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Dai Chun Lin 400 Years Chinese Makeup Manufacturer

1. 400 years of inheritance

Shi Lian -- the 16th generation of Dai Chun Lin, Mu Hongjun -- the 17th generation of Dai Chun Lin, Mu Qing -- the 18th generation of Dai Chun Lin.
More than 400 years ago, Mr. Dai Chunlin, a Yangzhou native of a family of traditional Chinese medicine, married the daughters of the Shi family, who were also from a family of traditional Chinese medicine. The four daughters had no children, and all members of the Dai and Shi families were engaged in the production of Dai Chunlin products. Therefore, the inheritance of skills and the continuation of the bloodline start from the matriarchal line. Carrying forward such a representative, historical and inherited cultural enterprise is a matter of great pride and honour, as well as a sense of mission.

After the liberation, the brand of Dai Chun Lin, which owned Xiangfeng for more than three hundred years, also ended with the decline of the Qing Dynasty royal family. The descendants of the Dai and Shi families are scattered all over the place, and they have all devoted themselves to revolutionary work. However, Shi Lian, the 16th generation descendant of Dai Chun Lin, never told her descendants the story of Dai Chun Lin during the feudal era. However, she still retains some of the old traditions of her family of Chinese medicine practitioners when it comes to her living habits, such as eating ginger, soaking her feet and bathing with medicinal foam. She is very particular about foot soaking. In the cold and wet season, she soaks her feet in mugwort leaves, ginger and saffron; in the dry season, she soaks her feet in salt water, soda water and white vinegar. Chinese culture seems to have made an invisible mark on her, permeating her whole life.

Mu Hongjun - son of Shi Lian, after returning from liberation at the age of sixteen, who successfully entered a thriving state-owned enterprise with the professional knowledge he learned in school and under the care of his mother. For more than forty years, he has been engaged in production technology and new product research and development most of the time. Until the company went bankrupt in 2002, Mu Hongjun resigned from his last position as the legal person of the enterprise and returned home.

At that time, Mu Hongjun was almost 50 years old, but he felt empty at home after being idle in the busy work pace. The political and economic environment began to promote the revival of traditional culture, and the protection of intangible time-honored brands emerged. Until now, from his own past, his frail old mother found a few iron boxes packed by old Dai Chunlin in the old wardrobe, "Don't underestimate these rusty stains on this iron box, they are also treasures passed down by our ancestors from the mountains." These were just idle words, but a seed was deeply planted in Mu Hongjun's heart.

In the following four years, Mu Hongjun traveled around to collect historical materials. He visited the Yangzhou Archives and Library, read a large number of ancient books online and offline, collected ancient books and cultural relics, and consulted experts in literature and history when he did not understand. For four whole years, he was immersed in Dai Chunlin's cultural atmosphere. He deeply felt that these three words, which had been baptized for four hundred years, seemed to have a karmic connection with him in his past and present lives.

In 2006, Mu Hongjun formally submitted a trademark registration application to the State Trademark Office. After three years of waiting, he finally received an official reply in 2009. Holding these three words, he seemed to see that the long-forgotten Dai Chunlin signboard had finally seen the light of day.

Mu Qing -- Mu Hongjun's daughter, who grew up with my father's strict selection of cosmetic ingredients and learned by osmosis, to repeat the same experiment day and night in pursuit of skin feel. A product in the hands of consumers may be the final product after thousands of experiments. The "craftsman spirit" is inseparable from the formula, production, packaging material selection, design and management of the product.

Dai's family motto: "Strictly follow ancestral teachings. Delicate and subtle. No deception towards children or the elderly and the sale should be fair. Integrity wins the world. Pass down these teachings through generations. Never become complacent."

2. The ancient history of development

Dai Chunlin was born in Yangzhou in the Ming Dynasty. He was from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. As the grandson of the family, his grandfather loved him very much. His grandfather was a court physician and a good friend of the famous calligrapher and painter Dong Qichang. So, in the first year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty (1628), Dai Chunlin opened the world's first shop producing fragrant powder on Yangzhou's Gangzi Street. The famous contemporary calligrapher Dong Qichang wrote the sign for Dai Chun Lin. On the opening day, many relatives and friends came to congratulate him, and princes, nobles, and dignitaries gathered. In the local political, economic and cultural circles at that time, it can be said to be extremely popular.

