Research On Ancient Chinese Food Packaging- An Analysis Of Tea, Liquor, And Medicine Packaging In Qing Dynasty

Food packaging of Qing dynasty should receive more attention from the academic perspective. The unique political and economic situation of Qing brings great impact onto packaging, no matter in the Qing’s high court or normal third estate, food packaging is the expression of refined technics and life wisdom, it also includes ancient packaging experience and further development. Nevertheless, the inflow of foreign food packaging has an impact on it as well, the introduction of commercial packaging machinery of mass production model allows efficient packaging into the output, low-cost materials, logistics wide circulation, unified modern packaging model. Tea, wine, medicine packaging are the main items, affecting the overall level of the Qing Dynasty in food packaging.The idea of ’Learning from history and practicing for today’ has been treated as an instruction for food packaging design nowadays, therefore, it is necessary to sort out the history for food packaging from a product designer’s perspective. The sorting approach is based on a vertical depth comparison for a specific period(such as packaging materials, food type, the current situation of economic) and to lay out the progress of the breadth of food packaging development horizontally, as a consequence, the whole picture of food packaging in Qing will be drawn. The new impact of industrial production is the increasingly monotonous packaging instead of personality.There was a wide range of food packaging materials in Qing dynasty. The packaging technique was basically well formed in tea, wine, and medicine industry. New materials and printing processes made the commercial packaging had more diversities. Import and export trades in Qing Dynasty not only brought fresh blood in food packaging, but also make Chinese Ancient Packing be emulated by Westerners. In current commercial market, food packaging should be the combination of industrialization and handcrafts, commonness and uniqueness, as to diversify the food packaging approaches that meet each and every character of the food itself.