About this book:

*Artisans and Markets* provides a comprehensive social and economic history of Chinese craftsmanship from the Song dynasty to the digital age. It challenges the notion of craft as a static precursor to industrialization, instead portraying workshops as dynamic institutions capable of sophisticated scaling and technical adaptation. The narrative traces the evolution of specialized sectors—such as the porcelain complex of Jingdezhen, silk and cotton textile production, and metallurgical trades—highlighting how these industries navigated shifting consumer demands, global trade routes, and the persistent presence of state regulation.

The book emphasizes the social structures that sustained artisanal production, particularly the roles of apprenticeship, guilds, and native-place associations. These institutions managed skill transmission and quality standards while providing a framework for solidarity and negotiation against state extraction. The text explores the gendered division of labor, noting how women’s household industry in textiles provided a crucial economic foundation for the empire. It also details the sophisticated "reputation economies" that preceded modern branding, where marks, seals, and broker networks mediated trust in a vast, impersonal market.

As China encountered Western industrialization in the 19th century, the book describes a unique hybridization of craft and factory. Rather than a total displacement of traditional methods, Chinese artisans integrated new machinery into existing skill repertoires during the Self-Strengthening and Republican eras. This trajectory continued through the socialist transformation—which reorganized workshops into state collectives—and into the reform era, where de-collectivization and the rise of township enterprises sparked a craft revival.

In the contemporary era, the book examines how tradition is commodified through heritage tourism and the "intangible cultural heritage" system. It concludes by analyzing the impact of e-commerce and live-streaming platforms, which have created new digital paths for ancient crafts. By placing Chinese development in a global comparative perspective, the work argues that China’s industrial story is a braided history where hand-skills and high technology continually inform and reshape one another.

What You'll Find Inside:

• The book traces how Chinese artisans adapted craft production from medieval hand tools to modern mechanization and digital platforms while preserving skill-based traditions across dynasties.
• It examines the evolving relationship between state power and craft industries, including regulations, monopolies, taxation, and the shifting balance between state control and market freedom.
• It analyzes guilds and craft associations as institutions that provided solidarity, regulated quality, controlled apprenticeship, and negotiated with authorities.
• It explores the gendered division of labor in textile production, highlighting women's dominant role in household-based silk and cotton industries from Song to modern times.
• It discusses the contemporary revival of traditional crafts through e-commerce platforms, heritage tourism, and cultural preservation efforts in the digital age.

Who's It For:

This book is essential reading for economic historians, scholars of Chinese history and culture, anthropologists studying craft traditions, and anyone interested in the global history of industrialization. It will particularly benefit readers seeking to understand how artisan communities navigated technological change, state regulation, and market forces across centuries, offering valuable comparative perspectives on China's unique path from workshop to factory.