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July 5, 2025

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The time-honored brands of Shanghai

Source: Shanghai Daily | 00:01 UTC+8 July 5, 2025 | Print Edition

SHANGHAI is the economic center of China. It is the cradle of national entrepreneurs who created numerous well-known brands in the past century. These brands have become an important part of Shanghai’s culture today. People call them time-honored brands (laozihao).

In this warm and beautiful season, I, mom, grandmother and grandfather went to the Shanghai Time-Honored Brands Museum on Huashan Road. I was very excited to find that each brand exhibited inside had an amazing story.

Do you know what is “three wheels and one speaker (三转一响)?” “Three wheels” refer to “watch, bicycle and sewing machine,” and “one speaker” refers to “radio machine.”

When we were visiting the museum, my grandma was thrilled about the Butterfly sewing Machine. She told me that she once used the machine to make clothes for her family.

My grandpa was so ecstatic when he saw the Seagull camera. He still stores exactly a same one at home.

My mom told me that when she smelled the flavor of Liushen insect repellent lotion (六神花露水) and saw the Zheng Guang He lemon juice (正广和汽水), she immediately recalled the summer vacation at her childhood time.

These time-honored brands connect the generations. They let me travel through time and meet great ancestors. They have become “living dictionaries” and “living specimens” of Shanghai commercial history and will flow in the blood of people living here generation after generation.

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