According to Craig Clunas, "Those early visitors to China who, unlike their merchant contemporaries, managed to penetrate the homes of the elite, were struck by the relative bareness and lack of decorative surfaces within the elegant Chinese interior." In 1696 the Jesuit Father Louis Le Comte published his memoirs of his travels in China in which he remarked that the Chinese use hand-painted silk hangings or glued paper on the walls.
「得以結識菁英階層的歐洲傳教士，進入他們佈置優雅的室內時，相當驚訝於簡單無飾的牆面」，柯律格博士指出。一六九六年，耶穌會士李明在巴黎出版的《中國新印象記》裡就提到：中國人以「手繪絲掛」裝飾牆壁，或「糊紙於壁」。