Madajie and the Palace Museum jointly launched a series, creating a new model of cultural confidence

06/20

2025

On June 20, 2025, Madajie Food, a national candy brand, and the Palace Museum jointly held a launch event titled "Centennial Palace Rhyme, Sweet New Chapter," unveiling three major product series.

At a time when cultural confidence is becoming a core driver of consumption, this collaboration is not only a brand crossover but also an innovative model for the food industry to tap into the cultural consumption market. Facing the market trend where Generation Z is becoming the main force of national style and trend IP consumption, Madajie accurately targets the young market with a three-pronged approach of "intangible cultural heritage skills + healthy formula + imperial aesthetics," providing the industry with a vivid case study of the modernization of traditional culture.

Upgraded Cultural Consumption Needs

From Taste Satisfaction to Emotional Resonance

As the post-95s and post-00s generations become the main consumers of national trends, consumer demand for candy has shifted from simply satisfying taste to a comprehensive demand for "health + culture + emotion." Madajie Group keenly captured this trend, positioning the co-branded products as "aesthetically pleasing treats."

Handmade brittle candy uses intangible cultural heritage production techniques as its core, following ancient methods, undergoing 200 repeated stretches and 12 folds to form 24 delicate stripes. It is as light as snowflakes, melting in the mouth, perfectly replicating the imperial tea-time delicacy described in "Qing Bai Lei Chao" as "crispy and easily dissolving, not sticking to the teeth."

The nougat series inherits the intangible cultural heritage techniques of grain sugar, innovating with a xylitol formula to reduce sugar without reducing flavor. Wrapped in plump nuts, the candy is soft, chewy, and dense, retaining the classic milky and nutty aroma of nougat while reducing sweetness. The series caters to young people's pursuit of low-sugar and healthy options, and products such as "Five Mysterious Jade Brittle" incorporate the dietary wisdom of "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon," adding cultural depth to snacks.

The Sweet Wedding series incorporates the "Six Rites" wedding customs from "The Book of Rites" into modern wedding scenes, making the candy box a carrier of millennial blessings, precisely meeting the young generation's dual needs for ritual and cultural identity.

Product Innovation

Crossover Integration of Pattern Narration and Health Technology

The core breakthrough of this co-branded series lies in transforming classic Palace Museum patterns into "cultural symbols on the tip of the tongue." The packaging of handmade brittle candy uses patterns such as "Four Seas Ascending Peace" wave patterns and "Phoenix Dancing in the Forbidden City" phoenix auspicious clouds, while the nougat gift box uses meticulous brushwork elements from the "Flowers and Birds" album, making the patterns of cultural relics leap onto the candy wrappers through modern design language. A representative from the Palace Museum emphasized at the launch event: "Royal culture leaves the Forbidden City, using the tip of the tongue as a medium to create a sense of cultural immersion, which is a new path for the revitalization of cultural relics."

In terms of healthy transformation, Madajie leverages the policy orientation of the "weight management year," using a xylitol formula to meet the demand for reduced sugar, providing the industry with a technical model of "reducing sugar without reducing flavor, and health without reducing charm."

Industry Resonance

Modern Interpretation of Traditional Crafts and Exhibition Innovation

At the launch event, Ms. Ma Guimin, the inheritor of the double intangible cultural heritage techniques of brittle candy and nougat, explained the handmade stretching process of brittle candy, forming a cross-time dialogue with the Palace Museum's spirit of upholding tradition and innovation. This "dynamic inheritance of skills" model has prompted the industry to rethink the path to modernizing traditional crafts—intangible cultural heritage is no longer a static exhibit in a museum, but a living culture that can be integrated into daily consumption through healthy formula innovation.

Ms. Ma Guimin, Inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage Techniques

The format of the launch event also subverted industry conventions. Madajie pioneered a "museum-style candy display," using a replica scroll of "A Thousand Li River and Mountains" to create a palace culture space. Using "Chinese red" as the visual theme, the products become the focal point of the environment, creating an immersive imperial tea-time experience.

Industry Inspiration

Brand Upgrading in the Era of Cultural Confidence

Mr. Ma Likei, President of Madajie Group and initiator of the Palace Museum co-branded project; Ms. Ma Guiqin, Vice President of Supply Chain of Madajie Group and general manager of the Palace Museum co-branded project; and Mr. Ding Cheng, General Manager of Palace Museum Cultural Development Co., Ltd., jointly stated at the launch event that the cooperation between Madajie and the Palace Museum provides a reusable methodology for the transformation of national brands: In terms of cultural depth, based on the Palace Museum's interpretation and innovation of Palace Museum culture, classic patterns can both highlight the connotation of royal culture and meet modern aesthetics; in terms of technological lightweighting, using freeze-drying and sugar substitutes to reduce the burden of traditional candies; and in terms of emotional connection, through experiential designs such as "drawing lucky signs" and "intangible cultural heritage craft interactions," transforming consumption behavior into cultural participation.