Forty terms, in plain English

Craft terms

Words a workshop will use about its own work, usually without explaining them.

大漆 dàqī

Raw lacquer, the sap of the lacquer tree, cured by humidity rather than heat. Not the same material as polyurethane, which is also sold as “lacquer”.

剔红 tīhóng

Carved lacquer. The pattern is cut down into forty to eighty cured layers, so the depth of the cut is the number of coats.

脱胎 tuōtāi

Bodiless lacquer. Cloth is laid over a clay mould, built up with lacquer, and the mould is broken out afterwards. Thin, light, slow.

螺钿 luódiàn

Mother-of-pearl inlay. Shell is cut into shapes and set into the lacquer surface, then polished flat.

戗金 qiāngjīn

Incised gold. Lines are cut into the cured lacquer and filled with gold leaf or powder.

推光 tuīguāng

“Pushing light.” The surface is rubbed by hand with fine powder and then with the palm until it reads as depth rather than shine. It cannot be sprayed on.

青花 qīnghuā

Blue-and-white. Cobalt painted under the glaze and fired once. The blue is in the glaze layer, not on top of it.

釉里红 yòulǐhóng

Underglaze red. Copper painted under the glaze — the same family of pigment that makes celadon green, and difficult to fire to an even red.

粉彩 fěncǎi

Famille rose. Opaque enamel painted over the fired glaze and fired again at a lower temperature, which is why the colours sit on the surface.

开片 kāipiàn

Crackle. Deliberate glaze cracks, controlled by how the piece cools. In celadon it is a feature; in a dinner service it may not be.

紫砂 zǐshā

Purple clay, from Yixing. Unglazed and slightly porous, built from slabs or thrown, then finished with tools rather than cast.

缂丝 kèsī

Tapestry weave with discontinuous wefts. The colour stops and starts, so every colour boundary is a small join — which is why more colours cost more than you expect.

云锦 yúnjǐn

Nanjing brocade, woven on a wooden drawloom by two people. It advances a few centimetres a day, so the price is really loom hours.

蓝印花布 lányìn huābù

Indigo resist dye. A paste resist is applied, the cloth is dipped in indigo, and the paste is scraped away leaving the pattern in white.

花丝 huāsī

Filigree. Metal drawn to wire around 0.2mm, bent into shapes, filled and soldered. Every soldering pass anneals the metal, so the number of passes is planned.

Trade terms

The commercial vocabulary. These are the words that decide who pays for what when something goes wrong.

FOB Free On Board

The seller delivers the goods onto the ship and covers everything up to that point. Freight and insurance from there are the buyer's. The most common basis for craft orders.

CIF Cost, Insurance, Freight

The seller pays freight and insurance to the destination port — but risk still passes when the goods are loaded. Paying for the freight is not the same as carrying the risk.

EXW Ex Works

The buyer collects from the workshop door and handles export clearance. Cheapest on paper, and the most work in practice.

DDP Delivered Duty Paid

The seller handles everything including import duty. Rarely offered on craft goods, because the duty rate depends on a classification the seller cannot control.

LCL Less than Container Load

A shared container, priced per cubic metre. Normal for first orders and for anything under about fifteen cubic metres.

FCL Full Container Load

One container, one shipper. Cheaper per cubic metre once you fill it, and much simpler at both ends.

MOQ Minimum Order Quantity

The smallest run a workshop will take. It is usually set by the material or the setup, not by the workshop's preference — which is why it varies so much between crafts.

AQL Acceptance Quality Limit

The defect rate a sampling plan is designed to accept. It is a number agreed in advance, not an opinion formed on the day.

PI Proforma Invoice

The document you pay a deposit against. It should carry the specification, not just the price.

CI / PL Commercial Invoice / Packing List

What customs reads. The packing list is also what your forwarder prices the shipment from.

HS code

The tariff classification. It decides the duty rate, and it is arguable — which means it is worth agreeing before the goods ship rather than after.

CO / Form A

Certificate of Origin. Form A is used for preferential tariff schemes; whether it helps depends on your country and the goods.

T/T Telegraphic Transfer

A bank wire. The usual structure is a deposit at order and the balance before shipment — which is exactly why the inspection happens before the balance.

L/C Letter of Credit

A bank guarantees payment against documents. Expensive and slow, and rarely worth it below six figures.

Volumetric weight

Chargeable weight based on carton dimensions rather than actual weight. Air freight almost always uses it, which is why a light bulky order can cost more to ship than a heavy compact one.

Workshop language

The words used on the factory floor and in WeChat. Knowing them changes how you are answered.

打样 dǎyàng

To make a sample. “能不能打样” is the first question in most sourcing conversations.

大货 dàhuò

Bulk production, as opposed to a sample. The distinction matters because the price and the process are usually different.

跟单 gēndān

Order follow-up — the person whose job is to chase the schedule. A workshop with a dedicated 跟单 usually delivers closer to its quoted date.

验货 yànhuò

Inspection. “验货报告” is the report; what matters is whether it contains counts and measurements or only adjectives.

拼柜 pīnguì

Consolidating several orders into one container. It is how small orders get sea freight rates at all.

报关 bàoguān

Customs declaration. Handled by a broker, and the source of most delays that are nobody's fault.

商检 shāngjiǎn

Commodity inspection, sometimes required by the destination country for particular goods.

退税 tuìshuì

The export VAT rebate. It is part of how Chinese exporters price, which is one reason a quotation can move when the rebate rate changes.

账期 zhàngqī

Payment terms. “没有账期” means payment before shipment, which is the normal position for a first order with a new workshop.

返单 fǎndān

A repeat order. Workshops price the second order differently from the first, because the setup is already done — and it is worth asking them to.