Enticing, eye catching, and artistic, the graphic art of product labels from years past also offers clues to understanding the contemporary culture and ways of life of everyday consumers. Here is a showcase of remarkable packaging and advertising art created from 1890 through 1976, primarily in Canton, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, and other cities of large Chinese populations. Included are more than 400 different labels for products as diverse as tea, medicines, foods, cosmetics, cigarettes, harmonicas, fabrics, matches, phonograph records, firecrackers, and incense. Designers and historians alike will appreciate how these labels employed a fascinating mixture of traditional Chinese imagery and ornamentation blended with modern Western graphic influences and later the ideology of the People's Republic of China.

Combining wonderful graphics with fascinating history, this book is a showcase of outstanding Chinese label, packaging, and advertising art created between 1900 and 1976. These stunning images came from cities in China such as Canton and Shanghai, as well as places beyond the border such as Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, where large Chinese populations thrived and commercial ties to the West were strong. Export and domestic products include tea, medicine, food, cosmetics, cigarettes, dyes, matches, phonograph records, firecrackers, religious items, and more. Their labeling presents a mixture of traditional imagery and ornamentation blended with Western culture and merchandising. Over 400 visually captivating images make this an important resource for artists, designers, historians, and merchants alike.