China at London Craft week

Zhao Fei at the opening ceremony

by New Worker correspondent

London once again  became the show-piece for traditional arts and crafts during the 2026 London Craft Week which ran until 17th May. Celebrating outstanding British and international creativity, the festival brought together over a thousand established and emerging makers, designers, brands and galleries from around the world. A curated selection based not on price or fame, but underlying substance. Plus, that essential dash of magic and inspiration that separates great from good.
Must-see exhibitions and events were held across the capital during the 12th edition of London Craft Week as well as a series of demonstrations, artist talks, and micro-workshops that showed how communities preserve heritage while reimagining it for the future. 
The China Pavilion showcased achievements in the preservation and innovation of Chinese craftsmanship and highlighted its important role in supporting poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation.
Guy Salter, the founder and Chairman of London Craft Week, said “the works presented in this year’s China Pavilion continuously update and reinterpret tradition through contemporary art and fashion design, challenging conventional perceptions of traditional craft itself.
“The exhibition unfolds through three curatorial threads: reconstructed historical wedding attire, the textile systems of Southwest Chinese ethnic minorities, and auspicious motifs that run throughout the exhibition space. Together, they form a broader discussion about the emotional structures embedded within Chinese culture – how family, marriage, female labour, bodily experience and intergenerational memory are preserved through needlework, fabric and handcraft”.
With the theme of Those Who Make China Beautiful, this year’s China Pavilion focuses on Chinese female handicraft creators and intangible cultural heritage inheritors. The exhibition featured wedding costumes, ethnic embroidery, auspicious patterns, and contemporary craft innovation. It integrated the thousand-year-old Eastern context with contemporary design expression to present a credible, lovely and respectable Chinese image to the world. Helping to promote China’s excellent traditional culture overseas and continuing to write a new chapter of exchanges and mutual learning between China and the United Kingdom.
The exhibition was organised by Art and Design Press, with the strong support of the London Craft Week Organising Committee and the Chinese Embassy in the UK, Media support was provided by the Nouvelles d’Europe UK. Important guests from China and the UK in fields including art, business, and design gathered at the opening site to witness Eastern crafts on one of the world’s top craft stages.
At the opening ceremony Zhao Fei from the Chinese Embassy in London said China’s traditional craftsmanship, both well preserved and continuously evolving, is an important vehicle for carrying forward Chinese culture in the new era. It is a vivid expression of the beauty of China. China’s beauty is rooted in its historical and cultural heritage, shaped by continuous development, grounded in its people’s pursuit of a better life, and enriched through exchanges and mutual learning among civilisations. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, released not long ago, highlights the need to better preserve intangible cultural heritage and create new scenarios for immersive experiences. This will provide stronger institutional support for the development of crafts, while opening up broader prospects for cultural exchange and cooperation between China and the United Kingdom.

A traditional Dulong blanket at Craft Week

 by New Worker correspondent

David Francis and the blanket

A traditional Dulong blanket from China's least populous ethnic minority made its debut at the opening of the China National Pavilion during the 2025 London Craft Week which ran until 18th May. The China Pavilion is themed "Tian Gong Kai Wu" after a renowned 17th-century Chinese encyclopedia widely regarded as the world's first systematic record of Chinese craftsmanship and agricultural knowledge. 
The Dulong primarily reside in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in south-west China. The Dulong blanket, woven by Dulong women, is a cultural symbol of their community.
The Dulong display was supported by the Mothers' Needlework initiative, launched by the China Ping An Group and the Art and Design Press. The programme aims to promote women's employment and alleviate poverty.
At the opening Zhao Fei, from the Chinese embassy, highlighted the shared heritage of craftsmanship in both China and Britain. He noted that both countries have splendid craft traditions, and expressed hope that this year's London Craft Week would deepen mutual understanding and friendship between the two nations.
Qian Zhu, president and editor-in-chief of Art and Design magazine, said that Dulong blankets and its related textiles generate annual sales of approximately 500,000 yuan (£51,600) in the UK. For an ethnic group with a population of just 7,000, the growing domestic and international recognition of Dulong textiles is a significant achievement.
David Francis, a lecturer in Curating Asian Art at SOAS, University of London, whose research includes ethnic minority communities in China said he was excited to see textiles he had encountered in China now being exhibited in London. He emphasised the importance of integrating traditional craft with contemporary design to resonate with modern audiences.

A taste of China!

 

by New Worker correspondent

London Craft Week kicked off on 12^th May with events featuring the very best in the craft and design world taking place across the heart of the capital.Now in its eleventh year, 400 events, exhibitions, creative classes, and around a thousand international artisans demonstrated their skills via a very impressive programme of master-classes, demonstrations, workshop tours, talks and exhibitions. And during the festival NCP leader Andy Brooks joined academics and leaders in the tea trade for a Chinese cultural event at the historic former Royal Mint complex near the Tower of London.
China has participated in the London Craft Week since 2015 continuously promoting cultural exchanges and cooperation with the UK and others.
The Anxi Tieguanyin: Tea from the East presentation show-cased the contemporary development of Chinese tea and its culture as well as a performance of the traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Anxi Tieguanyin tea goes back back fourteen hundred years to the days of the Tang Dynasty. Favoured by the imperial court its fame later spread throughout China and even across the globe.
This was followed by launch of a new childrens’ book set in the tea plantations of China. The author, Daishu Ma, is a Chinese illustrator and graphic artist working in East London. Her first graphic novel Leaf was published in 2014. Her latest, Tiger Don’t Worry, tells the story of a little girl and her Tiger friend trying, against all odds, to make good tea. Published by Post Wave it’s available in most London bookshops for only £12.99.