Chinese lantern has originated from the Western Han Dynasty. Around the yearly Lantern Festival, people all hang red lanterns up, which are symbols of reunion, to create a festive atmosphere. Lanterns later become a joyous symbol for Chinese. Chinese lantern synthesizes techniques of painting art, paper cutting, paper bundling and prickseaming. Palace lantern and gauze lantern are the most famous among the lanterns made in ancient China.

Nowadays, lanterns still paly an important role in home decoration, but the material of some lanterns have changed from paper and bamboo to cloth, plastics and iron wire, and their shape and colour have been quite different from traditional ones.