The one who really brought Dai Chun Lin to the palace was Tian Xiuying, the beloved consort of Emperor Chongzhen at that time, who was born in an alley on Dongguan Street in Yangzhou City. In order to commemorate this talented woman, Yangzhou folk named the alley where she was born ‘Tianjia Alley’. It is said that Tian Xiuying was multi-talented since her childhood, and was good at both literature and martial arts. She was excellent in playing music, chess, painting and calligraphy, and was omnipowerful in Cuju riding and shooting. Particularly noteworthy is her natural beauty and exotic fragrance, also known as ‘Fragrant Princess’. It was all thanks to Dai Chunlin. Tian Xiuying's mother Tian Xin has always loved using Dai Chun Lin from her mother's family. After becoming a concubine, Dai Chunlin made a special fragrant powder for her, which was shaped like a duck egg so that it could be carried easily. Thus, there was 'World's First Royal Fragrant Pearl Face Powder' (why it was called a duck egg? Because at that time, women's faces were considered beautiful if they were oval). The description of Tian Xiuying in historical materials records: "Her clothes, makeup, and hair accessories were all popular at first, imitated in the palace, and then spread to the market." Dai Chun Lin's fragrant powder from her hometown was summoned to the palace and became "tribute powder." Tian Xiuying used Dai Chun Lin's fragrant powder to fumigate her body, which gave her a natural fragrance. The powder was applied evenly and naturally, and she looked like she was not wearing any makeup.

Since then, Dai Chun Lin fragrant flakes, fragrant powder in the Ming and Qing dynasties was identified as the palace tribute, and thus were known as ‘Palace Powder’, ‘Tribute Powder’, ‘Yangzhou Fragrant powder’.They were popular all over the country and even covered the capital. Yangzhou Dai Chun Lin Fragrant Powder Yangzhou Dai Chun Lin Fragrant Vermicelli Shop, along with Suzhou Sun Chunyang, Jiashan Wu Dingsheng, Beijing Wang Ma Zi, Hangzhou Zhang Xiaoquan, is a nationally renowned shop, and is included in the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In ‘Petal Notes in a Jade-Tiled Retreat’, Sun Zhaoqi of the Qing Dynasty recorded that "Dai Chun Lin Fragrant Powder Shop is said to have been established during the previous Ming Dynasty, with a long history, and its products are of high quality." Dai Chun Lin's fragrant powder shop originated in the Ming Dynasty. After so much time, its products are still very good. When he wrote this sentence, Dai Chun Lin had already become a century-old shop.

History: During the six southern tours of Emperor Kangxi (1684-1707) and Emperor Qianlong (1751-1784), local officials in Yangzhou often used Dai Chun Lin incense powder and incense slices as tribute. After the servants brought Dai Chun Lin fragrant products into the palace, they were deeply loved by the concubines in the palace.

Many classical novels in the Qing Dynasty have described and recorded Dai Chunlin fragrant goods. In ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, which was completed in 1784, Cao Xueqin vividly described Dai Chun Lin's perfumes many times: "It's a fragrance from the purple jasmine.", and to use Ping'er's words as a pretext to praise Dai Chun Lin's powder: "Ping'er put it in her palm, it was light pink, white, red and fragrant. It spreads evenly and moisturizes the face easily, unlike other powdery and dull products." "The eighteen Ruyi lotus fragrance beads on the wrist of Prince Beijing", "Baochai's jade shirt fragrance string", "the two plum blossom cakes in Xiren's purse", and even the goose egg powder secret made by Dai Chunlin were used for hairpins... In the chapter title of the book ‘Supplement to the Dream of the Red Chamber’ in the 22nd year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, it is clearly written: "At this time, Yangzhou's playboy Xue Xiaodao went to Wangyou Street to buy many sweets from Dai Chunlin and brought them back to exchange..."

When 'Dream of the Red Chamber' was written, Dai Chunlin was already a century-old shop. It was the leader in the beauty industry at that time, and no other brand in the same industry could compare with it before and after a hundred years.

