Authentic Chinese cultural experiences and themed collections for organizations that host events — anywhere in the world.
Yaji — the 1,700-year-old Chinese salon
Most gatherings end, and all you feel is tired. Yaji is different. Ya means the refined setting. Ji means coming together. For seventeen hundred years, this is how the Chinese have gathered — an unbroken tradition that began in 353 AD at the Orchid Pavilion in Shaoxing, where cups of wine were set drifting down a winding stream. The poems written that day were gathered into a single collection, and the preface Wang Xizhi wrote for it — the Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion — has been treasured ever since.
The recipe hasn't changed: a beautiful setting, a few carefully chosen objects, and one thing everyone is happy to sit around and finish slowly.
Nothing to perform. No small talk to hunt for. Your hands are busy, your company is warm, and your phone lies quietly in your bag.
When it's over, you walk out with one more thing in your hands — and a little less on your mind.
Our advantage
- In foreign trade, we know event planning best; in event planning, we know Chinese culture best.
- Based in Zhejiang, China — the country's densest craft region.
- Sourced at the workshop, not from a reseller's catalogue.
- Sampling is arranged per project and confirmed in writing.
- Followed from start to finish: from your first email to the last carton.
Yaji Gatherings · Six Ways to Host
What your guests actually do. Each runs one and a half to five hours, from a single long table to a whole garden.
Decor Styles · Four Settings
What the room looks like. Colour, material, light and flowers decide which season — and which dynasty — your event belongs to.
Ten themes, freely combined — every gathering can be dressed in any of the four styles.
Or go fully bespoke — tell us what you have in mind. Talk through a combination
On requestThe full programme, the material list and the timeline are shared after a short call.
The hands-on part, packed and shipped
Materials, tools and step-by-step instructions for the activity at the centre of the gathering — sized to your guest count, and built for people with no experience at all.
Taking the Chinese yaji to the world
Artardor is a company that carries Chinese culture abroad. We build the whole yaji experience — the setting, the objects, and the activity guests actually take part in — and we deliver that package to venues around the world, complete and ready to run. Our aim is to help the people who bring Chinese culture into their own markets do it properly, and make it fit where it lands.
What we believe
An authentic yaji is not about cultural symbols applied to a room. It is about an atmosphere that is genuinely Chinese, objects chosen with care, and an activity that lets guests step inside the culture rather than look at it. This particular kind of Eastern beauty has been waiting a long time to be presented abroad as it actually is.
What we do
We plan the whole thing. We select handmade objects one by one to match the theme, and we deliver a scene kit and an activity pack, with clear instructions for running them — so a host who has never staged a Chinese gathering can still put on an authentic one.
How we work
One end of our work sits in China: we run the planning and coordinate the materials. The other end sits abroad: we know those markets, we understand the local culture and how people there think, and we make the crossing work — so the yaji fits the place and actually happens.
Process
Common questions
Still unsure about something? Ask us directly — we reply to every enquiry within one business day.
Ask us anythingContact Us
Tell us the occasion, the date, the guest count and the venue — we take it from there.