About JIFANG

Founder's Letter

JIFANG began while I was still at university. I studied Wood Science and Engineering, almost by accident, and that was how my life with wood first began. I remember a professor once telling us that wood has a natural "affinity with the skin", a quality no other material quite shares. At the time, I only half understood what he meant, but the thought stayed with me.

JIFANG began as a timber trading business. My team and I drew on our training to source high-quality timber from responsibly managed forests around the world, bringing it back to China. Over the years, I have handled tens of thousands of pieces of wood. Spending time with them, I gradually came to understand what that early remark truly meant. After leaving caves behind, wood was among the first materials we used to build shelter. In a quiet way, the bond between people and wood has been there ever since. I have kept hamsters, dogs, and now a cat; and I've noticed that, when given the choice, they still gravitate towards objects that come from nature. Just as certain scents can summon distant memories, our affinity for wood may be something deeply embedded within us. Materials such as plastic or metal rarely evoke the same response.

Over time, I have not only come to know wood—wood, in its own way, has taught me how to understand the world. It stands in the forest, drawing nourishment steadily and without haste, growing slowly yet with quiet certainty. When it matures, it does not seek attention. It simply remains—offering shelter to birds and small animals, returning nutrients to the soil, and sustaining the balance of the forest. This sense of humility and composure is what JIFANG strives for. When timber arrives in China, it undergoes a series of processes. The most important of these is time. We allow the wood to rest, air-drying it naturally for at least 3 years, until it reaches a state of stability and quiet warmth.

Every piece of wood carries the marks of its growth. Some may see them as flaws; others as character. Wood has never claimed perfection, and it is precisely this that gives it its singular beauty. In our work, we respond to each piece individually, shaping it according to its nature. And yet, I have often found it a pity that so much carefully selected timber—brought across continents, rested for years, and handled with care—ultimately becomes imitations of existing designs. In recent years, travelling in search of timber has taken me to many parts of the world. Along the way, I have encountered designs that are deeply rooted in their own cultures, yet entirely at ease in everyday life. I have long hoped that JIFANG might create work of that kind. That hope led me to begin this furniture brand together with the designer Sean Yo-Yo —to explore, through collaboration, a way for wood to be used with dignity.

For us, JIFANG is not simply a timber business. It is also a community—formed by people, and sustained through shared values. By working directly with our customers, we have found not only clarity in communication, but also genuine connection. Many customers have become friends; some have come to know one another through a shared appreciation of wood. When new timber arrives, we share it at once. Conversations gather around it, freely and naturally, as though wood itself were the starting point of a quiet forum.

Wood knows where it comes from, and where it belongs. As a material, it remains true to its purpose—to support life, and to bring warmth to it. JIFANG, in turn, continues to learn from wood: its steadiness, its openness, and above all, its humility. May we all, like wood, take root in time—and find our way to Wood at Home.

Wenhao Xiao

JIFANG / Founder

Letter from Designer

Before I began writing this essay, I spent a long time asking myself what I truly wanted to say about furniture design. In the end, I decided to begin with a more fundamental question: what does it really mean to pursue originality as a furniture brand in China today? For many well-known international brands, the Chinese market is a place of quiet ambivalence. On one hand, it is vast, and filled with a genuine desire for a better way of living. On the other, it is saturated with imitations, often praised for being 'motherland affordable edition', leaving little space for original work to be recognised.

If we imagine two companies producing original furniture—one overseas, one in China—it is often the former that gains recognition more easily. The reason, I think, is that originality is not only about form. More importantly, it lies in creating a context in which the value of a design can be clearly felt. When people are drawn to Shaker furniture, the LC2 sofa, Ming dynasty pieces, or the sculptural chairs of the postmodern era, they are not responding to form alone. They are responding to a way of life that these objects quietly propose. In that sense, established brands do not simply sell furniture—they offer a vision of living: Bauhaus, mid-century modern, French, Nordic, Japandi.

Many manufacturers in China, when deciding what to produce, begin by selecting from these existing styles. Even when the execution is skilful, such work can hardly be called original. True originality grows from close observation of real life, from engagement with culture and tradition—only then does it find expression through design. This is precisely the challenge. To begin with the energy of contemporary Chinese life, while drawing from both global and local traditions; to shape a way of living that belongs to the present, yet can also be understood elsewhere, if we refer to what Mr.Kaare Klint and his followers did in Denmark, we should know this is not a easy task.

Perhaps this is why, over the past decade, I have rarely designed furniture for everyday use. Apart from a handful of conceptual pieces for exhibitions and competitions, my work has largely focused on household goods and electrical products. To be candid, with my limited sense in beauty, and whatever modest business sense I possess, it seemed far more likely that any furniture piece I designed would simply end up as another set of bones, scattered across the vast graveyard of furniture. That changed when I first met Wenhao Xiao. He asked whether I would be interested in building a solid wood furniture brand together. That single question reignited my interest in everyday furniture—despite the fact that, at the time, JIFANG was still widely seen as a company that simply sold timber.

Wenhao speaks about wood with unusual conviction. He can spend hours describing its character, its life, and the time it takes to grow decades, sometimes centuries, only to be reduced, all too often, to an ill-considered imitation. Then he looks at you seriously and says, 'Our love for wood is written deep in our genes. Where there is wood, there is the feeling of home. I want to launch a brand, and produce real products for our customers.' That is where I started my collaboration with JIFANG. When I was doing the rebranding project for JIFANG in the summer of 2025, I founded the brand concept 'Wood at Home.' from Wenhao's long presentation. And in it, I began to see something else: wood, seemingly quiet, yet full of presence, much like a certain aspect of the Chinese temperament. And the idea of home, not simply as a physical space, but as a kind of emotional refuge within an increasingly abstract, data-driven world. The furniture I have designed for JIFANG is made for Wenhao Xiao, and for others like him, people who care about the simple but matter daily life.

Sean Yo-Yo
Founder & Creative Director of insidm design office
Brand & Product Designer of JIFANG