Kong Feng Chun 孔凤春
Kong Feng Chun is a Chinese cosmetics house founded in 1862 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. It makes goose-egg powder (edan fen), hair oil, cold cream, and some ten other cosmetics; the powder, pressed in a mould, dried in the sun, and shaped by hand into an egg form, is the product the house is known for. It holds Zhejiang Time-honored Brand status.
Archive record
China Time-honored Brand Digital Museum, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)
- Founded
- 1862
- Origin
- Hangzhou Zhejiang, China
- Category
- 美妆日化
- Status
- Zhejiang Time-honored Brand
- Designated
- 2015-05-28 Ministry of Commerce
The Archive
The House
The house began with Kong Chuanhong, a native of Xiaoshan who first sold shavings from door to door — thin slices planed from elm wood, steeped in water to make a dressing women used to set their hair. He later kept a stall in Hangzhou selling shavings, face powder, and coloured thread, and in 1862 took a room on the north-west corner of the Siguai jiao junction in Qinghefang and opened a powder shop. The archive records that the founder, finding his first name for it plain, dreamed that peacocks and phoenixes flew in to congratulate him; he had a new signboard written, and the character chun, "spring," was chosen for its echo of chun xiang, spring fragrance. A local verse of the period placed the house first among the five Hangzhou specialities — powder, scissors, fans, tobacco, and thread — with the line "for palace powder, Kong Feng Chun leads."
Its goose-egg powder was carried north by candidates and officials returning from the provincial examinations and passed into the households of court officials. The archive records that the powder was taken up by Empress Dowager Cixi and entered the list of tribute items presented to the Qing court. In December 1907 the shop won what the archive records as China's first trademark infringement case, brought against traders using similar-sounding names.
In 1929 eight products, among them lotus cream and jade-hall face powder, won eight awards at the first West Lake Exposition. Through the 1920s and 1930s the house reached its height; the archive records a share of the cosmetics market above 50 per cent at its peak. After joint public-private operation in 1956 it became the Hangzhou Kong Feng Chun Cosmetics Factory, and in 2004 it was renamed Hangzhou Kong Feng Chun Cosmetics Co., Ltd. A museum of Chinese cosmetics opened in 2010, and in 2017 the company listed on the New Third Board.
What They Make
Goose-egg powder (edan fen) — named for its shape. Stone from Wuxing, by Lake Tai, is ground, mixed with titanium white and water, then washed, settled, and filtered repeatedly to remove impurities. Egg white is added to the purified powder, and an infusion of fresh blossoms, boiled down and matched to the intended scent, is blended in. The paste is stamped oval in a wooden mould, dried in sunlight, and finished by hand into an egg form. The archive sets out fifteen stages for the traditional process, from selecting and crushing the stone through milling, refining, settling, and filtering, to forming, drying, paring, and scenting.
Hair oil and cold cream are among the other lines the archive records, in a range of about ten cosmetics.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1862 | Kong Chuanhong opens a powder shop at the Siguai jiao junction in Qinghefang, Hangzhou; the name Kong Feng Chun is adopted |
| 1907 | The shop wins what the archive records as China's first trademark infringement case |
| 1929 | Eight products win eight awards at the first West Lake Exposition |
| 1956 | Renamed the Hangzhou Kong Feng Chun Cosmetics Factory under joint public-private operation |
| 2015 | Designated a Zhejiang Time-honored Brand |
| 2017 | Listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (New Third Board) |
Passing It On
The archive does not give a generational line of makers. It records that the house's powder-making technique was recognised as intangible cultural heritage by the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone in 2015.
Source: China Time-honored Brand Digital Museum, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Original record: lzhbwg.mofcom.gov.cn. Translated and condensed from the official Chinese archive; no information has been added. Statements of standing are reproduced as recorded by the source.
Sources
Historical facts on this page are compiled from China Time-honored Brand Digital Museum, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Designation recorded 2015-05-28. This page is editorial content; it is not a product listing and nothing here is an offer for sale.
Independence. Time-Honored Goods is an independent multi-brand store. We are not the official site of Kong Feng Chun, and we do not speak for the house. See Independence & Sourcing.