Ice Cream, A US-China Story

This is the most classic ice cream with a very long history in China since the early 1900s, also related to American influence, culture, and technology at that time.

American politicians and businessmen came to Shanghai for their “adventures” in the early days and they had homesick, including missing Western-style ice cream in the summertime. In 1913, an American dairy factory was established in Shanghai and it quickly entered ice cream business to primarily serve the foreign and local elite communities in Shanghai.

At the very beginning, the original brand of its ice cream was called “Beauty” (美女), and the brand was renamed as “Brightness” (光明) in 1950 following the Communist Party’s victory of the Civil War. Make sense? A bright new era just started for China. That’s the new meaning.

The late famous Chinese writer Eileen Chang (張愛玲) was one of many fans for “Beauty” ice cream, quite a luxury for the local in the old era of Shanghai. Today the new “Brightness” brand is already a household name in Shanghai and occupies a dominating share in the domestic ice cream market in China.

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) was a factory manager for Yiming Foodstuff (益民食品), parent company of “Brightness” dairy and ice cream products before Jiang started his political career and became the Mayor of Shanghai.

You can now order “Brightness” ice cream online, directly shipped from Shanghai to Hong Kong, thanks to highly efficient logistics and e-commerce technology nowadays of course.