This February, the China Xuan Paper Company held two events in Dublin: a showcase at the National Library of Ireland and an exhibition at University College Dublin’s Confucius Institute.

The two events were meant to highlight the traditional Chinese handicraft of xuan paper — a kind of paper made from bark and rice straw prized among calligraphers. But they also functioned as a soft relaunch of sorts for China Xuan, which largely disappeared from the international marketplace for decades after demand from its biggest export destination, Japan, dried up in the early 2000s.

Whether non-Chinese can be won over remains to be seen, however. While xuan paper has a devoted following among Chinese artists and preservationists, its long absence from the international stage and costly, labor-intensive production process means that its appeal abroad — and especially outside Asia — is unproven.

Arguably its biggest potential market — museums — didn’t feature in China Xuan’s Irish plans at all. Currently, many overseas museums restore Chinese paintings and works of calligraphy using Japanese washi paper, says Han Zhiyou, a restoration expert at the Palace Museum in Beijing.

“For institutions with substantial Chinese art collections, xuan paper is actually the more appropriate choice,” says Han. “It’s a promising market — albeit still largely untapped.”

Winning over buyers will require companies like China Xuan to maintain a more active presence abroad, something their Japanese competitors realized decades ago. But China Xuan’s chairman, Zhao Hukun, believes time is on the company’s side.

“The first step is always the hardest,” Zhao told Sixth Tone in April. “Doing something new comes with high upfront costs. But only by taking that step and making an impact can we attract more resources — government support, or perhaps partnerships with other heritage brands.”

“We can’t sit at home guessing what foreigners want,” Zhao added. “We need to meet them, learn their tastes, and then design the right products.”

The rice stuff

If papermaking is one of the “four great inventions of ancient China,” xuan paper represents its highest form. Originating in the Tang dynasty (618–907), xuan paper is crafted from the bark of the blue sandalwood tree and straw from a rice variety known as Shatian. The production process spans 100 steps that can take up to three years to complete.

The result is a paper described as having a surface as smooth and lustrous as jade and a tensile strength that surpasses silk. Its delicate balance between absorbency and ink receptivity allows ink to diffuse through the fibers, producing a layered effect sought after by literati for centuries. It is a silent but vital part of some of the most iconic works in Chinese calligraphy and painting.

In addition to its physical characteristics, xuan paper is also renowned for its exceptional longevity. Handmade xuan paper can endure for centuries, even millennia, without fading or decaying.

According to Han, the Palace Museum researcher, this durability is rooted in both material and method. Industrial paper is made from wood pulp, which contains many impurities and short fibers. Its production also involves chemical bleaches that weaken the fibers. In contrast, xuan paper is bleached without chemicals: The raw materials are laid out on mountain slopes and exposed to sun and rain for an entire year. This slow, natural process preserves the integrity of the fibers.

It also means that life inside the China Xuan factory can seem like a relic of the pre-industrial era. Long before dawn, workers rise to make their way to the same building the company has used for over 70 years. There, they perform each of the 108 steps in the papermaking cycle by hand, preserving a craft passed down through generations.

Nothing is automated. The scooping process, for example, demands two skilled workers. With practiced hands, they dip a screen into the pulp vat — first deep, then shallow — swaying it gently to coax the fibers together. As the pulp settles, it forms a delicate, even sheet, like a fine veil. With a slow and steady motion, they lift it from the screen, peeling it away with utmost care.

The end product — retailed in China as Red Star Xuan — sells for over 2,000 yuan ($277) per pack of 100 sheets. But can that business model work abroad?

Going (back) out

Huang Yingfu, China Xuan’s 59-year-old deputy general manager, is emblematic of the company’s approach to staff hiring and retention. When he was born, in 1966, his parents both worked at the factory — then a wholly state-owned enterprise with its own farmland, hospital kindergarten, playground, and pig farm. The work was demanding, but life was good for the workers, who were guaranteed lifelong employment and solid benefits.

