I. Why a Catch-All Category Still Merits a Look

"Other manufacturing" is never an easy subject. In statistical terms it is the residual bin, holding everything not listed elsewhere: daily-use goods, writing brushes and pens, eyewear, clock parts, and all manner of crafts and stationery. These items are low in unit price, fragmented across categories, and made by small firms, hard to compress into one resounding industrial slogan, so researchers tend to skip past them.

But tip out Fujian's version of this bin and you find several cards of real weight. Anxi has woven rattan and iron into a home-crafts cluster holding about a third of the global market; Putian has built arts and crafts into a base worth hundreds of billions of yuan and makes roughly a third of the world's commercial oil paintings; Xiamen is one of China's five major eyewear production bases. These industries share a trait: none is large enough on its own to count as a "big industry," yet each ranks among the national or even global leaders within an extremely narrow niche. That is precisely why this catch-all category is worth examining: it wins not on scale but on county-level niche craftsmanship that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

This report will not force the bin's contents into a single supply chain, which would distort the picture. The true shape of Fujian's other manufacturing is several unrelated, self-contained clusters. Below, the most distinctive of them are described one by one.

II. Anxi: A Global Home-Crafts Capital Woven from Rattan and Iron

The most recognizable piece of Fujian's other manufacturing is the home rattan-iron craft of Anxi, Quanzhou.

Anxi was originally famous for Tieguanyin tea; rattan-iron is its second card. The craft grafts bamboo-and-rattan weaving onto ironwork to make flower stands, lamps, ornaments, gardening and home décor pieces, a textbook export-oriented crafts cluster. In 2019, the World Crafts Council named Anxi a "World Capital of Rattan-Iron Crafts." By 2024 the county's home rattan-iron crafts industry posted annual output above RMB 28.6 billion, with products sold to more than 60 countries and regions across Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia and Japan; exports account for roughly a third of national output in the category, and products hold about 35% of the global market and more than half of the domestic one.

Behind these figures lies an extremely dispersed factory network. The county has about 2,500 rattan-iron home-crafts firms, more than 3,000 processing points, around 150,000 people directly employed and over 300,000 benefiting indirectly. This pattern of "many firms, small units, processing points everywhere" is typical of a handicraft cluster: its moat lies not in one or two leaders but in the whole body of artisans, supporting hardware and township-wide processing network built up over decades, which would be enormously costly to relocate wholesale. In recent years Anxi has also pushed the trade online; in 2023 the county's home-crafts online retail sales topped RMB 10 billion.

III. Putian: An Arts-and-Crafts Base from Wood Carving to Oil Painting

If Anxi is about the global share of a single category, Putian is about the breadth of the arts-and-crafts category.

Putian is a heartland of Chinese arts and crafts, spanning craft furniture, carving, gold-and-silver jewelry, oil painting, incense and home décor. In 2021, the city's above-scale arts-and-crafts enterprises posted output of about RMB 53 billion, roughly 30% of Fujian's arts-and-crafts output; the industry employs nearly 300,000 people across more than 7,000 firms. Different districts have their own focus: Xianyou specializes in classical craft furniture and agarwood, Chengxiang in home décor and oil painting, Licheng in gold-and-silver jewelry, incense and wood carving. This "division of labor within a single city" makes Putian's arts and crafts not a thin concept but several parallel niche tracks.

The most distinctive piece is oil painting. Putian's commercial oil paintings account for about a third of global output, with more than 90% sold to European and American markets; together with Shenzhen and Xiamen, it is one of the world's three major commercial oil-painting production bases, and in 2017 the China Light Industry Federation named it a "China Oil Painting Industry Capital." That a city known for craft furniture and jewelry should also hold globally significant commercial oil-painting capacity speaks to the depth of Putian's arts-and-crafts base. Notably, Putian's oil painting is gradually shifting from early copying and reproduction toward original work and brands, a theme of upgrading that the whole arts-and-crafts base shares.

IV. Xiamen: A Piece of Precision Light Industry Hidden in the Lens

The third face of Fujian's other manufacturing is Xiamen's eyewear manufacturing.

Xiamen is one of China's five major eyewear production bases, with annual industry output above RMB 10 billion, concentrated mainly in Haicang District. After more than 30 years of development the district has gathered nearly 40 eyewear manufacturers, of which more than ten are above-scale and several exceed RMB 100 million in annual output, cultivating backbone firms such as Yarui Industrial, Chengyi Optics and Aipu Optics, with some products in the national first tier. In the first quarter of 2024, Xiamen exported about RMB 489 million of eyewear and accessories, up 24.7% year on year, roughly more than half of the province's eyewear exports.

Eyewear is often filed into the miscellany of "other manufacturing," yet it is in fact a precision light industry demanding considerable accuracy and craft: from metal and sheet forming of frames, to optical grinding and coating of lenses, to brand design and export channels, the chain is not simple. Xiamen eyewear's recent moves are to upgrade from contract manufacturing toward own brands and smart manufacturing, working to shed the "making lenses for others" identity, the same climb from contract work to brands that Putian oil painting (copying to original) and Anxi rattan-iron (export trade to e-commerce) are also making.

V. Beyond the Few: The True Texture of a Catch-All Category

Put together Anxi rattan-iron, Putian arts-and-crafts and oil painting, and Xiamen eyewear, then add the pen-and-brush making, clock parts, stationery and assorted daily-use goods workshops scattered around, and the full picture of Fujian's other manufacturing becomes clear: it is not a single industry but a patchwork zone stitched from several county-level niche clusters.

