Tobacco has a 400 year history in China, having been originally introduced by the Portuguese traders in the Philippines and Japan. Very soon, tobacco cultivation was practiced across the country, and a wide variety of traditional smoking and cultivation methods were developed. Originally, tobacco was smoked in pipes and taken as snuff. In the way of Chinese artisans in all fields, the pipemakers soon began creating increasingly impressive pipes, while the aristocracy sought out the most delicate and beautiful containers for their snuff.

One of the most popular 'antique' items for tourists to take home are the unique Chinese painted snuff bottles. Often smaller than 5cm high, these tiny, narrow neckedbottles are breathtaking in their detail. Other popular smokers’ memorabilia are the traditional tobacco pipes. The most common variety is the long, straight brass pipe, with a bone or wooden mouthpiece and a small, squat metal bowl. Often sold to gullible tourists as ‘opium pipes’ these pipes in fact are made to smoke either tightly rolled balls of shag tobacco, or most commonly handrolled cigars, which are fitted vertically into the bowl.

It's a wonderfully sight to see old men, squatting in a park and breaking the filters off commercial cigarettes to smoke them in their traditional pipes. Timeless and relaxed, these street scenes play out every day, evoking memories of centuries of unhurried, leisurely smoking.

Shanghai has long been the portal in and out of China. Since its establishment as a treaty port in the mid 19th Century, it has been the hub through which innovation and change entered the country. Whereas before the Colonial era, the most visible aspect of Chinese tobacco consumption were the beautifully painted miniature snuff-bottles of the ruling classes, by the roaring twenties, Shanghai had become the center of the Chinese cigarette boom.

The Chinese were introduced to cigarettes in 1905, when a British-American Tobacco Company set up shop in China. In just two years, sales to Chinese smokers went from almost zero to 1.3 million cigarettes. By 1920, China was smoking 25 billion cigarettes a year. This stunning rise was mostly due to the work of one man, James Augustus Thomas. Tobacco seller and marketing visionary, Thomas almost single-handedly engineered the assimilation of a foreign product and pastime into the world’s oldest culture, turning what had previously been a rarefied luxury into a fashionable accessory, and eventually into an indispensable part of social ritual.

The turn of the century China was a fast-moving, unstable economy. Great wealth was being made, and Thomas decided to exploit it by making cigarettes desirable and accessible to the man on the street. His innovative advertising, especially the posters featuring young, fashionably dressed women smoking, promoted the image of cigarettes as being the civilized, cultured and urbane thing to do. At a time of massive socio-cultural upheaval, this was the perfect approach to the Chinese mentality. By the 1920's, cigarettes were considered to be a manly pastime for men, and a decadent, glamorous indulgence for women.

To this day, after 80 years and two revolutions, the cigarette has become absorbed so tightly into Chinese popular culture, it is hard to envision it ever disappearing.

In modern China, exchanging tobacco is as important to doing business as the handshake. It has become a status symbol, a gesture of friendship, and a valuable gift. The first step of a successful business relationship is often pressing your business partner to take one of your cigarettes, and then solicitously lighting it. He will then reciprocate, and thus the relationship has begun properly.

When a cigarette is offered, the pack is left open, in the middle of the table. Whenever a cigarette is taken, the lighting ritual is repeated. If meeting with in the office of a government or business official, it is best to offer a very expensive tobacco product, and leave it on the table as a gift to the host. This isn’t considered to be a bribe, rather a gesture of respect.

This ritual of smoking usually only applies to men. Most Chinese assume that all men smoke somewhat (though many are purely casual smokers) while assuming that women do not smoke. This is partially a product of the old Confucian attitudes toward women, and partially a result of the ‘Shanghai poster girls’ bad girl image. Essentially, though both men and women may smoke without prejudice, women are generally excluded from the cigarette ritual.

Another tobacco tradition worth noting are wedding cigarettes. A Chinese wedding takes place at a meal, and the guests are given packets or cartons of prestigious cigarettes. After the actual marriage ceremony is completed, the bride and groom visit each one of the guests, with the groom drinking a toast to each, then the bride lighting everyone’s cigarettes, though cigars are now incresingly being offered at such events.

These traditions of tobacco products as a face-building gift are so deeply ingrained that an entire industry has evolved to meet them. Special brands of expensive prestige cigarettes are purchased for these events, typically packaged in bright red and gold, considered to be auspicious colors in China. These gifts are a symbol of respect, success, and wealth, and are often kept for years by poorer smokers as a souvenir of a big event.

Obviously, this market is primed and ready for the introduction of more prestigious tobacco products, especially cigars; there is a longstanding image of the cigar as the smoke of the wealthy industrialist. This is an image well worth maintaining.