Twenty traditions, five families, one question each
Chinese craft is not one market. It is dozens of towns, each with a trade it has done for centuries and a workshop hierarchy that decides what you get for your money. This page is the map we work from: what each tradition actually is, where it is made, and the single question that separates a good piece from an expensive one.
This is not a catalogue. We do not sell any of it. Everything below is sourced to a brief, from a workshop, at a price the workshop sets and you pay directly. What we add is the shortlist, the sample check and the export paperwork — and the ability to tell you, before you commit, which of these traditions a factory in another province is quietly imitating.
Lacquer and wood
The slowest work on this list. Lacquer is built up in coats and cured in humidity, not heat, so a single piece can occupy a workshop for months. Wood and bamboo sit beside it because the body underneath is usually one of the two.
Lacquerware
Carved (tihong), inlaid with shell (luodian), or built in thin coats and polished to a mirror. Boxes, trays, tea caddies, pen rests. Fuzhou's bodiless lacquer is formed over a clay or cloth core that is later removed.
AskWhat is the body, how many coats, and was the carving cut by hand or pressed from a mould?
Wood carving
Dongyang is the panel and screen tradition, with a deep openwork cut that reads as shadow. Quanzhou carves temple figures and architectural brackets. Small architectural models and carved box lids travel best.
AskIs the stock solid or laminated, and was the grain followed or forced?
Bamboo weaving and carving
Split bamboo woven into baskets, tea mats, lidded boxes and the fine "armour" weave used for cases. Carved bamboo (zhuke) is a separate trade: brush pots and wrist rests cut from a single culm.
AskHow wide are the strips, and were they split by hand? Bleached and smoked bamboo age differently.
Clay and stone
Everything that comes out of the ground and is either fired or cut. The dividing line inside this family is simple: fired pieces are judged on the surface, and cut pieces are judged on what the material already was before anyone touched it.
Porcelain and celadon
Jingdezhen for blue-and-white and famille rose, Dehua for blanc de chine figures, Longquan for celadon with a glaze that pools in the carving. Vases, covered jars, tea sets, plates.
AskIs the decoration underglaze, fired into the body — or a transfer applied on top of the glaze?
Yixing purple clay
Teapots above all, then cups and tea caddies. The clay is left unglazed, so the surface is the material itself — which is why a moulded pot cannot hide.
AskHand-built or slip-cast? A moulded pot has a seam, and the wall is suspiciously even.
Clay figurines
Huishan's Da Afu figure, Tianjin's painted clay figures, Fengxiang's bright block-coloured animals. Small, light, and the cheapest way to put a Chinese object on a shelf.
AskHand-painted or decal? And how was the figure dried — kiln-dried clay cracks differently from air-dried.
Jade carving
Pendants, seals and small vessels, plus the "mountain" carvings that use the stone's own colour bands as part of the design. Suzhou is the fine, restrained school.
AskNephrite or jadeite — and was the colour found in the stone, or induced?
Ink stones
Duan and She stones with a carved cover, sold to calligraphers and to gift buyers as a set with brush and ink. Judged by how the stone takes water, not by the carving on the lid.
AskWhich pit is the stone from — and did the carving cut into the grinding surface?
Seal stone and Yuhua pebbles
Shoushan and Qingtian for carved seals; Nanjing's Yuhua pebbles for the pattern that sits inside the stone and only appears when it is wet.
AskIs the colour natural, and were cracks filled before polishing?
Thread and weave
Nanjing's own family, and the one where photographs are least trustworthy: machine work photographs better than hand work. Everything here has to be judged by looking at the back, the repeat, or the smell of the dye.
Brocade and kesi tapestry
Yunjin is the Nanjing court brocade, woven on a wooden drawloom taller than the weaver. Song brocade and kesi — silk tapestry woven to a picture — are the Suzhou pair.
AskWoven or jacquard? A jacquard repeats exactly; a drawloom never quite does.
Embroidery
The four famous schools. Su for double-sided work that has no wrong side, Xiang for a painterly finish, Shu for saturated colour, Yue for gold thread and density.
AskTurn it over. Hand stitch leaves an irregular back; machine stitch leaves a bobbin lattice.
Indigo resist dye
Nantong blue calico uses carved wooden blocks and a soybean-and-lime paste resist. Guizhou batik draws the resist with wax. Both are indigo, and both fade honestly.
AskFermented indigo or synthetic vat? The real one smells of the vat and rubs off on the hands.
Velvet flowers
Ronghua: silk velvet on twisted wire, made in Nanjing for centuries and traditionally worn at weddings. Now brooches, hairpins and small gift pieces.
AskSilk velvet or synthetic plush — and is the wire core copper, which holds a shape?
Paper, print and play
The lightest and cheapest family, which makes it the easiest to get wrong: printed pattern passed off as hand-cutting, a re-carved block sold as an original, a kite that only looks like a kite.
Xuan paper and woodblock print
Xuan comes in raw (sheng) and sized (shu) grades, and the bark-to-straw ratio is the grade. New Year prints come from three famous workshops, each with its own colour palette.
AskIs this a fresh pull from an original block, a re-carved block, or a scan printed on fake paper?
Lanterns
Qinhuai lanterns are silk stretched over bent bamboo, made in small family workshops along the river. Zigong builds the large illuminated sets for festivals.
AskBamboo frame or welded wire — and silk or printed polyester over it?
Kites
Swallow kites, centipede kites and the flat geometric kites painted by hand on paper or silk, sparred with bamboo. Weifang holds the largest kite meeting in the world.
AskHand-painted sail or printed — and bamboo spars or glass fibre?
Fans
Folding fans in paper or silk on bamboo, round "moon" fans on a single handle, and Rongchang's palm-leaf folding fans. The fan is a print surface as much as an object.
AskAre the ribs one piece of bamboo or laminated — and is the face painted or printed?
Metal and glass
Small, dense and expensive to ship by volume — but this is the family that reads as "gift" fastest, because metal and enamel carry colour without needing to be explained.
Gold leaf and filigree
Nanjing hammers gold into leaf thin enough to float; filigree (huasi) twists fine wire into settings and hair ornaments. Both are trades measured in grams and hours.
AskLeaf thickness and carat — and is the filigree soldered or woven without solder?
Cloisonné and bronze
Cloisonné: a copper body, wire cells, enamel fired in and polished back level. Bronze censers and vessels are cast and patinated instead. Two different trades that share a showroom.
AskHow many enamel firings — and is the body cast, spun, or pressed sheet?
Inside-painted bottles
Snuff bottles painted from the inside through a neck barely wider than a pencil, with a bent brush. A landscape on the inner wall of a bottle is one of the few crafts that cannot be faked cheaply.
AskPainted through the neck, or a printed insert dropped in? Only one of them has brush marks.
Why we list the question instead of the price. A number without the four variables behind it is a sales device. Ask the question in each entry and the answer tells you whether a quotation is comparable to another one — which is the only thing that lets you decide, from another continent, without being in the room.
Looking for a tradition that is not on this list?
Twenty is a map, not the territory. There are well over a hundred recognised craft traditions in China, and we add to this page as we visit workshops. Tell us what you need and we will tell you honestly whether we can source it — or whether it is a trade we do not know well enough to represent.
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