*Pan Gaoshou Traditional Chinese Medicine

*Pan Gaoshou Traditional Chinese Medicine

Nominating Unit: Guangzhou Pan Gaoshou Medicine Company, Ltd.

Guangzhou Pan Gaoshou Medicine Company, Ltd., originally called “Pan Gaoshou Changchun Dong Pharmacy”, was founded by the two brothers of Pan Baishi and Pan Yingshi in 16th year of Guangxu (i.e. 1890) in Gaodi Street. Since then it has been passed on in the family from generation to generation for more than 100 years. The company developed “Fritillary and Loquat Leaf Mixture”, a new medicine to relieve cough and dissipate phlegm in 1930s. Then by naming Pan Gaoshou and making the mixture their main product, it quickly gained fame and expanded in Shaoguan, Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore. It formed into Pan Gaoshou Joint Medicine Company of the government and the private sector in 1950s and changed into Guangzhou Pan Gaoshou Medicine Company, Ltd. in the early 1990s.

Pan Gaoshou is located in Guangzhou, the commercial city in south China with a favorable geographical location and fierce commercial competitions, where it formed its characteristic culture of traditional Chinese medicine. Because of the hot and rainy days and constantly changing weather in spring and winter in the south, people here easily suffer from the common illnesses of colds and coughs. Over the hundred years Pan Gaoshou aiming at curing these illnesses has developed the medicine series with Chinese Herbal Syrup (Shedanchuanbeipipagao) as the brand product, which reflects its original culture. In 1930s when the market was filled with clone and counterfeit products, Pan Yusheng, the successor sold all his premises and invested the money in making a new package with a epigram on it —— You’d better not clone the product, and leave some good for your successor. This action indicates that the company sticks to the traditional ethics of honesty as the principle and its business ideal of making real and good for the people. Pan Gaoshou is also good at publicity, advertising in the newspaper, through the radio station, in the movie, at the wharf and on the light mast, and even supply free samples for the passers-by, thus forming a set of effective marketing strategy and making the product known to everyone.(https://www.daowen.com)

Affected by climate change, environmental pollution, descended quality of the raw material, fierce competition of the western medicine as well as the rising of new pharmaceutical technology, Pan Gaoshou traditional pharmaceutical technique has been marginalized, which has threatened the passing and inheriting of its medicine culture. If the protection of the culture were not strengthened, it would face the danger of disappearance.

The culture of Pan Gaoshou traditional medicine was selected into the list of the second batch of statelevel intangible cultural heritage in 2008.