3. The decline of the Republic of China

Dai Chun Lin started from a small shop in Yangzhou city and became a tribute to the imperial palace. Then, his disciples began to open Dai Chun Lin fragrance shops in other cities across the country (mainly Beijing and Shanghai), making it the first cosmetics brand in China to have a chain industry.

In the third year of Guangxu (1877 AD), ‘Whispers of Spring by Water Window' written by Ouyang Zhaoxiong and Jin Angling in the Qing Dynasty recorded, “The famous large stores throughout the country, such as Dai Chun Lin from Yangzhou, Sun Chunyang from Suzhou, ……are all well-known in the world, offering genuine goods at fair prices without cheating - even young or old. Excellent product quality, good corporate culture, and orderly management system have supported the Dai Chun Lin brand for more than 200 years. This is also the reason why Dai Chun Lin products became popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties and became veritable luxury goods. The mainstream consumer groups are imperial concubines, dignitaries, wealthy families, and folk singers. There is even a saying that ‘actors are unwilling to go on stage without Dai Chun Lin‘.

‘Beijing Chronicles’ recorded: ‘The famous big shops in the country, such as the Dai Chun Lin Fragrant Powder Shop in Yangzhou …’ The prosperity of the street was marked by whether Dai Chunlin was stationed there. According to ‘Shanghai Chronicles’, At its peak, Dai Chun Lin had 30 - 40 branches on Zhujinli, Shanghai. (now known as Shanxi Middle Road) Such as: Shanghai's Old Dai Chun Lin Vermicelli Bureau, Huaji Dai Chun Lin, Shen's Old Dai Chun Lin, ‘Jiu Ji’, ‘Yao Ji’, ‘Jin Grade’, ‘Listening to the record’, ‘Woji’, ‘Zhengji’, ‘Pingji’, ‘Xinji’, ‘Zhongji’, ‘Jiangji’, and ‘Gongji’… At this time, Dai Chunlin had reached the peak of its development.

In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, with the decline and withdrawal of the imperial palace, the market dominated by Dai Chun Lin products collapsed, and counterfeit and shoddy products followed. In 1936, the New Jiangsu Daily Supplement used the author's Yangzhou Bamboo Twigs Ballad as basic information to give a straightforward revelation of the counterfeiting phenomenon of Dai Chun Lin in Wang Youqing's writing: "The strong fragrance blows on the face and clothes, the ice musk and ambergris intoxicate the hearts of the guests, the real and fake dishes are difficult to distinguish, and countless Dai Chun Lins are in circulation." "The strong fragrance blows on the face and clothes, the ice musk and ambergris intoxicate the hearts of the guests, the real and fake dishes are difficult to distinguish, and countless Dai Chunlins are in circulation." It means that the strong fragrance permeates the whole street, and countless Dai Chunlin stores are difficult to distinguish between the real and fake.

We don't have the exact date of Dai Chunlin's withdrawal from the market, and the most recent record we have of Dai Chun Lin is a photograph taken in 1949 by American photographer Jack Birns, titled ‘The Last Glimpse of the Republic of China’. In the photograph, Dai Chun Lin's old shop was located at No. 245 at the junction of Fang Bing Middle Road and Cheng Huang Miao in old Shanghai, adjacent to Yisheng Tang. This proves that it was still a famous and long-established shop in the incense and powder industry in old Shanghai at that time.

4. A hundred years of inheritance of Chinese crafts

Dai Chun Lin has pioneered the manufacturing of historic fragrant face powder by refining ancestral craftsmanship and with the best herbal ingredients. The brand soon gained the admiration of “Five Fragrances Worth Thousands of Taels of Gold : Beautifying the World” means Dai Chun Lin’s 5 fragrant products are as precious and luxury as thousands taels of gold and beautify all noble ladies under Heaven.

