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The Cultural Biography of Agarwood – Perfumery in Eastern Asiaand the Asian Neighbourhood1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2013

DINAH JUNG
DINAH JUNG*
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg perfumery-studies@uni-heidelberg.de
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Extract

Agarwood (especially 〔 沉 香 〕 Chinese chen xiang / 〔 沈 香 〕Japanese jinkō), among other subspecies differentiated inEast Asian languages, has caught international perfumery attention inconspicuous dimensions in the past years. It belongs to the most soughtafter perfumery raw materials in the world. The lucrative image of itsbusiness makes international businessmen, foreign scientists, perfumers,global industry representatives, as well as locals eager to participate inits international distribution and to improve its artificial masscultivation and synthetic production. Moreover, efforts transgress mereeconomic activities in Eastern Asia when perfumery devotees engage inhistorical research and perfumery experiments, or when they publish on theirexperiences, as well as when they establish networks with like-mindedpeople.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 103 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2013

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Footnotes

1

My primary thanks are addressed to the agarwood shareholders and myfriends in Asia (producers, perfumers, traders, museums, associations,organisations, consumers, etc.). I would also like to thank Prof. Dr.Lothar Ledderose for making this research possible, and Prof. Dr. DameJessica Rawson for her feedback. Special thanks are due to NaokoFujita, Jiani Gao, Mu Gan, Stephanie-Akiko Haschke, and Li Ma fortheir translational assistance over the years. – For reasons ofanonymity and impartialness towards businesses, all individual namesare omitted. – The responsibility for all mistakes and insufficienciesis completely mine.

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