Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jan 2000
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: Telegraph Group Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: David Rennie

CHINA BANS OPIUM PERFUME AS REMINDER OF WAR DEFEAT

China has banned sales of the French scent Opium after ruling that the name
encourages spiritual pollution and reminds the Chinese people of their
humiliating defeat in the Opium Wars in the 19th century.

The Yves Saint Laurent fragrance has been on sale for five years in some of
China's largest cities at pounds 80 a bottle, roughly a month's wages for
the average city dweller. It must now be withdrawn from shelves nationwide
after the State Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau revoked the
product's trademark registration.

A spokesman for Yves Saint Laurent's sole agent in China, Guohangxin
Technology, said yesterday: "It is now not legal to sell it in China. It's
mainly because of the name."

The nationwide ruling upheld and extended a local ban by authorities in the
south-western city of Chengdu, who had earlier ruled that using a name so
"bitterly hated by the Chinese people" was racist and disrespectful.
Chengdu city fathers objected after learning that the scent was first
inspired by Chinese snuff bottles, and was meant to surround women with an
atmosphere of fiery, forbidden temptation.

This constituted racial discrimination, and a clear exaggeration of the
scent's properties, city officials said. "Opium is a synonym for evil among
Chinese. It is harmful to the ethics and customs of society to allow the
registration of this trademark, and its propagation among the Chinese
people," argued Chengdu's submission.

Unfortunately for Yves Saint Laurent, the national bureau's Trademark
Review and Adjudication Board agreed. Besides being the name of a drug, the
name "makes people think of the Opium War, in China's recent history, which
led China into a state of decline and national shame". Allowing the
trademark Opium to be widely propagated would have "bad social influences",
the board ruled.

A spokesman for Parfums Yves Saint Laurent in Paris said that it was the
first time that a ban had been imposed on Opium, which was launched in
1977. The scent contained no trace of illegal substances, she said. Instead
it was composed of "top notes" such as mandarin and coriander, "earth
notes" of jasmine and rose, with hints of patchouli beneath. "It is a
perfectly normal scent - we call it a spicy oriental harmony."

The two Opium Wars, launched by Britain and later France, have never been
forgiven by Beijing. British schoolchildren may have long forgotten the
wars, but their Chinese counterparts are still raised on vivid tales of
British imperialists, forcing their addictive cargoes of Indian opium into
China at the barrel of a gun.
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