The term 'handmade' is traditionally associated with small, quirky gadgets. However, in China's tech sector, this term also applies to lightweight digital content, such as AI-generated and rapidly developed applications or videos by one person or a small team.
As 3D printing and artificial intelligence technologies advance, this spirit of independent creativity is beginning to permeate industrial manufacturing. This allows small groups to create industrial equipment, such as robots and drones, in just a few days.
In 2025, Tan Liwei, a UX engineer at the Chinese tech giant Huawei in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, decided to develop an accessory for a smart plant. He noticed that while most households grow houseplants, few know how to keep them healthy. He came up with the idea of displaying soil monitoring data as facial expressions on a small screen—for instance, a frown if the plant needs water, or a hand shielding the forehead from excessive light.
Six months later, he presented working prototypes at the CES 2026 consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, garnering coverage from over 70 global media outlets and accumulating more than 10 million online views. The product is now preparing for mass production, with pre-orders starting in September.
In Wenshen District, West Lake District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, eastern China, Zhang Dong, who holds a Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, is creating a caregiver robot for the elderly that can bring water and fruit to the senior generation. His workshop, which started in a garage five years ago, has now moved into a facility provided by the local district government.
Two decades ago, while a graduate student, Zhang spent over three years with a team of six or seven people developing a machine vision sorter for red dates. Now, with the help of AI and 3D printing, and excluding the time spent sourcing parts online, designing and printing the structural component takes only three days, and software development takes another three days.
Similar stories are emerging: students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, central China, Hubei Province, pooled living expenses of 10,000 yuan ($1,476 USD) to create a humanoid robot that was subsequently sold to a company for 400,000 yuan; schoolchildren from Shenzhen assembled a drone from foam board and plastic bottles.
Luo Lianglian, a researcher from the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, noted that 'handmade' hardware now integrates technologies such as 3D printing, AI, programmable logic controllers, and modular components. This gives products the functionality, interactivity, and commercial potential required for practical application in fields like education, exhibitions, cultural tourism, and the consumer market.
Turning a prototype into a mass-produced product often halts many entrepreneurs. For Tan, the path to overcoming this gap was clear. After confirming market demand, he decided to outsource the schematic design, wiring, mold making, PCB printing, and final assembly to a large Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in Shenzhen, freeing his core team of six or seven people to focus on algorithms and product development.
Tan reported that ordering a PCB prototype, which a Silicon Valley team might take three to five months to complete, takes only a week in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao. Flexible manufacturing clusters, such as Huacianbei in Shenzhen, Asia's largest electronics market, offer design, rapid prototyping, flexible manufacturing, and logistics under one roof, allowing orders to be placed in small batches or as single units.
Platforms are also lowering barriers to hardware entrepreneurship. The InnoX Academy in Shenzhen, founded in 2021 by Professor Li Jieshan of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has formed a resource pool of over 1,600 suppliers covering the entire spectrum of intelligent equipment manufacturing, including 3D printing, and has been utilized by over 200 technology companies.
Zhang added: 'More and more suppliers are offering comprehensive solutions covering everything from design and prototyping to soldering and debugging, and there are more channels than ever to connect with small-batch orders. This shows that the system supporting the commercialization of creative ideas is already quite well developed.'
JLC Company is a prime example of such comprehensive service. This electronics and mechanism manufacturing service provider based in Shenzhen uses a 'group purchasing model' to consolidate numerous small orders into unified production cycles, reducing the cost of a single PCB prototype from several hundred yuan to tens of yuan and cutting delivery times from weeks to just 12 hours. In 2025, the company's revenue exceeded 10.23 billion yuan, processing over 21 million orders for nearly 10 million engineers and craftsmen in a year.
Zhang concluded: 'Thanks to the advantages of China's integrated supply chain, if something 'handmade' gains market recognition, mass production ceases to be a bottleneck.'
