Archive: White Rabbit

When talking about the current culture of China and everyday life object which divine this, to me this example is one of the first things that comes to mind. 

Founded by ABC Factory in Shanghai in 1943, the candy first had a Micky Mouse figure on its packaging and was called ABC Micky Mouse Sweets. But becoming state owned in the revolution by the 1950′s, its name and packaging needed a make over since the original mouse was seen as a symbol worshiping the West. Although having had some minor changes in standing position, the rabbit and accompanying color palette in a three colours has been kept in its art-deco style ever since. The candies were given as gifts for the tenth National Day of the People’s Republic of China in 1959. After the revolution it has been growing in popularity. Former Premier Zhou Enlai gave White Rabbit candies as a gift to American president Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972. Its enormous sales figure of 600 million yuan in 2004 and its world wide export to over 40 countries shows that the candies are China’s top brand of sweets.

In 2008 the candy was listed among many other milk-based food products in China being contaminated with melamine and it was removed from stores. Much wider known is the previous use of melamine in infant milk-powder, with over 52,000 reported cases of children made sick. However the response (also to the finding of melamine in White Rabbit candy) was quiet strong, the amount found in the White Rabbit candies did not seem to be substantial enough to be considered dangerous, “a 60kg adult […] would have to eat more than 47 White Rabbit sweets […] every day over a lifetime to exceed the tolerable threshold.”

History interestingly and surprisingly shows how even a small candy can be changed and influenced by Chinese culture and be influential within it. In that way this is the perfect example of looking at Chinese culture by looking at objects of daily use.