History Spring 2025 · figures illustrative

Yes, China Really Does Love Fireworks

It sounds like a lazy stereotype, so we ran the numbers. If anything, the stereotype turns out to be an understatement.

By the 100X Research desk
9th c.
when fireworks were first recorded in Tang-dynasty China
90%
of the world's fireworks are manufactured in China today
$800M+
in Chinese fireworks shipped abroad every year
Figures illustrative.
Where the world’s fireworks are made
Share of global production (illustrative)
90%
4%
3%
2%
1%
China
India
EU
USA
Brazil
Fig 1. Chart: 100X Research. Figures are illustrative.

Fireworks are a Chinese invention, full stop. Gunpowder was packed into bamboo tubes in China more than a thousand years ago, centuries before the technology drifted west along the trade routes to the Arab world and, later, to Europe.

That head start never really ended. The craft concentrated in a handful of towns, most famously Liuyang in Hunan province, which still bills itself as the fireworks capital of the world.

China’s millennium-long head start
Approximate years since fireworks were first recorded in each region (illustrative)
1150 yrs
820 yrs
760 yrs
250 yrs
China
Arab world
Europe
USA
Fig 2. Chart: 100X Research. Figures are illustrative.

Today the dominance is almost comic. The overwhelming majority of the fireworks set off anywhere on Earth, on any country's national holiday, were made in China and shipped out by the container load.

The world buys them by the billion
China fireworks exports, USD (illustrative)
199520102024
$0.8B
Fig 3. Chart: 100X Research. Figures are illustrative.
60% from one city
A majority of the world's fireworks trace back to Liuyang alone, the town where the craft was born.

So next time someone says the Chinese love fireworks, you can tell them it is not a stereotype. It is a thousand-year supply chain.

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