In Vernacular Industrialism in China, Eugenia Lean examines the entrepreneurial career of Chen Diexian (1879–1940). Scholars of China will most likely be familiar with Chen as a literary figure who penned numerous romance novels during the early twentieth century. As this book shows, Chen was more than just a writer. He was at once a magazine editor, an avid practitioner of science, and eventually a “patriotic captain of industry” (p. 24). Chen, who was of an elite background, lived through the demise of the imperial system and transition to a republic in 1912. The early twentieth century was also a period that marked the beginning of industrialization in China. However, years of imperialism and social unrest had severely weakened the state, leaving it ill equipped to support industrialization. Under these challenging circumstances, several entrepreneurially minded actors turned to light manufacturing to spur nativist production. Chen was one of these entrepreneurs. Past scholarship that has examined this particular period claims that the old educated elite were often apprehensive of the new knowledge that entered China from the West. Through Chen, Lean challenges this assumption and shows how he actively engaged with global circuits of knowledge during the early twentieth century.
As this book demonstrates, Chen enthusiastically engaged with Western science and technology. Despite never having received any formal training in science, Chen leveraged his education to disseminate and legitimize scientific knowledge in new forms of media. He also casually experimented in his makeshift home laboratory, tinkering with gadgets such as chemical-based foam fire extinguishers to find ways to replicate foreign products and adjusting recipes to fit local reality. Chen also became a full-fledged entrepreneur when in 1918 he founded the Association of Household Industries, which went on to become one of the most successful cosmetics companies during the Republican Era. The author argues that Chen's wide range of activities constitutes a form of “vernacular industrialism,” which Lean defines as industrialism that is “local and ‘homegrown’ (as opposed to foreign), informal and part of China's consumer cultures (rather than state-sponsored or academic-oriented), and artisanal and family-run if eventually located in factories” (p. 7). Entrepreneurs such as Chen turned to vernacular industrial practices because ownership of science and technology was not yet fixed in early twentieth-century China.
Lean conveys the significance of this informal production of culture and knowledge in part 3 of the book, which details the activities of the Association of Household Industries. Chen established the company in response to the flood of Western and Japanese products that inundated Chinese markets during the early twentieth century. Growing economic imperialism prompted Chinese industrialists to join the National Product Movement (NPM), an anti-imperialist campaign that called for an effort to promote homegrown industry. Chen eventually became a leading figure in the NPM and succeeded in championing the cause through his enterprise. What is especially interesting about this part of the book is how Chen defined the boundaries of what constituted a “national product.” Many of the products that the company sold were imitations of foreign brands; for Chen and other industrialists, this meant products made with Chinese materials in Chinese factories. Chen had no qualms about copying and even saw emulation as a necessity to facilitate indigenous innovation. This strategy proved highly effective, and the company's signature product, Butterfly Brand Toothpowder (which also doubled as a face powder), found considerable success throughout China and in Southeast Asia. The company also borrowed marketing techniques from Western firms like Unilever by using movie stars from China's burgeoning film culture. Lean shows that it was precisely this process of borrowing, adapting, and imitating Western science and technology that allowed Chinese products to compete in global capitalism.
The copy culture that emerged during the period ironically resulted in Chen having to face counterfeits of his company's products. Although Chen encouraged copying and emulating, he fought ruthlessly to protect his company. Because trademark laws were nonexistent in China during this period, Lean shows, Chen once again tapped into global practices and used emerging laws to demand the institutionalization of intellectual property rights. Combining his literary skills and business acumen, Chen succeeded in persuading consumers that Butterfly Brand Toothpowder was the sole “genuine” national product on the market.
Lean concludes by linking Chen's approach to imitating and innovating to the counterfeit economy in contemporary China, known as shanzhai. Although fake products exist throughout the world, China currently produces more than 80 percent of the world's counterfeit consumer goods. This “rogue manufacturing” has caused unease in the West as China continues its rise as a global economic powerhouse (p. 273). Chen's vernacular industrial practices provide us with insight into how and why shanzhai is not viewed as unethical but rather is accepted in modern China.
Vernacular Industrialism in China is an unconventional but fascinating account of early entrepreneurism in modern China told through the eyes of an unlikely actor. Lean shows how Chen strategically adapted and reinvented himself in an era of rapid changes in China by reaching into global circuits of knowledge. By focusing on the informal origins of light manufacturing, this book also reveals a different facet in the history of Chinese industrialization. The book primarily speaks to historians of science, but it should also be appealing to scholars interested in the history of entrepreneurship and innovation in China.
