What was the First Chinese product in world expo?
The hero of the story is Xu Rongcun and his silk named “Yung Kee Huzhou Silk”.
Xu Ruiyan, also known as Deqiong, or Rongcun, was born in Xiangshan in Guangdong province. He was one of the first merchants who came to Shanghai to do business after Shanghai opened its ports. There he acted as a comprador in the Dent Company established by businessmen from England. He carried on silk and tea trade in light of the business motto of “best goods, highest price”, and built his own reputation in the commercial world.
In 1851, Britain announced the holding of the World Expo. This message crossed the broad ocean and reached China on the other side of the world.
Due to his acute commercial awareness, Xu Rongcun immediately realized the great potential opportunity arising from the event. So he loaded 12 bundles of what he called the “Yung Kee Huzhou Silk” and consigned them to Britain by express.
At the beginning, the silk didn’t caused many attention because of it’s shabby package, but it survived the test of time and in the end won the golden and silver prizes because of its high quality.
So, the Xu family created their legend in the business world by the excellent performance the World Expo.