Nostalgia drives up online sales of Laozihao items

An increasing nostalgia for homegrown Chinese brands is quickly gaining popularity, especially as a new generation of younger and more adventurous shoppers get accustomed to buying online in pursuit of fugu, or retro style offerings.

From stuffed glutinous rice dumplings to natural-scented facial cream wrapped in white porcelain bottles, people spent on average 300 yuan ($44.2) on the so-called Laozihao items, or time-honored brands, last year on Taobao, China's top customer-to-customer online site, parent Alibaba Group said in a report released on Monday.

Those in their 20s and 30s formed the backbone of buying these brands colloquially known as Laozihao, a title officially dedicated to over 1,100 Chinese enterprises by the Ministry of Commerce in 2017 to commemorate their business and cultural heritages that can be dated back to several hundred years.