Before the Warring States period and during the Shang dynasty, there are no known objects called lamps or words such as 'lamp' or 'candle'. The 'candle' that appeared in the Western Zhou is probably the earliest recorded use of lighting. During the Qin Dynasty, the casting of lamps became magnificent.
During the Han Dynasty, the concept of "death as life, death as survival" was prevalent in funerals. This means that the use of lamps was already quite popular. The Ming and Qing dynasties were the most glorious periods for the development of lamps, not only in terms of texture and variety, but also in terms of glass, enamel and other materials.
Palace lanterns are a special craft made by Chinese handicrafts and are renowned worldwide. Paraffin lamps were introduced into China at the end of the Qing Dynasty and soon caught the eye of the nation. The rented areas of Shanghai were the first to use electric lamps. The Chinese lamp industry first originated in Shanghai, where electric lamps were used on a large scale around the 1920s.
In 1921 Hu Xiyuan and others succeeded in producing the first domestically produced incandescent lamp on a trial basis. In 1979, a professional lighting company was established in Shanghai, and in the early 1990s there was a huge demand for energy-saving products, which led to a series of new energy-saving products, such as the "night light".
In the mid-1990s, safety and quality became a concern for consumers and a number of companies created their own brands of lamps and lanterns. This type of product still dominates the market today. Nowadays, the development of LED lighting products to replace traditional energy-saving lamps is the general trend.
