Chinese bamboo root carving art dates back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and witnessed its flourishing period in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by which time the craft was especially popular in Jiading (in Shanghai) and Nanjing.

Xiangshan bamboo root carving can trace its history back to the late 1970s when a group of folk artists who were once carpenters started, based on their unique feeling for natural beauty, to explore bamboo root carving. Inspired by eggs boiled in tea, the craftsmen boiled their carvings with prepared pigments and anti-insect and mould-proof drugs together in a pot so as to make the root carvings full of antique beauty while preventing their color from fading, and it turned out to be successful.

In 1983, Xiangshan bamboo root carving works won the Golden Eagle Award on the New, Famous and High-quality Specialties Exhibition of Zhejiang Province, achieving overnight success. Afterwards, the art form rose to fame. What's more, Xiangshan was named as "the town of folk art-bamboo root carving" by China's Ministry of Culture.