The factory’s stability was a function of its importance. For decades, it played a key role in China’s export strategy, producing large quantities of high-quality xuan paper for markets overseas, particularly Japan, and bringing in substantial foreign exchange. Even during the Cultural Revolution, production at the factory went on uninterrupted.

Huang joined the factory in 1986, at 20. Six years later, in 1992 — the year China formally embraced what it called the “socialist market economy” — the factory became part of the China Xuan Paper Group — a new entity with the right to manage its own import and export operations. Huang recalls that as late as 2000, exports still accounted for roughly 75% of total revenue.

Around that time, the company’s largest export market, Japan, was undergoing a quiet transformation. After its economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, demand for luxury goods waned. More importantly, Japanese papermakers were reviving their own traditions — particularly washi, a kind of paper similar to xuan paper — and infusing them with elements of modern design better suited to contemporary markets. As washi gained in popularity, it gradually displaced xuan paper overseas.

By its own admission, China Xuan was slow to react to this shift. The booming Chinese economy of the 2000s and 2010s meant there was plenty of demand domestically, which helped offset the decline in exports.

But now, with domestic demand cooling, the company faces falling sales and ballooning inventories. Meanwhile, exports have dwindled to a mere fraction of its sales, accounting for less than 10% of its total revenue, according to Huang.

“We’ve spent so many years focused on preservation — holding fast to the craftsmanship passed down from our ancestors — without ever proactively seeking change or innovation,” Huang told Sixth Tone. “In the past two years, we’ve come to realize that we have to change. We can’t keep hiding our treasures in a locked chest. We have to go out and hawk them.”

“We want xuan paper to remain a desirable product — not just a revered relic,” he added.

To that end, the company has set new strategic goals, including selling on e-commerce platforms and expanding its overseas footprint beyond traditional markets like Japan or Southeast Asia.

In fairness, the company has made efforts to market itself overseas during the past two and a half decades. It was the focus of a short film on traditional papermaking featured in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And one year later, it helped China secure UNESCO recognition for handmade xuan paper making as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

But these efforts were largely about cultural diplomacy, not market-driven outreach. That changed last year when the company received a proposal from Hu Tingting, who suggested organizing an exhibition of xuan paper culture in Dublin, Ireland.

Now 36, Hu was born in Wuhu, in the eastern province of Anhui, not far from China Xuan’s factory. She had been pursuing a Ph.D. in sociolinguistics at Trinity College Dublin since 2018, and as she approached graduation in 2023, she wondered whether she could introduce one of the most iconic elements of her hometown’s heritage to an Irish audience.

She reached out to Professor Wang Liming, director of the Confucius Institute at University College Dublin and a fellow Anhui native, who in turn pitched it to China Xuan.

“I honestly didn’t expect much,” Hu told Sixth Tone. “I thought the chances were slim. After all, I was just an overseas student, and they were a major enterprise.”

To her surprise, the proposal was quickly approved. The company, which had begun looking for ways to market abroad, saw in the proposal a way to get its brand in front of consumers overseas, and Hu’s idea became a reality in early 2024.

Still, given the costs of organizing overseas events, some experts wonder if China Xuan is aiming for the right market. Han, the preservationist, told Sixth Tone that the Palace Museum frequently uses xuan paper in the restoration and mounting of ancient Chinese calligraphy and paintings. Yet many foreign museums rely on Japanese washi instead, as Japanese papermakers have marketed aggressively to this market.

This state of affairs is less than ideal from a preservation perspective, however. “Restoration requires materials that closely match the original in both appearance and performance,” Han explained. “Even slight differences in fiber composition can affect the outcome.”

Zhao, China Xuan’s chairman, says he’s eager to collaborate with foreign museums, though the company currently lacks the necessary contacts. He sees considerable promise in the international market — museum partnerships being just one example — but acknowledges the company has a lot of catching up to do. Just this April, Zhao visited Japan to learn how washi producers have innovated and expanded their reach both at home and abroad.

“In terms of production, we’re the industry leader in xuan paper,” Zhao said. “But when it comes to going global — we’re still total beginners.”

(Header image: Workers dry “xuan” paper in Jing County, Anhui province, April 2025. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone)