The owner of a coloured porcelain factory or workshop was the production overseer, historically termed Lan Tou. Most of them were also painting masters themselves. After receiving orders from buyers or distributors, they would assign the orders to collaborating painters and labourers. Lan Tou with families often employed their relatives to work for them. Though the term Lan Tou has fallen out of use with changing times, this mode of operation persisted for a quote some time. Many porcelain factories and workshops of various sizes were established in Hong Kong in the past, and during the industry’s heyday, when bulk of orders were too overwhelming to handle, larger factories would establish satellite workshops to share the work. Each satellite workshop employed had its own Lan Tou.

Porcelain factories were often led by Lan Tou, but there are two exceptions from our interviews: the first one was Kwong Yee Loong in Peng Chau, which was a worker-cooperative and every worker had equal rights. The workers elected treasurer and clerk of the factory among themselves, and reserved part of the profit for the cooperative as operation fund. The other example is the Art Ministry of Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, where Centre is responsible for the operation of the workshop.