Hi,My name is Kun ZHOU, and I am currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Capital Normal University in China. My research focuses on the global feather trade network (1900–1950),emphasizing Scandinavian-Chinese relations, technological innovations, and the industrialization of duck and goose feather processing.I was visiting scholar Department of Cross-CulturalStudies at University of Copenhagen in Denmark during Jun. 2024 – Jun. 2025.

Why Scandinavian-Chinese trade history?

I earned my PhD in Economic History from Sun Yat-sen University(Guangzhou,China) in June 2023. While working on my doctoral dissertation, which is titled Transformation of the Pearl River Delta Regional Market and the Canton-Kowloon Railway in the Early 20th Century, I was deeply intrigued by the involvement and smart strageties of the Danish Nordisk Fjer Company in feather trade in modern China.

I am struck by the ingenious and flexible business strategy of this Danish company.While writing my doctoral dissertation, I realized that this single Danish firm played an extremely important role in the feather trade in China.The feather trade itself was so significant in the 20th century because its development, along with the down industry, profoundly changed the materials and methods people used for winter warmth. Regrettably, no academic research has yet focused on this company and its trade in China.

To dig deeper, I arrived in the University of Copenhagen Denmark as a visiting scholar in June 2024, worked at the Department of Cross-Cultural Studies, under Professor Jørgen Delman’s mentorship.

What I have done?

I have been reviewing the archives concerning the Nordisk Fjer Company’s trade with China at the Black Diamond Library in Denmark.The documents detail many aspects of their operations in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, including fascinating specifics on:

*The nature of their competition with German counterparts in the feather trade

*How they used Chinese Compradors (Buy-Agents) to purchase chicken, duck, and goose feathers;

*How they determined pricing and negotiated with these agents

*How they interacted with various Chinese government agencies

This is a postcard produced by the Nordisk Fjer Company with Chinese Themes

Now I am writing a paper on the advertisement and design stragety of the duvet of Nordisk Fjer Company. Nordisk Fjer Company buy a lot of raw material from China and made them into feather pillow and duvet.

I am also working on my book draft about how Nordisk Fjer Company working in China. I will update my reseach in my blog sometimes.

What is my research plan?

I am organizing and analyzing archival materials from the Nordisk Fjer Company’s operations in China between 1913 and 1961, discovering that the company turned China’s fragmented feather market into a stable supply chain by leveraging comprador expertise and innovative strategies, ensuring a reliable source of raw materials for international markets.

My will research also examines the global flow of technology and knowledge within the down industry.The Nordisk Fjer Company. exemplified this by integrating patented technologies from Germany, the United States, the United. Kingdom, and other countries to sort and clean feathers, utilizing down as a filling material to develop various products. This approach highlights a significant intersection of design history and Industrial innovation, underscoring the company’s role in advancing down product manufacturing.

I would like to build a public data base of Nordisk Fjer Company if possible to show the interesting history between Scandinavia and China.

Extra discoveries

Nordisk Fjer Company has a strong connection with China in Mordern China. Its manager,H.O Lange once sponsored famous Chinese student, S.C Van(范岁久) who is a very sucessful merchant in Denmark, and played a very important role in China-Denmark relations during the 20th century.

Unpublished paper by Kun Zhou

Kun ZHOU（周坤）zhouafter25@gmail.com,Capital Normal University,Beijing,China

Abstract The theory and knowledge of agriculture, rural residents and rural development in modern Denmark has been influential in China. Since late 19th century, the Danish agriculture has attracted the attention of Chinese academics and government with its relatively well-developed agricultural cooperative system and achievements in egg industry and dairy industry. As the twentieth century progressed, academic perception to Danish agriculture and rural issues became further fine-grained. Chinese academics became increasingly concerned with the research question of how Denmark became an agricultural powerhouse being a “small country with a small population”. By the 1930s, the central government and the local authorities began to introduce and adapt Danish agricultural practices in terms of practice and technical application. In recent times, knowledge of Danish agricultural issues in China has been consolidated in a progressive manner, forming knowledge genealogies during cross-cultural diffusion on the dual track of theory and practice.

Keywords: Sino-Danish relations, agricultural issues, intercultural communication