Starbucks Partners With Shaanxi History Museum on Tang Dynasty-Themed Campaign in Xi'an
Starbucks teamed with the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an on a Tang Dynasty campaign featuring co-branded merchandise, limited drinks, and a costumed tour bus.
Starbucks (星巴克) has launched a limited-time campaign in Xi'an in partnership with the Shaanxi History Museum, centering on Tang Dynasty culture. The collaboration draws on the museum's Tang Dynasty Mandarin Duck and Lotus Petal Pattern Gold Bowl artifact as a design source for a range of co-branded merchandise, including gift boxes, mugs, pure titanium products, and branded bear peripherals.
Beverage offerings were developed by Xi'an Select store partners and feature local cultural imagery in limited-edition form. Dedicated theme stores were also set up as part of the activation.
A themed tour bus served as a mobile experience space, its exterior and interior dressed in Tang Dynasty design. The bus visited multiple cultural landmarks across Xi'an, incorporating live performances of "Li Bai's Poem Journey Through Chang'an," in which performers costumed as the Tang poet Li Bai provided cultural commentary and historical context to participants during the city tour.
The campaign operated across Starbucks' Xi'an Select stores, physical retail locations, and the touring bus format, combining merchandise, food and beverage, and immersive cultural programming in a single activation.
The activation reflects a pattern among international food and beverage brands in China of anchoring local store experiences to regional heritage — using museums, artifacts, and historical figures as cultural credibility rather than generic lifestyle imagery. Xi'an's identity as the former Tang capital Chang'an gives the campaign a strong place-based logic that would be difficult to replicate in other markets.
