Yang Kun Pipes

Yang Kun Pipes is the workshop of Yang Kun, who works alone in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou. The workshop is counted among the best-known names in the Western market from the generation of independent Chinese pipemaking that has taken shape since the 2010s. Because production runs entirely by a single hand, annual output is limited.

The Road to the Workshop

Yang was born in 1983 and, before moving into pipemaking, worked as a makeup artist on Chinese television and film productions. According to records, his interest in the subject began in 2010, when he came across a book devoted to Sixten Ivarsson pipes. This acquaintance turned into a career change within two years: in 2012 he moved into full-time production at his small workshop in Liuzhou.

The name he worked alongside in his early years was Hongjian Qiu, a Chinese maker with over thirty years' experience at the time. Qiu was a maker who had closely studied the work of Danish craftsmen, and is known for his role as a teacher in the institutionalization of the craft in China. According to accounts, other Chinese makers such as Liu Zifeng came up in the same circle; however, this information rests on a single promotional text and has not been independently confirmed.