About Us

Free worldwide shipping  ·  30-day returns  ·  Every lamp made by hand since 2014

Why is it called Captain Bamboo?

More than ten years ago, our workshop started selling handmade paper lamps online in China. We needed a trademark for our products.

Our workshop is in a town in China that is famous for bamboo weaving. Bamboo is the material we make our lamps from. It is also part of how people here live.

A few hundred metres from our workshop there is a panda park. Two pandas live there.

The men in our workshop like to go there and watch the pandas eat fresh bamboo shoots.

We always joke about it: we make paper lamps out of bamboo thread, and like the pandas, we all live on bamboo.

So we wanted a name to do with pandas and bamboo.

At that time, our boss played Dota 2 a lot.

His favourite Courier in the game was a cute panda. Its name was Captain Bamboo.

Captain Bamboo, the panda Courier from Dota 2. © Valve Corporation. Dota and the Dota logo are trademarks of Valve Corporation.

We all liked the name, so that is what we went with.

There is no deep meaning behind it. It just came from a real and happy place —

a group of people who love bamboo, living next to pandas, doing work with bamboo.

Why we sell directly to you

For years we made lamps for other companies, and other people sold them. In 2024 we decided to stop and sell to you ourselves. It means we answer to you — not to a middleman.

Born from Bamboo & Paper Heritage

We come from Qingshen, Sichuan, China — a place famous for bamboo craftsmanship and the hometown of giant pandas. Neighboring Jiajiang has a long history of handmade papermaking. Where rich bamboo forests meet traditional handmade paper, the custom of crafting paper lamps was naturally born. Our local area is home to several workshops producing lamps for famous global home brands, and we are one of them.

The Akari light sculptures were designed by Isamu Noguchi in the 1950s. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Isamu Noguchi or the Noguchi Museum.

What we make is our own. We use Japanese washi paper from a mill in Mino that has been making paper since 1956, and bamboo from our own region. The result is a lamp we can stand behind, and a light we can sign our name to.

Our Craft: Small Batches Made by Hand

We moved away from the mass-production assembly lines used for global brands, choosing instead natural Japanese washi paper and fine local bamboo. Bamboo is strong, flexible, and eco-friendly. Every lamp at Captainsbamboo features:

• Hand-balanced tension: Every curve is shaped with care for just the right balance and tension.
• Small-batch crafted: Our artisans take their time to ensure seams are clean and frames are sturdy.
• Eco-conscious: We use natural materials and low-impact shipping to protect the planet.