“Bamboo never stands alone. Fragrance, too, connects people. Bamboo is also a bearer of blessings and prosperity.”
― Bobber Wang, founder
Essential Information
Established: 2022 (global brand debut: at Design Shanghai 2023, held in June 2023)
Founder: 王超 (Wang Chao / Bobber Chao Wang)
Operating company: 上海瑞宇品牌管理有限公司 (Shanghai Ruiyu Brand Management Co., Ltd.)
Official website: @zhufufragrance
The brand name “Zhu Fu 竹浮” is a homophone of “祝福 (Zhùfú),” the Chinese word for “blessing.” Its two characters, “竹” (bamboo) and “浮” (floating), evoke a tranquil, weightless image, like a section of bamboo floating on water. The brand places the phrase “Where Bamboo Meets Blessing” at the heart of its concept.
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
A Background in Design
Wang Chao, who created Zhufu, originally came not from the fragrance industry but from the world of design. After gaining experience as a designer for several international brands, he established Zhufu in 2022.
In 2023, Zhufu appeared in the new-product launch gallery at Design Shanghai (设计上海), the international design fair held in Shanghai, under the name “ZHUFU FRAGRANCE by TOKIDO BOBBER WANG.”
Wang credits the brand under his own name, not simply as its manager but as its designer and creator, suggesting that Zhufu also has the character of a personal creative-studio project.
A Bamboo Motif Born of Respect for His Grandmother
Bamboo is central to Zhufu’s visual identity. Its bottles have forms reminiscent of bamboo joints, and the motif runs consistently through the outer packaging as well. Behind this bamboo motif was Wang Chao’s grandmother, who made her living weaving bamboo. Respect for her craftsmanship is quietly woven into the brand’s visuals and bottle design through the form of a bamboo joint.
It is no coincidence that the bestseller Nana 柿不柿 is a fragrance inspired by his grandmother, with a sweet persimmon scent. This intensely personal memory of his grandmother lies at the root of the brand’s world.
When explaining the origin of the brand name, Wang himself emphasizes this image of connectedness.
“Bamboo never grows alone. Fragrance, too, connects people. Bamboo is also a bearer of blessings and prosperity.” ― Bobber Wang
Here, memories of the handcraft passed down by his grandmother naturally overlap with bamboo’s symbolism in Chinese culture: longevity, integrity, and prosperity.
Founded in 2022, Setting Sail from the East in 2023
Although the company Zhufu itself was established in 2022, its full-fledged global debut as a brand took place at the new-product launch at Design Shanghai 2023, held in June 2023. On that occasion, the brand presented the following manifesto.
“We founded ZHUFU to bring the beauty of bygone times into an ever-changing present. We believe that Eastern aesthetics are rooted in everyday life, and can only be discovered by capturing fleeting moments of beauty in details that might otherwise go unnoticed.”
This declaration reveals both Wang’s designer’s eye for uncovering beauty in the details of daily life and an editorial intention to reconnect fading crafts and rural tranquility with the present through fragrance.
In roughly the first two years after its founding, Zhufu exhibited three times at Notes Shanghai, the international perfume fair held in conjunction with Shanghai Fashion Week, and also took part in the Paris Shanghai Perfume Show, an exhibition in Paris focusing on Chinese brands. In 2024, it received the Centdegrés Grasse Perfume Art Gold Award 2024, held in Grasse, France. In 2025, it was also named a Winner in the “Excellent Product Design / Luxury Goods” category of the German Design Award 2025.
“We want to share Chinese culture with the world. There must be a place for Chinese brands in the international perfume market.” ― Bobber Wang
These words capture Zhufu today particularly well.
What Defines the Brand
1. A Design Philosophy That Begins with Bamboo
In Zhufu’s world, bamboo is more than a visual motif. It symbolizes good fortune, longevity, and an unwavering spirit. Giving that spirit a visual and tactile presence, as well as a presence in the fragrance itself, is central to the brand.
“‘ZHUFU 竹浮’ echoes the Chinese word ‘祝福 (Blessing)’ through its sound. In Chinese culture, bamboo symbolizes good fortune, longevity, and an unwavering spirit. We embody its essence not only visually but also in fragrance, placing heartfelt blessings in every bottle.” ― Official ZHUFU statement
The signature bottle takes its form directly from a bamboo joint, and it was this bottle that received the German Design Award 2025. The jury described the packaging as follows.
“This packaging brilliantly brings together traditional Chinese symbolism and contemporary design. Combining bamboo, a symbol of good fortune and longevity, with modern aesthetic elements produces a result that conveys both cultural depth and luxury.”
2. Perfumers Trained at ISIPCA
Wang Chao does not create Zhufu’s fragrances alone. The formulas are developed in collaboration with perfumers who studied at ISIPCA, the prestigious French perfumery school in Versailles. Two principal perfumers are named.
- Meng Gu (顾梦): a Chinese-born perfumer based in Paris who works for the long-established French fragrance company Robertet. She created Donglin Temple 東林禅意.
