Two pages here touch seals and then move on. The shopping guide lists a carved stone seal with your name on it among the classic buys, in one line. The art pillar tells you that seal script is the ancient one "used now for seals", and that the red marks scattered over a painting are a chain of owners rather than decoration.
Both are right and neither explains the object. That is worth fixing, because the red stamp is not a museum thing. It lands on your hotel receipt, your entry ticket, your rental agreement and every official letter in the country — and unlike almost anything else you will look at in China, its size is set by law and its size tells you who stamped it.
The craft is on the UNESCO list#
Start with the art, because it outranks the paperwork by about three thousand years.
中国篆刻 (Zhōngguó zhuànkè, Chinese seal engraving) was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's own description of it is unusually good:
中国篆刻是以石材为主要材料，以刻刀为工具，以汉字为表象的一门独特的镌刻艺术。
An engraving art whose main material is stone, whose tool is the knife, and whose subject is the Chinese character. The ministry adds that it descends from ancient seal-making, that it both insists on calligraphy's brushwork and structure and gives play to the freedom of the cut, and that the works can be appreciated on their own or used across painting and calligraphy.
Domestically it was already listed. 金石篆刻（西泠印社） (jīnshí zhuànkè, seal engraving in metal and stone, under the Xiling Seal Art Society of Hangzhou) entered China's own national intangible cultural heritage list, approved by the State Council, in 2006.
So the thing being cut in a market stall in ten minutes is a compressed version of a listed art. That is not a reason to pay more for a tourist chop. It is a reason to look at a good one properly in a museum.
The official seal has a legal diameter#
Here is the part nobody writes down in English, and it converts a red smudge into readable information.
国发〔1999〕25号 (guó fā, State Council document no. 25 of 1999), the State Council Regulations on the Administration of Seals of State Administrative Organs, Enterprises, Public Institutions and Social Organisations, was issued on 31 October 1999. Its first article sets the form:
国家行政机关和企业事业单位、社会团体的印章为圆形，中央刊国徽或五角星。
Round, with either the national emblem or a five-pointed star at the centre. Then it grades the diameter by rank:
| Body | Diameter | At the centre |
|---|---|---|
| The State Council | 6 cm | National emblem |
| Provincial governments; State Council ministries and the General Office | 5 cm | National emblem |
| Enterprises, public institutions and social organisations | Not more than 4.5 cm | Five-pointed star |
The last row is Article 14, and it is the one that covers almost every stamp a visitor will ever be handed:
企业事业单位、社会团体的印章，直径不得大于4.5厘米，中央刊五角星，五角星外刊单位名称，自左而右环行。
A company's seal may be no more than 4.5 cm across, carries a star rather than the emblem, and runs the organisation's name around the star from left to right.
Checked for newer: the Ministry of Justice's administrative-regulations database carries the 1999 text with its historical-changes field reading 暂无历史沿革 (zàn wú lìshǐ yángé, no historical evolution as yet) — that is, no recorded amendment. I found no repealing or amending instrument.
Carving one is two different trades#
Now the distinction that explains what happens in the shop, and it is a clean example of one activity split into two regimes.
Making official seals is a licensed trade. Making your name seal is not — but it is not unregulated either.
The rules are local, which matters and is usually misreported. Taking Shanghai as the worked example: the 上海市印章刻制业治安管理办法 (Shànghǎi Shì yìnzhāng kèzhì yè zhì'ān guǎnlǐ bànfǎ, Shanghai Measures on Public Security Administration of the Seal-Engraving Trade) was promulgated as Municipal Government Order No. 57 on 8 June 1998, took effect on 1 October 1998, was amended by Order No. 16 of 7 May 2014, and was amended again and republished by Order No. 62 of 4 January 2018.
- Official seals — the city runs a Special Trade Licence system for the trade. Without a Shanghai Special Trade Licence, a business may not carve official seals at all. Having carved one, it must report the commissioning body, the legal representative, the person handling it and the impression itself to the public security authorities within five working days.
- Name seals and art seals — no licence. But Article 13 puts a duty on the carver:
经营印章刻制业务的单位或者个体工商户，承接科目章等印章刻制时，应当查验委托刻制印章单位的介绍信等有关证明；承接姓名章、艺术章等印章刻制时，应当查验委托刻制印章人的身份证。经营印章刻制业务的单位或者个体工商户应当将查验情况予以登记并保存3年备查。
For a subject stamp the carver checks the commissioning organisation's letter of introduction; for a name seal or an art seal, the carver checks the identity document of the person commissioning it, and must log the check and keep the log for three years.
Hong Kong and Macau run their own company and seal law entirely, and none of the above describes them.
Buying and using one#
- It is a genuine souvenir rather than a trinket, and the shopping guide has the where and the roughly-what. This page is about what you are actually holding.
- The name is transliterated, not translated. Your name becomes Chinese characters chosen for sound, so ask what they mean before the knife goes in — a carver will usually offer two or three options.
- Relief or intaglio changes the print. Cut away the background and the characters print red on white; cut away the characters and they print white inside a red block. Both are standard and it is worth deciding rather than discovering.
- The paste is not ink. Seal paste is a thick cinnabar-coloured compound; it goes on with a dabbing press rather than a stamp-pad slap, and a light rocking pressure gives a clean impression.
- A tourist chop is not a legal signature, in China or at home. It is an object, not an instrument.
- An old seal may not be exportable. Seals by named deceased artists sit on the restricted lists, alongside the graduated antiques rule — which is stricter than most published guidance says and applies whether the piece is in your bag or a parcel.
Frequently asked questions#
What is a Chinese chop or seal?#
A carved stamp, usually stone, whose face bears a name or phrase in Chinese characters and which prints in red paste. It functions as a signature, an ownership mark on artworks and, for organisations, as the binding mark on documents. The engraving craft, 中国篆刻, was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
How big is a Chinese company seal?#
No more than 4.5 cm in diameter. Article 14 of the State Council regulations of 31 October 1999 caps the seals of enterprises, public institutions and social organisations at that size and requires a five-pointed star at the centre. State organs use the national emblem instead, and their diameters are graded by rank up to 6 cm for the State Council itself.
Why do Chinese seals have a star in the middle?#
Because the State Council regulation requires it for enterprises, public institutions and social organisations, with the body's name running around the star from left to right. State administrative organs carry the national emblem instead. So the centre of the circle tells you which kind of body stamped the paper, before you read a single character.
Can anyone carve a Chinese seal?#
Not official seals. Carving those is a licensed special trade under municipal public-security rules — in Shanghai, a business needs a Special Trade Licence and must file the impression with the police within five working days. Carving a private name seal needs no such licence, but Shanghai requires the carver to check the customer's identity document and keep the record for three years.
Will a shop ask for my passport to carve a name chop?#
Quite possibly, and it is a rule rather than an inconvenience. Shanghai's seal-trade measures require a carver taking an order for a name seal or an art seal to check the identity document of the person commissioning it and to log the check for three years. Other provinces regulate the same trade under their own instruments.
Can I take an antique Chinese seal home?#
Probably not. Seals appear by name on the restricted lists covering works by named deceased artists, on top of China's graduated antiques rule, and a genuinely old item without the cultural relics authority's red wax seal will be confiscated. A newly carved seal is an ordinary purchase and raises none of this.