“IN THE OLD DAYS, PEOPLE PUT THEIR HEART INTO MAKING A PRODUCT; THEY CARED ABOUT BRAND REPUTATION”
old from Nantong, Jiangsu province, recalls from her trip to the capital four years ago.
She tells TWOC she trusts laozihao because their reputations have stood the test of time. “In the old days, people really put their heart into making a product; they cared about brand reputation,” she argues.
Yang Yueming, professor at the Beijing Institute of Culture Innovation and Communication, agrees. Laozihao have “high added emotional value as collective memory and even a symbol of the place of their origin,” she tells TWOC. Quanjude’s hangthe roasting technique was allegedly adapted from imperial kitchens, and its original mottos called for using plump and tender duck meat and thoughtful service. Likewise, Goubuli’s buns were said to be praised by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and their modern fame surged in 2000 when a “crosstalk” comedy skit described them as “Thin wrappers with 18 folds and rich filling, like a flower.”
In Quanjude’s heyday around the turn of the century, “the Qianmen store alone had an annual turnover of over 100 million RMB. During National Day holiday in October, customers queued at the door from 10 in the morning to 11 in the evening,” Zhou Yanlong, the company’s general manager, told Outlook Weekly magazine this July. Some diners and tourists would also buy pre-packaged duck at Quanjude’s stores to bring back to family and friends.
Yet no brand can survive on nostalgia alone. Over the last three years, the number of Quanjude’s customers fell from 8 million to
6.6 million. In the last decade, Goubuli has closed a dozen hotels and restaurants in Beijing, leaving only one restaurant in the capital, which is now struggling under the Covid-19 pandemic. Researcher Ju Jinwen estimated to the 21st Century Business Herald that only 10 percent of registered laozihao time-honored brands have seen robust growth, while 50 percent are struggling or running up debts, and the rest just barely break even.
As consumers’ dining and shopping option expand, laozihao are no longer the arbiter of quality and class. Instead, many are stereotyped as being outdated and tacky. On the question-and-answer platform Zhihu, a user posted a long list of “famous” restaurants and tourist sites that locals never visit, including Quanjude, Goubuli, and Changsha’s centuriesold Huogongdian (“Fire Palace”) snacks shops. Zhang Yinghan, a college sophomore who grew up in Beijing, tells TWOC that her family would consider going to Quanjude only when out-of-town relatives or friends insist. It’s estimated that there were 120,000 roast duck restaurants in China as of last year.
“The declining laozihao have commonly coasted on their past glories without updating their products and services, especially the state-owned enterprises, and failed to adapt to new marketing modes