Thirty Years of Turbulence - Chinese Enterprises

作者：admin  点击次数：49  发布时间：2025-09-25

In 1982, the improvement of material life seemed to exceed people's humble expectations. More and more household appliances are appearing in urban shopping malls. The production of washing machines, which were only manufactured in China three years ago, has reached 2 million units by the end of the year, the total number of televisions has reached 10 million units, and the demand for refrigerators is also growing rapidly. A few years ago, the three major items for newlywed families were "bicycles, sewing machines, and watches," but now they have become the "new three major items": television, washing machine, and refrigerator. The demand for household appliances directly ignited the Chinese household electric heating industry that lasted for more than a decade. Due to the low technical requirements of these products, those enterprises that awakened first, including the weak in state-owned companies and private enterprises, found opportunities for development. Some household appliance companies that will become popular in the future will make their debut one by one in these two years.

However, in this year, the most in demand and peculiar products in China were not Panasonic televisions, Toshiba refrigerators, or Coca Cola, but rather the gentleman's orchid from Changchun City, Jilin Province.

It is no longer possible to verify why this tall and elegant ornamental plant became worth a hundred times its value overnight, and why this crazy "gentleman orchid style" occurred in the three northeastern provinces where commodity awareness has always been weak.