The official Pechoin website identifies the company as a long-established Chinese skincare brand founded in 1931, emphasizing its synthesis of botanical traditions and contemporary technology.3

The Chinese name 百雀羚 incorporates imagery associated with birds:

• 百 — hundred
• 雀 — sparrow/bird
• 羚 — antelope

According to the brand’s historical accounts, the earlier trademark “Peh Chao” / “百雀” was inspired by the concept of “a hundred birds gathering around and celebrating the phoenix.” This naming convention was intended to convey auspiciousness, happiness, and an approachable character.4

This avian imagery remains a central component of Pechoin’s visual identity and its connection to traditional Chinese aesthetics.

Pechoin traces its origins to 1931, when Gu Zhimin established the Fubeikang Cosmetics Company (富贝康化妆品有限公司) in Shanghai. The original factory was situated on what is now Changle Road, initially utilizing the “Peh Chao” / “百雀” trademark for cosmetics such as face powder.5

By 1936, operations had relocated to Peifuli on Chongde Road, and the product range expanded to include creams and powders. In that same year, the trademarks “Peh Chao” and “Peh Chao Cream” were formally registered.6 Unlike many modern Chinese beauty companies that emerged during the 2000s or 2010s, Pechoin has roots in the pre-war Shanghai cosmetics industry.

A pivotal moment in the brand’s early history occurred in 1939. According to official company history, Gu Zhimin received a cold-cream formula from a friend and conducted extensive experimentation, eventually developing Pechoin Cold Cream. The company describes this as China’s first domestically produced cold cream.7

The product achieved significant commercial success due to several factors:

• Relatively affordable pricing
• Moisturizing and skin-protective properties
• Distinctive packaging
• A growing reputation among Shanghai consumers

The brand states that its cold cream became competitive with international products such as Nivea, establishing Pechoin as a leading Chinese cold-cream brand.8 The round blue-and-yellow metal container associated with the product became an enduring symbol of the brand’s visual heritage.

The early development of Pechoin was intrinsically linked to the cosmopolitan culture of Republican-era Shanghai. The brand gained popularity among fashionable consumers, and Chinese actress Chen Yunshang (陈云裳) promoted Pechoin in newspaper advertisements.9

In 1946, Pechoin participated in the Miss Shanghai event. The company sponsored the pageant, while several contestants actively promoted its products.10 By the late 1940s, the company reportedly employed several dozen people, predominantly women, who became informally known as the “Peh Chao Ladies.” This era established a key aspect of the brand’s later identity: Shanghai glamour combined with mass-market accessibility.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Pechoin began entering international markets. The brand participated in the Leipzig Fair in Germany in the late 1950s and subsequently exported products to East Germany.

In 1960, the brand was registered in Hong Kong for a range of consumer goods, including cosmetics, toothpaste, soap, cleaning products, and other personal-care items. Pechoin also expanded toward markets including Malaysia and Indonesia.11 This international activity is notable as it predates the modern global expansion of Chinese beauty brands by several decades.

Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Pechoin’s corporate structure underwent substantial changes. Its original business eventually became part of China’s state-owned/state-private industrial system. In 1962, the company became associated with Shanghai Daily Chemical Factory No. 2 (上海日用化学二厂).

Despite the shifting economic and political environment influencing China’s cosmetics industry over subsequent decades, Pechoin continued product development. During the 1980s and 1990s, it expanded beyond basic skin protection toward concepts such as skin care, nourishment, and conditioning.12

A notable product from this era was Phoenix Pearl Cream (凤凰珍珠霜), which the company describes as an important Chinese high-end daily-chemical skincare product of its time.13

The 1990s presented significant challenges for Pechoin. As China’s economy opened further, major international cosmetic companies entered the market, providing consumers with access to a wider array of imported beauty products.

Pechoin struggled against these international competitors, and its original business underwent restructuring. Secondary historical accounts describe the brand as having experienced a major decline before being revived as a private enterprise around the turn of the millennium.14 Consequently, Pechoin’s later success represents a substantial brand revival rather than a continuation of uninterrupted dominance.

Around 2000, Pechoin entered a new stage of development as a private company. The revitalized brand sought to transform from an old-fashioned household skincare name into a modern Chinese beauty brand.

Rather than abandoning its historical identity, Pechoin increasingly centered its marketing on Chinese culture and traditional botanical ingredients. The company’s own history describes the 2000s as a period when its classic products returned to Chinese households and its herbal skincare lines gained prominence.15 This strategy eventually became one of Pechoin’s defining characteristics.

