Wooden furniture was made in China from the earliest times. Furniture excavated from ancient Chu sites dating back to c.250 BCE shows that wooden furniture and lacquer decoration have been in continuous use in China for many hundreds of years. However, it was not until the rise of international trade, great cities, and wealthy elite that cabinet-makers made the great aesthetic advances that would characterize their art.

The golden age of furniture production in China began during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when the ideal was simple furniture with clean lines and sparse decoration that was limited to latticework and open or relief carving. Furniture was of minimal classical style, abundantly produced in durable tropical hardwood shipped from Southeast Asia, especially after the ban on imports was lifted in 1567.

During the early years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), this ideal remained entrenched. However, as China grew wealthy in its stability, the decorative arts began to reflect a new attitude of confidence and prosperity. Pieces of furniture became larger and heavier, while always retaining a fundamental, simple purity.

Original Material
Expendable furniture was made from cheap bamboo, but Chinese cabinet-makers prized indigenous hardwoods such as rosewood above all others. These were generally sourced from the warmer areas of southern China, although imports from Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations supplemented home-grown stocks. Burr woods were also popular, but were usually used sparingly, due to cost and scarcity. The most coveted timber of all was zitan, an extremely dense and attractive variety of sandalwood that was literally worth its weight in gold.

Modern Times
As of 1980 the Chinese furniture industry started to accelerate mainly due to its domestic market growth. State companies were the first to acquire modern European machinery and equipment. Simultaneously, companies from Taiwan and Hong-Kong entered into the Chinese mainland, utilizing innovative marketing ideas, new techniques and various promotion channels. In the late 80’s international product sourcing began, and a notable export market was created. Quality and industry standards became part of a modernization campaign that allowed Chinese furniture manufacturers to adapt and compete with more developed countries.

It must be noted that the significant growth in the Chinese Furniture Sector was definitely attributed to the Taiwanese companies. They were creating factories in China that eventually became to play a fundamental role in the Chinese furniture industry, revolutionizing local furniture-making sectors with state of the art manufacturing facilities and modern business concepts. These Taiwanese-Chinese furniture manufacturers have been aggressive automation adopters and exporters by pursuing a "tech-labor intensive" furniture manufacturing approach, which has enabled them to achieve both production efficiency from automation and high added values from craftsmen.

Taiwanese furniture manufacturers achieved rapid growth in exports and became the dominant force in furniture exporting in China. It has been estimated that Taiwanese companies are contributing 75 percent of the furniture export shipments from China (CNFA 2003).

More information about the Chinese Furniture Industry and Chinese Furniture Manufacturers is available in our Research Report Section. If you would like to read these reports in Spanish, please visit Muebles China.