills are Shanghai-level intangible cultural heritage items, and were rated as "excellent" in the 2022 evaluation of the protection of intangible cultural heritage items by the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism. This encounter with cruise passengers is not the first time it has attracted foreign attention. At the moment when the "national tide" is surging, the sachet has become popular, and the Rongqingtang sachet has appeared at the CIIE on behalf of the "Shanghai Good Things" many times, stepping into the international vision.
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"Different from the industrial incense popular in the West, the traditional Chinese sachet contains natural herbs and plants, which are full of natural fragrance. Yu Dong, general manager of Shanghai Rongqingtang Industrial Development Co., Ltd. and inheritor of sachet production skills, introduced that from material selection, cutting, embroidery, to traditional Chinese medicine grinding, grinding fine powder, and then to filling, adding powder, stitching, and spikeing, making a sachet seems simple, but in fact it is a lot, and the ten major processes are indispensable and a threshold.
In the early summer of 2023, the 2023 Shanghai Tourism Industry Expo opened the "Intangible Cultural Heritage New Experience Shanghai Style Meeting Room" Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Area for the first time. In addition, it has also gone abroad many times, and has participated in the International Handicraft Exhibition in Florence, Italy, the "Belt and Road" Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition, etc., this mysterious "Chinese incense" has attracted the attention of the world.
Insist on innovation,
"Big Palm" is true
Rongqingtang sachets have a long history. In the 90s of the 20th century, the inheritor Rong Aijuan followed the famous doctor Zhang Fusheng of Changbai Mountain to learn the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, and after learning, he brought his sachet making skills and traditional Chinese medicine formula to Shanghai. Decades later, the baton of the inheritance of Rongqingtang sachet was handed over by Rong Aijuan to his son Yu Dong. In 2015, Rongqingtang's unique and classic sachet making skills were selected as Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage.
Passing on the skills of making sachets is not only a job, but also the determination of all of Rongqingtang. It is no longer enough to stick to tradition, and the road in front of them not only needs to enter the international market, but also to open up the three generations of audiences.
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In order to make more young people fall in love with sachets, Rongqingtang insists on innovation, and at the same time leads the intangible cultural heritage team to actively participate in cultural and creative selection competitions and cultural public welfare activities, looking forward to showing the charm of intangible cultural heritage with novel sachets. In 2021, Rongqingtang released the "Love Shanghai Sachet Gift Box", which used pink, yellow, blue, and gold sachets with bracelets, embroidered with white magnolia and the words "Love Shanghai", becoming a characteristic souvenir in the Yangtze River Delta;In 2022, Rongqingtang's Rongqing Smelling Silver Sachet was listed on the "2022 Shanghai Souvenir Praise List", capturing the hearts of countless consumers with its slender and exquisite silver metal "bag";In 2023, Rongqingtang once again launched an innovative "Ruyi Fan", black, The red fan surface, hung with red embroidered sachets, the color matching atmosphere is simple, quite traditional characteristics, in the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission Health Consumption Professional Office of the "most popular Chinese medicine sachets" selection in one fell swoop into the TOP3......
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2024 is the Year of the Dragon, and Rongqingtang's "Dragon Rank Incense" sachet is once again on the list of "Internet celebrity" souvenirs, with red and blue two-color pouches, with gold "dragon-shaped" silk thread embroidery and Chinese knots, which makes people love it. Among them, the "dragon bit incense" takes the meaning of the golden dragon bit incense, inspired by Qinglong Town, Qinglong Port and other places where Shanghai's "dragon-hunting" culture originated, and the shape of the dragon is auspicious and festive, which is a prominent symbol of Chinese culture.
"We insist on innovative processes, such as the inheritance of the 'black technology' of the Tang Dynasty, and the creation of the 'sachet gyroscope', hoping to let modern people feel the rich and luxurious beauty of the Tang Dynasty court. The staff said.
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At present, Chinese young people are keen on ancient customs, wearing Hanfu, wearing incense sachets, holding painting fans, and wandering the alleys of ancient towns, which has become a new youth fashion. Rongqingtang sachet is taking advantage of this national tide with innovative power, breaking the barrier of age, entering the young market and the international market, and inheriting the traditional intangible cultural heritage into a new taste.
Text/Image: Tang Shunjia
Editor: Wen Xiting
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