Probe Into Modern Shanghai Stationery Industry(1901-1949)

After the Industrial Revolution,the world economy developed rapidly and people’s relentless pursuit of efficiency contributed to the improvement of writing instruments.1884 saw the birth of the first tap pen in the United States,which greatly changed the way people wrote.After the opening of Shanghai,a large number of foreign stationery such as tap pens,pencils,pencil curlers and foreign ink were imported and quickly became popular in the Chinese market because of their convenience and durability.1901 saw the opening of the Scientific Instruments Museum on Fuzhou Road in Shanghai,the first professional store for instruments and stationery opened by the Chinese.Thereafter,with the promotion of new-style education,stationery professional stores opened in large numbers,and a number of national factories of homemade foreign stationery,breaking the situation of foreign stationery monopoly of the market,stationery industry in Shanghai as the center of the gradual development and growth.Modern Shanghai’s national stationery industry started in imitation,experienced a process from home workshops to machine production,from semi-finished products processing to completely homemade.National stationery industry in the initial stage,the production of paints and inks,the production scale is generally small.the late 1920 s,the opening of the national investment in the tap pen manufacturing plant,the purchase of foreign machinery and equipment for production,marking the national stationery industry into a period of rapid development.In order to promote national products,the government authorities on national stationery to be tax relief,orders to adopt policies such as support,the national stationery factory production scale are obvious progress.1937 August 13 Incident,serious difficulties in transportation,the national stationery industry generally suffered setbacks.In the war environment,Shanghai standard pencil factory in the rear to rectify internal institutions,improve the national raw materials,difficult to maintain the normal production.The stationery market in Shanghai was flooded with foreign goods and competition was fierce.In order to promote the development of business,stationery stores adopted diversified marketing strategies and adjusted the direction of business at the right time,which promoted the continuous development of stationery industry.National and foreign parties to advertising as the medium,launched a fierce competition.Foreigners used strong capital to place a lot of advertising,creative expression,and achieved good publicity.Domestic stationery manufacturers continue to improve the design and layout of advertising,within the limited space to convey the core words "national products" to promote the progress of business.Domestic stationery enterprises in the limited development space,gradually out of a way to build a national brand as the core of the development of the road,to stand firm in the stationery market.With the growing popularity of the use of fountain pens,the status of the brush is challenged.The huge leakage of imported stationery goblets caused concern,thus setting off a trend to save the brush.A lively discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of fountain pens and brushes led to thinking about and choosing a writing instrument.With the modernization of education,the fountain pen eventually took over the place of the brush in everyday writing.The modern stationery industry was not only an integral part of the national economy,but also had a profound impact on the professional,literary,and educational worlds of modern Shanghai.The stationery industry was closely related to modern education and culture,and the import and imitation of new stationery provided realistic conditions for modern academic construction and educational progress,while the popularity of office stationery promoted the standardization of office and the improvement of production efficiency.