- David Huang: an experienced perfumer responsible for Zhufu’s Aged Pu-Er Tea 夜访普洱.
While placing Eastern motifs, stories, and aesthetics at the center of its concepts, Zhufu entrusts the formulas themselves to professionals grounded in European fragrance education and technical expertise. It has chosen this hybrid approach to making perfume.
3. Essential Oils and Sustainability
In terms of materials, the brand emphasizes the use of essential oils. Its Design Shanghai 2023 manifesto states:
“We are committed to continuing to use essential oils. We respond to nature’s gifts with appropriate packaging and design.”
The packaging uses FSC-certified paper and recycled metal components while minimizing plastic. It also incorporates an inclusive-design consideration: many products are marked in Braille. The brand’s own material standards include the phrase “FSC Certified Zero EVA Foam Packaging.”
4. Extending Fragrance into a Curation of Eastern Lifestyles
Zhufu positions itself not simply as a perfume maker but as an “olfactory curator” of Eastern lifestyle aesthetics. In addition to fragrances, it offers related products such as body oils and candles, gradually expanding toward a broader shaping of everyday life around scent.
5. Everyday Life and Places Preserved in Perfume
Zhufu draws on memories of the founder’s grandmother, aged tea, and Shanghai’s temples and architecture. Alongside fragrances rooted in everyday life, its Donglin Temple collaboration explores the trees of the grounds and the scents of worship, while its collaboration with Jin Mao Tower takes the form of the skyscraper and Shanghai’s white flowers as its subjects.
Nana 柿不柿: “Grandmother’s Persimmons”
- Top notes: kaki, bergamot, persimmon, bamboo
- Heart notes: rose, iris
- Base notes: sandalwood, patchouli, musk
The brand’s bestseller. A tribute to the founder’s grandmother, it is distinctive in placing persimmon, a quintessentially East Asian fruit, at its center.
Aged Pu-Er Tea 夜访普洱: “A Nighttime Visit to Aged Pu-Er Tea”
- Top notes: pu-er tea, bergamot, aquatic notes
- Heart notes: vetiver, cedarwood
- Base notes: vetiver, sandalwood
A fragrance built around pu-er tea from Yunnan Province, composed by David Huang. Light citrus notes overlap with the depth of aged tea leaves, bringing the weight of history and the freshness of the present together in one bottle.
Donglin Temple 東林禅意: The Temple’s Plants and Prayers
Donglin Temple was created jointly by Zhufu and Shanghai Donglin Tourism Company around Donglin Temple in Shanghai’s Jinshan District. Released in June 2024, it was also sold in Donglin Wenchuang shops as a way of sharing the temple’s culture. Its outer box depicts the temple landscape and incorporates the temple’s emblematic five-Buddha crown motif.
The starting point was not simply an abstract idea of Zen, but the specific smells that make up the temple. The perfumery team visited the site and drew on the spicy camphorwood used for carving, agarwood burned in worship, and the fir and pine needles of the grounds. Meng Gu’s composition layers the brightness of ginger and citrus with lotus, conifers, and the coolness of camphor, leading into the woody character of cedarwood and oud.
Essencional’s reporting describes Robertet perfumer Meng Gu’s use of prominent incense balanced with rose, fir, sandalwood, and oud. The fragrance brings together the smoke in the temple air, the garden’s trees, and the warmth of sunlit wood.
Donglin Temple received the 2024 Centdegrés Grasse Perfume Art Gold Award.
Poet 竹涧温酒: “A Poet’s Drink in a Bamboo Grove”
- Top notes: citrus, bergamot, pink pepper
- Heart notes: rose, black pepper, patchouli
- Base notes: vetiver, oakmoss, amber, musk
Inspired by the celebrated Chinese poet Li Bai (李白), this fragrance weaves nuances of Chinese baijiu into its formula. Drinking and composing poetry in a bamboo grove: it is as though this classical scene has been translated into the vocabulary of contemporary perfumery.
Master 玉竹贯仲
- Top notes: lemon, mandarin, citrus, basil
- Heart notes: blackberry, red fruits
- Base notes: agarwood (oud), oakmoss, musk
Positioned as a new release, it bears a Chinese name that evokes “玉竹” and “貫衆,” plants also known for their use in traditional herbal medicine.
Above the Clouds 云巅之境: Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai’s White Flowers
Above the Clouds grew out of a collaboration with Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai’s skyscraper. It connects the building’s upward-reaching form with Zhufu’s emphasis on harmony with nature. Shanghai landmarks, including Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental Pearl Tower, also appear on the packaging, placing the cityscape alongside the fragrance.
Perfumer Meng Gu places white magnolia, Shanghai’s city flower, over a clear opening of citrus and green cardamom, adding nuances of white tea, orris, lily of the valley, and bamboo leaf. Sandalwood, ambergris, and Chinese cedarwood form the base, supporting the lightness of the flowers with gentle woody depth. Rather than expressing a skyscraper through power alone, the fragrance seeks the quiet of standing at the height of the clouds.
