Incense industry thrives in Yongchun county, SE China's Fujian

(People's Daily Online) 09:19, January 16, 2024

While carrying forward the traditional incense-making craft, Yongchun county in Quanzhou city, southeast China's Fujian Province in recent years has enhanced product innovation and formed an incense industry cluster.

A woman arranges incense sticks in Yongchun county, Quanzhou city, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo/Xu Jianfu)

As one of China's major incense production bases, the county is home to more than 300 incense manufacturers, which produce over 1,000 categories of incense products. The current output of the incense industrial chain in Yongchun is worth over 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).

Pu Lianggong, in his 60s, is an inheritor of the provincial-level intangible cultural heritage of the Yongchun incense-making craft, and the 10th-generation inheritor of the craft.

Pu's Arab ancestors had settled in Quanzhou to trade spices during the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Pu family then moved to Hankou village of Dapu township in Yongchun county and created Yongchun incense by integrating Arabic incense-making skills with traditional Chinese incense culture.

Pu learned the ancient craft of making Yongchun incense when he was a child, and has been engaged in the ancient craft to date. The craft consists of more than 10 procedures, including dipping incense sticks in water, flipping and rolling them in incense powder, and drying them.

A woman burns incense to pray for happiness. (Photo/Lin Minghui)

Yongchun has continuously promoted the transformation and upgrading of its incense industry by measures like encouraging incense enterprises to pursue innovation and digital transformation, sending technical experts to them, and rewarding enterprises that purchase new equipment.

A number of incense manufacturers in Yongchun have accelerated their transformation and upgrading by stepping up the research and development of new products, pushing forward the industrialized development of the incense industry.

Yongchun Dapu Binda Incense Factory Co., Ltd. (Binda) is one of the companies that settled in an incense industrial park in the county. At the company's factory, the incense production machines operate efficiently while a few workers occasionally walk through them to inspect their operations.

"Now, some incense products are produced by machines, which only require one or two operators and can replace the manual production work of over 100 workers in the past," said Zeng Jianquan, chairman of the company.

As a leading company in the incense industry of the county, the company boasts of over 30 intermediate and senior technicians. It has also invested millions of yuan and developed a new type of incense in collaboration with Fujian Medical University and Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This incense, with bactericidal and air-purifying properties, is widely applied in automobiles, households and other fields.

Zeng said among 6,086 types of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs recorded in China's pharmacopeias, nearly 500 can be used as raw materials for making incense. Natural herbs need to be mixed according to appropriate proportions to make Yongchun incense.

Relying on sci-tech innovation, Yongchun's incense industry has continued to develop and expand over the past years. Over 40,000 people working in the incense-related industry, and the sector has shown a strong brand effect. The annual output of several major incense companies is each worth over 100 million yuan.

Photo shows the drying of incense sticks in Yongchun county, Quanzhou city, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo/Zhang Wenqing)

"The Yongchun incense industry has become a pillar industry in our county. An incense industrial park covering an area of 1,200 mu (80 hectares) has attracted 15 enterprises to settle in and start production. Four incense companies are currently under construction or preparations," said Hong Bingzao, head of Dapu township.

Against the backdrop of consumption upgrading, many incense companies have promoted the integration of the incense industry with tourism, culture, design and other sectors, injecting new vitality into the incense industry while enhancing its competitiveness.

Zeng said that since 2011, Binda has invested 20 million yuan to build a creative industrial park, bringing the once esoteric incense culture to ordinary families. At the industrial park, one of the first ones open to tourists in Fujian, visitors can experience how to make incense, learn about traditional incense-making skills, and Yongchun's profound incense culture.

"Our industrial park attracts tourists to experience the fun of incense art and techniques every weekend and holiday," Zeng said.

The local government also strives to guide the development of the fragrance industry by exploring business opportunities such as essential oil extraction and aromatherapy.

"We continue to explore the incense materials recorded in ancient books and endeavor to develop more products through modern sci-tech R&D, such as perfumes, essence, spices, and incense products with functions like disinfection, disease prevention, and formaldehyde removal," Zeng said.

The domestic market penetration of Yongchun incense exceeds over 80 percent. In the Southeast Asian region, the market share of Yongchun incense surpasses 33 percent.

An illustration of the steps to make traditional Yongchun incense.

The craft of making Yongchun incense earned a place on the list of provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2017. Four years later, it was also listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Yongchun incense companies have registered eight provincial famous trademarks and 10 municipal famous trademarks, and possess 374 national authorized patents.