The five fragrances refer to ‘Fragrant Powder, Fragrant Makeup Cream, Fragrant Oils (for hair and body), Fragrant Cream, Fragrant Accessories. Whereas, “Five Fragrances Worth Thousands of Taels of Gold” means artisans spare no expense, using the most precious materials and the finest craftsmanship to create the best products. ‘Thousands of Taels of Gold’ pronounced in Chinese as “Qiangjin” carries two meanings: “noble ladies” and “precious” at the same time. Hence, there is an idiom saying that “The beauty’s scent envelopes her all over, costing a poor man’s half a month’s wage.”

5. Modern technology and development

Yangzhou Daichunlin Cosmetics Co., Ltd. was established in 2009, more than 10 years.

(For the customer, do you still use the ancient recipe for production?) Under the management of modern laws and regulations, sanitary conditions are 100 times more demanding than in ancient times. Whether in the product composition or production process to take the ancient heritage of the essence, to the ancient backward dross. Take two examples: the spices of ancient Dai Chunlin were picked and extracted according to the local flowers in season, which had a very large time limit. In modern times, flower essential oils of four seasons can be bought anytime and anywhere. Of course, the price difference between synthetic essence and natural essential oil is more than ten times, so we must choose natural flower essential oils that have been strictly screened by us. Our partner has 100 mu of flower fields.

Second example of preservatives, no preservative products in the extensive s may not be able to survive, but we can ensure that we use natural preservatives must be in the range of allowable national legal minimum usage, even we sold in some products such as (ruby cream, roasted snow) must be refrigerated during summer heat preservation, Otherwise, the instability of the product will bring some trouble to our sales market.

The company is the development of the business, March 15, 2012 we in Yangzhou Dongguan Street after the first entity store opened, by the parties to the government, the media, cultural and historical experts attention, Yangzhou famous history experts, Yangzhou history and culture Research Institute director Wei Minghua praised: "Yangzhou old famous makeup, dumping beauty to Shanghai. Only to see Dai Chunlin again after a hundred years of incense."

At the same time, we keep improving the product quality together with classical packaging design, quickly by the market recognition, visitors from all over the world at packaging to buy back is only for entertainment, but person after the trial have been acclaimed "quality really didn't lose international brands", including CongShangZhe, have pure hobby repeat customers have confidence in our brand said, And taking our branded stores all over the country.

So far, Yangzhou Daichunlin Cosmetics Co., Ltd. has opened a total of more than 50 stores in the mainland, Hong Kong and other tourist attractions. Our pace is very stable, delight in the start stage, we don't have a sales force a lot of classical culture lovers, the Chinese suitors for our love and support, comfort is imported brand monopoly in the international beauty makeup market today, we chun-lin dai in opening a Chinese Renaissance difficult road still get the recognition of domestic and foreign markets.

In the spring of 2016, when a European tourist was traveling in Nanluoguxiang, Beijing, he accidentally saw the antique Dai Chunlin. Out of interest, he bought some samples and took them home. After trying them out, she was surprised that the cosmetics made in China were of such good quality that they were no better than the international brands she used everyday. She sent her products to local professional institutions for testing, and obtained the EU certified SGS test report, which shows the excellent quality of our products. A chance encounter prompted the European tourist to decide to open up the European market for us, which is currently in the further stage of consultation.

6. Corporate culture

We are small, but over the past few years, chun-lin dai in the industry but it may be said to be reckoned with, the influence of huzhou city in zhejiang province in 2015 the government building of "beauty makeup town" with Chinese characteristics at the same time invited chun-lin dai relocation huzhou, give us the most generous policy, the most powerful support, the most advantage of location, MuHongJun or declined after think twice, "Dai Chunlin is a Yangzhou brand," he said. "It was born in Yangzhou and grew up in Yangzhou. Without Yangzhou, it lost a lot of historical significance."
In recent years, venture capital firms and industry giants that have been seeking our cooperation have all been rejected, Mu said: "Chun-lin dai is a classic handed down from ancient times, we do not not strong, too, we should learn from European classical watch shop, learn from Japan the craftsmen of the best, find their own position, don't go rushing around capital markets work route, big big v I don't want to chun-lin dai to suffer the fate of the second, our goal is to be after many years, When people mention Dai Chunlin, they know that it exists in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. It is not big, but it is unique. Just like our ancestors, we will protect this inherited culture with generations of life and permanently stand the essence of Chinese beauty makeup in the world."