What is "chunghwa"

Chunghwa is a premium brand of Chinese cigarettes produced by the Shanghai Tobacco Company. Due to its popularity in the Chinese market, it is considered the most representative brand of Chinese cigarettes and is known as the "national smoke". The cigarette package design is a bright red color with the Tiananmen and its Huabiao pillars in gold on the front. "Chunghwa", or Zhonghua , is one of the common names for China. As a result, advertisements usually use the name as a pun, though this practice has been controversial. For example, the slogan "Love Our Chunghwa" could also translate as "Love Our China" and could therefore be used as advertisement.

The cigarettes have a smell of plums and are purported to have been the preferred cigarette brand of Mao Zedong. The Chunghwa brand can be considered a status symbol, and the cigarettes are often given as gifts.