This zone deserves honest description. Most of it is indeed low-priced, small-batch, fragmented light-industry goods, lacking a unified statistical caliber or a resounding industrial label, with many niches too small to merit a section of their own, which is the true face of this residual category and need not be inflated. Yet in this seemingly unremarkable corner, Fujian has grown several national and even global niche champions. The more scattered and fragmented the category, the more valuable a cluster that achieves a global share within it, because it rests purely on the depth of niche craft rather than a pile of resources or scale.

For upstream suppliers, this scattering means procurement demand is diverse and dispersed, to be approached category by category rather than with a single lens.

VI. The Upstream Chain: Several Non-Interchangeable Procurement Systems

The nature of a catch-all category dictates that its upstream procurement demand also splits into several mutually non-interchangeable systems:

  • Metals and hardware fittings: Anxi rattan-iron's iron frames and Xiamen eyewear's metal frames and hinges create steady demand for metal wire, hardware and surface treatment, each with distinct precision requirements
  • Bamboo, rattan, timber and carving stock: Anxi's rattan weaving and Putian's wood carving and craft furniture are steady buyers of bamboo, rattan, various timbers and carving blanks, fussy about material and specification
  • Sheet, lenses and optical materials: Xiamen eyewear's procurement of frame sheet, optical lens substrate and coating materials is a more specialized piece within precision light industry
  • Art materials and artistic consumables: Putian oil painting drives steady outsourcing of canvas, pigments, frame moldings and mounting materials, an easily overlooked niche procurement market
  • Packaging materials: crafts, eyewear and oil paintings are all fragile or display goods, with large and varied demand for cartons, cushioning and display packaging
  • Handicraft and light-industry equipment: from rattan-iron forming and welding, to eyewear injection molding, grinding and coating, to crafts carving and polishing equipment, the category's equipment procurement spans many process types

These categories correspond to the distinct factory groups of Anxi, Putian and Xiamen, with almost no overlap. An upstream salesperson who views Fujian's other manufacturing through a single-category lens will easily see only one corner. For sales teams supplying upstream to these Fujian crafts, eyewear and daily-use goods makers, Tianxia Gongchang lets you filter factory listings and decision-maker contacts along the dual dimensions of region (Fujian) and industry (other manufacturing), turning a house-by-house canvass scattered across Anxi, Putian and Xiamen, and across rattan-iron, arts-and-crafts, oil painting and eyewear, into targeted, precise prospecting.

VII. An Observation from the Institute

Taken together, the biggest lesson of Fujian's other manufacturing is that "miscellaneous" need not mean "weak." This residual bin is mostly scattered light-industry goods, yet in its least conspicuous niches Fujian has earned global-level shares: weaving rattan and iron into about a third of the global home-crafts market, brushing about a third of the world's commercial oil paintings, and grinding lenses into one of the nation's five major eyewear bases. What these achievements share is that none rests on big firms or big resources, but on the niche craft and ubiquitous workshops accumulated over decades across a whole body of counties.

The variables in this structure's future lie within each piece's own theme. Anxi rattan-iron must see whether e-commerce and brands can settle its scattered export contract work into sustainable proprietary channels; Putian arts-and-crafts and oil painting are tested on whether they can truly turn from copying and contract volume toward original design and brand premium; Xiamen eyewear's path is whether it can climb from precision contract work to own brands and higher-value optical links. All three face the same question: how can a niche champion move from "making for others" to "making for itself."

The Institute's view is this: a catch-all category should be judged not by its total scale but by how high it has climbed within how narrow a niche. The value of Fujian's other manufacturing lies precisely in the leading niche capacity it has each ground out in the easily overlooked corners of rattan-iron, oil painting and eyewear. For upstream suppliers, understanding Fujian's other manufacturing begins with accepting that it is not one tidy market but several unrelated markets each with its own temperament, and only by approaching them category by category can one catch the few genuinely valuable pieces within this miscellaneous output.

Data Sources

  • Tianxia Gongchang (Fujian other-manufacturing factory listings and industry data)
  • Anxi Rattan-Iron Crafts' Transformation: Marching Toward a RMB 50bn Industry Cluster — Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology (Anxi named World Capital of Rattan-Iron Crafts; overview of the home rattan-iron crafts cluster)
  • County-Strengthening Chain Development, Anxi: Annual Output Above RMB 28.6bn, a Third of National Exports — Quanzhou Municipal People's Government (2024 Anxi home rattan-iron crafts output above RMB 28.6bn; exports ~1/3 of national output in the category; 2023 home-crafts online retail above RMB 10bn)
  • Anxi: Rattan-Iron Craft Products Hold 35% of the Global Market — China Arts and Crafts Society (products hold ~35% of the global market, over 50% of the domestic; sold to 60+ countries and regions; ~150,000 directly employed)
  • Putian Arts-and-Crafts Industry Enters a New Development Stage — China Light Industry Federation (2021 above-scale arts-and-crafts output ~RMB 53bn, ~30% of the province's arts-and-crafts output; nearly 300,000 employed; 7,000+ firms; Xianyou, Chengxiang, Licheng district division of labor)
  • Putian Oil Painting Accounts for a Third of the Global Oil-Painting Industry — industry report (Putian commercial oil paintings ~1/3 of global output; 90%+ to Europe and America; one of the world's three major commercial oil-painting bases with Shenzhen and Xiamen; named a China Oil Painting Industry Capital in 2017)
  • Annual Output Above RMB 10bn: Exploring Xiamen's Eyewear Production Base — Invest Xiamen (Xiamen one of China's five major eyewear bases; annual output above RMB 10bn; Haicang gathers nearly 40 eyewear makers; backbone firms Yarui Industrial, Chengyi Optics, Aipu Optics)
  • Q1 Xiamen Eyewear and Accessories Exports Surge 24.7% — Fujian Provincial People's Government Portal (Q1 2024 Xiamen eyewear and accessories exports ~RMB 489m, up 24.7% YoY, ~more than half of the province's eyewear exports)