A major component of Pechoin’s modern positioning is herbal or botanical skincare. This concept combines traditional Chinese botanical knowledge with contemporary cosmetic formulation and research.

Rather than presenting itself purely as a traditional medicine-inspired company, Pechoin frames its products as modern cosmetics informed by Chinese botanical traditions. Its current official positioning explicitly emphasizes “东方草本智慧” (Oriental botanical wisdom) combined with modern technology.16 This positioning helped differentiate Pechoin from multinational brands whose marketing historically focused more heavily on European or Western cosmetic heritage.

Pechoin is particularly recognizable for its utilization of Chinese visual culture. Common elements of its branding include:

• Birds
• Flowers
• Blue-and-white porcelain
• Traditional Chinese decorative motifs
• Jade
• Classical Chinese colors
• Shanghai heritage
• Retro packaging

This strategy is often associated with the broader Chinese “guochao” (国潮) movement, in which contemporary brands reinterpret traditional Chinese culture for modern consumers. Pechoin’s current collections explicitly incorporate blue-and-white porcelain and jade as cultural symbols. For example, its Heritage Blue & White Porcelain collection uses porcelain-inspired packaging alongside traditional floral and bird imagery.17

While historically broader, Pechoin is primarily a skincare company. Its contemporary website lists categories including:

• Cleansers
• Serums
• Creams
• Eye & lip care
• Sun protection
• Gift sets and heritage collections18

Across its wider brand portfolio, Pechoin operates multiple sub-lines and product families, including:

• Pechoin Herbs / 百雀羚草本
• Sansen / 三生花
• Flavor / 气韵
• Bluemyth / 海之秘
• Lucky Charm / 小雀幸
• Pechoin Men / 百雀羚男士
• Beili / 蓓丽

The brand therefore operates more like a multi-line beauty group than a single-product skincare label.

Pechoin’s current philosophy can be summarized in three layers:

Chinese botanical heritage

The brand draws on traditional Chinese approaches to botanical ingredients and herbal beauty.

Modern cosmetic science

Pechoin increasingly emphasizes formulation technology, ingredient research, and laboratory development rather than relying solely on traditional imagery. For example, its current New Classics line discusses technologies such as a “5D glycerin hydration matrix” and combinations of modern skincare ingredients.19

Chinese cultural aesthetics

The product experience is designed to communicate Chinese cultural identity through packaging, colors, imagery, and storytelling.

This combination constitutes the modern Pechoin proposition: heritage, botanicals, science, and Chinese aesthetics.

Historically, Pechoin was strongly associated with ordinary Chinese households and mature generations of consumers. Its modern strategy is broader, attempting to appeal to:

• Traditional Pechoin customers
• Younger Chinese consumers
• Consumers interested in C-beauty
• Consumers attracted to Chinese cultural aesthetics
• Skincare consumers interested in botanical formulations
• International consumers looking for Chinese beauty products

This creates a dual identity wherein Pechoin functions simultaneously as a heritage brand and a contemporary C-beauty brand.

C-beauty generally refers to China’s modern cosmetics and beauty industry. Pechoin occupies a distinct position within this sector because it predates the contemporary movement by many decades. While many well-known Chinese beauty companies emerged in the internet era, Pechoin traces its origins to 1931.

Consequently, the brand possesses nearly a century of accumulated brand heritage, an advantage many newer C-beauty companies lack. Its ongoing challenge involves making that heritage relevant to younger consumers rather than appearing merely old-fashioned.

Pechoin’s revival involved changing not only its products but also its marketing language. Instead of relying exclusively on nostalgia, the company increasingly combines historical references with:

• Contemporary packaging
• Digital marketing
• Scientific claims
• Influencer marketing
• Younger product lines
• Premium gift collections
• International-facing websites

Its current English-language website, for example, presents Pechoin as a global heritage skincare brand rather than merely a domestic Chinese household product.20

Pechoin’s international significance stems partly from its historical exports and partly from the more recent globalization of Chinese beauty. The company maintains English-language and other international-facing web properties, with product presentation designed for consumers beyond mainland China.21

International retailers also carry Pechoin products, particularly its creams, serums, masks, cleansers, and botanical skincare items.22 Its international appeal is closely tied to increasing global interest in C-beauty and Chinese cultural aesthetics.

The company behind the brand is Shanghai Pechoin Daily Chemical Co., Ltd. (上海百雀羚日用化学有限公司). Pechoin’s current official site lists its corporate address in Huangpu District, Shanghai, and identifies the company as the operator of the Pechoin brand.

It is useful to distinguish between Pechoin / 百雀羚 as the consumer-facing brand and Shanghai Pechoin Daily Chemical Co., Ltd. as the corporate entity operating it.

Pechoin has received substantial recognition in China’s cosmetics industry. Secondary sources report that the brand received recognition as a China Well-known Trademark during the late 2000s.

The company has also invested in scientific research, with researchers recognized by the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSCC), including awards for work involving skincare innovation and skin science. These developments reflect Pechoin’s broader attempt to transition from being perceived as a traditional Chinese cream brand toward a research-oriented modern cosmetics company.

Perhaps the most recognizable Pechoin product image is the round blue jar or tin. It represents several elements simultaneously:

1. Historical continuity: Connecting modern products to the company’s earlier decades.
2. Chinese household memory: Recognizable packaging for older Chinese consumers.
3. Retro aesthetics: A design that has become part of Pechoin’s heritage image.
4. Brand recognition: The blue container functions almost like a visual logo.
5. Modern reinterpretation: Newer collections update the classic design using premium materials and Chinese artistic motifs.

The company continues to reference its iconic blue jar in contemporary heritage collections.

Pechoin is significant for several reasons:

One of China’s oldest beauty brands

Its 1931 founding date gives it a history stretching across Republican-era Shanghai, the founding of the People’s Republic, the planned-economy period, Reform and Opening, and China’s contemporary consumer economy.23

A survivor of industry transformation

The company survived enormous changes in the Chinese cosmetics market, including the arrival of multinational brands in the 1990s.

A major example of Chinese brand rejuvenation

Its modern revival demonstrates how an old domestic brand can use heritage as a competitive asset rather than treating its history as obsolete.

An early example of C-beauty globalization

Pechoin’s international ambitions predate the current wave of Chinese cosmetics brands entering global markets.

Pechoin is a Shanghai-born Chinese heritage skincare brand founded in 1931 that combines traditional Chinese botanical aesthetics and cultural heritage with modern cosmetic science. This encapsulates the core of the brand’s current identity.24

Pechoin is more than simply a Chinese skincare brand; its importance derives from the unusual continuity of its story. It began in 1931 Shanghai, became a famous cosmetics name during the Republican era, survived China’s mid-century economic transformation, entered international markets, struggled against foreign competition during China’s market-opening period, and then successfully reinvented itself as a modern C-beauty and Chinese heritage brand.

Its strongest brand assets today include nearly 100 years of history, a strong Shanghai identity, recognizable blue-jar heritage, Chinese botanical positioning, modern skincare technology, distinctive Chinese visual culture, and broad consumer recognition in China.

The central tension for Pechoin lies in preserving the emotional value of an old Chinese household brand while remaining technologically credible and attractive to younger consumers. This dynamic defines Pechoin as both a business and a cultural brand, extending beyond its role as a mere cosmetics manufacturer.

1. 品牌历史 – Pechoin 百雀羚
2. Pechoin 百雀羚 – 始于1931 · 科技草本美学 · 东方礼献
3. Pechoin 百雀羚 – 始于1931 · 科技草本美学 · 东方礼献
4. Heritage – Pechoin 百雀羚
5. Pechoin
6. 新经典 – Pechoin 百雀羚
7. New Classics – Pechoin 百雀羚
8. PECHOIN | YesStyle
9. Policy – Pechoin 百雀羚
10. 百雀羚 – 石头百科-维基百科
11. Héritage – Pechoin 百雀羚
12. Real Multi-functional – Pechoin 百雀羚
13. Youth Revitalizing Rejuvenating – Pechoin 百雀羚
14. 品牌科技 – Pechoin 百雀羚
15. 新版首页
16. Pechoin 百雀羚 – 第 2 页 – 始于1931 · 科技草本美学 · 东方礼献
17. 品牌-三生花洗护-品牌故事
18. Pechoin 百雀羚 – 始于1931 · 科技草本美学 · 东方礼献
19. 品牌-三生花护肤-品牌故事
20. Classique Renouvelée – Pechoin 百雀羚
21. Pechoin
22. Pechoin Explained
23. PECHOIN Beauty – Shop Online | Lane Crawford
24. 百雀羚（上海百雀羚日用化学有限公司旗下中国护肤品牌）_百度百科
25. 바이췌링(百雀羚) 광고 사진에 관한 연구 – 여성 이미지에 나타난 광고 전략을 중심으로 –
26. 바이췌링(百雀羚) 광고 사진에 관한 연구 – 여성 이미지에 나타난 광고 전략을 중심으로 –