On July 9, Xuelei Fragrance Museum marked its first anniversary. That day, the museum hosted a forum themed “How Fragrance Becomes a New Gateway to Urban Culture” and simultaneously launched the week-long “Fragrance Carnival: An Art Party You Can Smell,” presenting, through diverse programming, the connections between scent and urban culture, industry innovation, and public life.
The anniversary forum brought together guests from the museum and heritage, academic, industry, and international communities. Weng Haocong, Director of Xuelei Fragrance Museum, shared practices and observations from the museum’s first year. He noted that scent can serve not only as a language of exhibition, but also as a medium connecting urban memory, cultural communication, industry innovation, and public experience.
Guests from institutions including Guangzhou Museum, Guangdong Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and South China Agricultural University explored topics ranging from Guangzhou’s spice trade history and Lingnan aromatic botanicals to scented landscapes in Lingnan gardens and international research on olfactory heritage. Together, they examined the broader potential of scent in urban cultural communication and the integration of culture and tourism.
The public programme, “Fragrance Carnival: An Art Party You Can Smell,” opened on the same day. Centred on film, music, Eastern incense traditions, wellbeing, artistic creation, and public co-creation, the programme invited visitors to perceive, understand, and document scent through exhibitions, talks, performances, hands-on workshops, and interactive experiences.
Over the past year, Xuelei Fragrance Museum has continued to explore multisensory exhibition practices centred on the sense of smell. The museum features multiple themed galleries and more than 300 interactive scent stations, systematically presenting the history of fragrance use in Eastern and Western cultures, the development of the perfume industry, and knowledge of fragrance ingredients. Through digital interactions and AI-powered fragrance-blending experiences, visitors are able to establish personalized scent connections.
From professional dialogue to public engagement, the first anniversary marks a new starting point for Xuelei Fragrance Museum. The museum will continue to bring fragrance culture beyond the exhibition hall and into the city and everyday life, making the museum a space where cultural exchange, public participation, and innovative experiences continuously unfold.