The record-union., 1898-02-16
TRADEMARKS FOR THE ORIENT
Merchants Should Study Chinese
Superstitious.

United States ConSul-General GraceE !,
at Foo-Chow,. China, has made a report
to the State Department upon labels
and trademarks in that country, with
the purpose of showing American mer-
chants how important are such matters
in their trade with China He says
that the sale of American or foreign
goods in China is often crippled by hav-
ing some label or trademark which is
offensive to the Chinese Many colors
have peculiar recognition by the people;
some offend their tastes and others
on some kinds of goods, and all wrong
on others. The Chinese will often buy
biscuits, needles, thread, matches. soap.
medicine, scents, sweets. etc, for the
sake of getting a lucky label. Some
colors and combinations of colors are
to the Chinese unlucky.
From my observation of what is dis
played in shops says Consul Gracey,
"and what is manifestly pleasing to the
people, l give herewith few specimens
of things most frequently seen, AID
which 1 therefore think must be pop
ular.
Simply naming these things will not
supply sufficient data from which to
prepare them 1t must be remembe
that Chinese art is very peculiar. and a
tiger as ordinarily represented by for
eign artists would not meet with favor
with these people 1t must be a tiger
according to Chinese imagination and
art, of unreasonable length of body, or
bigness of head. or curve of tail, and
impossible attitudes. On a popular
japanese matchbox is displayed g
monkey, standing on its front feet,
head nearly touching the ground, with
hind feet up in the air, and tail whip
ping the skies. The grotesque and even
hideous to the American mind tckles
the fancy of the jewellers in far Cathay
No description can supply adequate in
formation to an engraver or colofer
by which he could produce the real
thing. and any departure from the
Chinese fancy in such things would
brand the goods at once as the product
of a foreign devil and doom it to de-
feat
Consul Gracey gives the following as
some of the labels or trademarks which
would be useful in the trade with the
far East:
Lion, tiger. deer, fawn leopard, ape,
elephant. camel. dragon, buffalo, man
blowing with buffalo, boy riding water
buffalo, woman in bright robes hold
ing long-necked vase on her shoulder.
while on one side of her is monkey
holding a chysanthemum in its mouth
Many of these animals are represented
in various misunderstanding, running,
standing on hind iegs-some with
enormous heads out of all proportion
to the body, while some have a long
body out of all proportion to the other
parts.
Women. archer trident, spear. UNI
brella, fans (open and Shut open fan
with quotations from the classics writ
ten on them. long fans (oblong, square
and round, all having figures of flowers.
animals, birds or butterflies painted
on them), houses, temples. books.
arches. coolies carrying chests of tea
or other articles suspended from ends
of bamboo, soldier, flags. banner, ships,
junks, sanpans, battle-ship, men fish
ing with cormorants. tobacco pipe, OPT
UNI pipe. abacus or Chinese calculating
machine, dragons, a long dragon lantern
borne aloft on poles by eight or ten
men. kites of many shapes, men flying
kites, men playing with shuttlecock
with feet, wedding chair, wedding pro-
cession, lanterns in scores of different
shapes, Chinese hats with different
colored buttons mountains, rivers.
bridge of granite slabs with high, sharp
arch. and canal boats in canal.
Chinese characters for good luck.
happiness, longevity, health, prosperity,
double happiness; checkered figures,
stripes in bright yellow, green, blue
and red. Chicago InterOcean