China's organic consumer growth has moved into the "what-on-earth-is-that" niches

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Several years ago, I wrote that the search interest in China’s intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产, or 非遗) was already booming. You could see it everywhere: consumer brands slapping “heritage craftsmanship” or “legacy of intangible culture” onto their packaging, sometimes deservedly, sometimes…not so much. Even when the actual craftsmanship pedigree was thin, the rebranding itself worked. It was the single most reliable, most instant traffic-gainer to win over a generation of Chinese consumers who were beginning to fall back in love with their own culture.You’ve seen this story at the premium end, which we’ve covered extensively — most obviously with Laopu Gold (老铺黄金), the Beijing-founded “Hermès of gold” that I’ve written about several times. Laopu listed in Hong Kong in mid-2024 and the stock subsequently rallied more than 20x, briefly touching ~HK$150 billion in market value, on the strength of nothing more exotic than reviving Chinese traditional goldsmithing techniques — hammering, filigree, hollowing, and enamels — and packaging them as luxury. And you’ve seen it at the more mass-market end too, like with the Tong Shi Fu IPO (铜师傅) piece, where copper artisanship, middle-aged male gifting, and Pop Mart-style branding all blended into one investable asset class.But over the years, the “intangible cultural heritage” labels are now EVERYWHERE. What started as a marketing label has matured, and consumers are starting to look beyond the surface.Consumers are no longer satisfied with brands that just slap a heritage sticker on a generic SKU. They’re going deeper — looking …