French brands enjoy booming business in Shanghai

From food and beauty to biomedicine, French elements abound in China's financial hub Shanghai as an increasing number of brands from the European country make inroads into the world's second largest economy.

Located in central Shanghai, La Cremerie is the only official flagship store in Asia recognized by the French Dairy Board. The store, which only sells French cheese, opened in 2019 and now offers a wide range of cheeses to Chinese customers, from Brie to the famous Comte, and even the ever-pungent Livarot.

According to the store manager, it now takes just a week for cheese to be shipped from French farms to Chinese dining tables, noting that sales at the store jumped by over 18 percent in the first quarter of this year.

In the world of decor, French candle-maker Trudon debuted its new fragrance series titled "Versailles" in late April at Shanghai's iconic commercial landmark Xintiandi, a bustling district for shopping and entertainment.

"It has been sort of a homecoming for Trudon. Trudon used to be the royal wax manufacturer back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and used to supply Versailles," said Julien Pruvost, creative director of Trudon.

With a history of over 380 years, the brand opened its first flagship store in China in 2022 at Xintiandi. Pruvost said their business here is well on track and their products are well received by local customers.

"I'm here precisely and exclusively for the Versailles x Trudon launch. We're extremely satisfied with the direction the brand is taking in Shanghai and in China in general where we have again a tremendous followership," he said.

French skincare brand Biologique Recherche may not be as recognizable to Chinese shoppers, but premium spas in the country are rarely without their products. The brand decided to enter the consumer market just four years ago.

"Along with the business development, we have full confidence with this market. That's why we decided to invest the subsidiary company registered in Shanghai," said Jessie Zhang, general manager of Biologique Recherche China.

Beyond the fashion and lifestyle industries that France is best known for, companies from the country specializing in advanced manufacturing and technology have entered the Chinese market and taken advantage of its world-class supply chains.

Diagnostic solutions provider Biomerieux's arrival in Shanghai can be traced back to early 2000s. Now Shanghai is the third headquarter for the firm in the world, with its manufacturing plant situated in the nearby city of Suzhou after opening at the end of last year. The facility has an annual production capacity of 5.8 million culture flasks.

"We have the reagent manufacturing here and we are going to expand to the instrument manufacturing. But at the same time we want to expand the partnership here to have more local innovative solutions to answer the needs of local market," said Vincent Chan, general manager of Biomerieux Greater China.

It is estimated that there are more than 2,000 French companies in China, and over half of them have set up headquarters in Shanghai. As an international financial hub, Shanghai has long been a witness to the friendship between China and France, which are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties this year.

French brands enjoy booming business in Shanghai

Ghana's Cape Coast Castle Museum, housed in one of the wings of Cape Coast Castle, commemorates centuries of the slave trade on the African continent.

Cape Coast Castle, located on the rocky coast of the Eastern Atlantic, is the most prominent of the 30 or so "slave castles" in the West African country. It served as an important trading port in the infamous transatlantic slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas before Ghana became independent.

In 1974, the government of Ghana converted the castle into a historical museum, and in 1979, Cape Coast Castle was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, along with other colonial castles in Ghana.

In the corners of the castle are sealed, dank dungeons known to the colonists as "slave caves," where Africans were confined before being forced onto slave ships bound for the Americas. There are about a dozen narrow dungeons in the castle, which are divided into "men's cells" and "women's cells," with each holding between 100 and 200 people,  and having only enough space for the people to stand or sit close together and small skylights for ventilation.  Very limited food and water were supplied there.

The castle once held over 1,000 Africans at a time while the colonists waited for the right monsoon to sail. The museum's narrator said the physical and mental torture of the internees sometimes lasted months, and many died of starvation and disease before boarding the slave ships.

By comparison, the occupants of the administrative offices above lived in relatively luxurious,  large and bright rooms.

Through the renowned "Door of No Return" at the end of the castle, the enslaved Africans ended their last time in their homeland and began their one-way journey to be shipped across the ocean.

During the Atlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th century, a total of 10 to 12 million enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, fueling global trade and the rapid accumulation of capital and leaving devastating effects in Africa, including the loss of young and able-bodied labor, drastic population reduction, disruption of production technology and tribal conflicts, escalation of violence, and decline of civilization.

Ghana's castle-based museum commemorates slavery history