Chen Zhen Fang Incense Store and the introduction of Ying-chou Chen
Founded in Year 2 of the Xuantong Period during the Qing Dynasty (1910) by Tu Chen, Chen Zhen Fang Incense Store specializes in traditional handcrafted incense such as incense sticks, coil incense, and mini coil incense etc. After the store was inherited by the second generation proprietor Chin-chang Chen, business flourished and the store hired nearly a dozen incense makers in its heyday, so many that they needed 3 large round tables to enjoy a meal, which is a testament to its booming business. Now in the hands of the third generation proprietor Ying-chou Chen, with the fourth generation in the Chen family currently receiving, preparing him to continue the heritage of incense-making into the next century.
The store’s products are mainly traditional Chinese handicraft made by hand, thus they are time/labor consuming and limited in quantity. With the advent of semi-automatic machinery, the store has significantly reduced manufacturing time while effectively improved production quantity and quality. However, in order to uphold the consistency of the traditional craft, most of the production process still involves manual labor, so as to continue the heritage of traditional incense-making knowhow.