Limited Editions and Collaborations
Beyond the core line, a seasonal limited-edition Jasmine Tea Fragrance (茉莉花茶) was released in 2024, suggesting a connection with Yunnan, the home of pu-er tea.
By the Way…
- The resemblance in sound between the brand name “竹浮 (Zhù Fú)” and “祝福 (Zhùfú)” is not accidental but the starting point of the brand’s design. For Chinese speakers, the name is devised to sound as though one is invoking a blessing each time it is spoken.
- The signature bottle’s bamboo-joint design has been refined since its debut at Design Shanghai 2023 and won in the German Design Award’s “Excellent Product Design / Luxury Goods” category in 2025. The award record credits Chao Wang, Wang himself, as the designer.
- Zhufu is one of relatively few Chinese niche brands to have publicly described specific sustainability and inclusive-design measures: FSC-certified paper, recycled metal, minimized plastic, and Braille on many products.
- In the Design Shanghai 2023 exhibitor list, the brand was registered as “ZHUFU FRAGRANCE by TOKIDO BOBBER WANG”, conveying that Wang credits the brand not simply as its manager but as its designer and creator.
References
Oh, My Shanghai! Your Fragrance Impulse Is Making Leaps, So High. (Essencional, Laurence Arrigo Klove, November 10, 2025) – https://www.essencional.com/en/posts/oh-my-shanghai-your-fragrance-impulse-is-making-leaps-so-high/
3 Perfume Brands To Know From Notes Shanghai (Forbes, Gemma A. Williams, April 2, 2025) – https://www.forbes.com/sites/gemmawilliams/2025/04/02/3-perfume-brands-to-know-from-notes-shanghai/
ZHUFU FRAGRANCE by TOKIDO BOBBER WANG (official Design Shanghai exhibitor page) – https://www.designshanghai.com/new-product-launch/zhufu-fragrance-tokido-bobber-wang
ZHUFU Perfume & Fragrance (German Design Award 2025 official gallery) – https://www.german-design-award.com/en/gallery/detail/luxury-goods/zhufu-perfume-fragrance
ZHUFU竹浮 official Instagram @zhufufragrance – https://www.instagram.com/zhufufragrance/
ZHUFU 竹浮 — Award-Winning Luxury Oriental Fragrance (historical reference; operator unverified, not used to support these two fragrances) – https://zhufu-fragrance.vercel.app
ZHUFU (竹浮), winner of the 2025 German Design Award, channels bamboo as a timeless blessing… (baroma.asia official Instagram post, January 14, 2026) – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTfbm1vEbv9/
Notes Shanghai 2025SS: VOL16 ZHUFU 竹浮 (Notes Shanghai official Instagram, January 28, 2025) – https://www.instagram.com/p/DFZRbQHMXeI/
China Comes to Europe at the First Edition of the Grasse Perfume Week (Pixi Dis Perfumes, July 30, 2025) – https://www.pixidisperfumes.com/china-comes-to-grasse-at-the-first-edition-of-the-grasse-perume-week/
David Huang – Perfumer Profile (Fraganty) – https://fraganty.ai/perfumers/David_Huang
AGED PU-ER TEA by ZHUFU (竹浮) – Brand review post on Instagram, December 30, 2025 – https://www.instagram.com/p/DS6GNd-km5L/
NANA | ZHUFU Perfume 15ML – Product page (MIST Paris) – https://mistparis.com/products/%E7%AB%B9%E6%B5%AEfu-parfum-ceramic-scented-parfum-%E6%9F%BF%E4%B8%8D%E6%9F%BF-15ml
Perfumed Chocolates, Rare Tobaccos & Skin Scents (YouTube, November 10, 2025), segments “ZHUFU FRAGRANCES: Throne, Nana, and Donglin Temple” and “Zhufu Limited Edition: Jasmine Tea Fragrance” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUu0fJeackA
Shanghai Jinshan District Converged Media Center, Shen Huanlin — 金山这个4A级景区推出联名款香水 (July 4, 2024) – https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27959681
Ministry of Scent — Donglin Temple: brand-supplied description and product information – https://ministryofscent.com/products/donglin-temple
Ministry of Scent — Above the Clouds: brand-supplied description and product information – https://ministryofscent.com/products/above-the-clouds
MIST Paris — ZHUFU Above the Clouds – https://mistparis.com/products/above-the-clouds-zhufu-perfume-15ml
Stéle — ZHUFU Above the Clouds Eau de Parfum – https://stele.nyc/collections/fragrance/products/zhufu-above-the-clouds-eau-de-parfum
Shangguan News / Jiefang Daily, Shen Siyi and Du Chenwei — 谁制造了“巴黎香水危机”？｜上海品牌图鉴 (October 23, 2025) – https://www.jfdaily.com/wx/detail.do?id=1002953
Shangguan News, Shen Huanlin — 金山的这款香水，金奖！ (October 17, 2024), reprinted by Sina Finance – https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2024-10-17/doc-incsvsec6470127.shtml
