Chinese cultures have passed on for thousands of years, and goldfish have been recorded for nearly two thousand years. A report from the Jin Dynasty described "red fish" swimming in the Red River. Goldfish were widely mentioned in the Tang Dynasty poems. They were collected in the pond(池塘) by rich people at that time.

During the Song Dynasty, a ruler built a pond in Hangzhou to raise goldfish. It marked the time when people began to raise them. However, owning yellow goldfish was not allowed because that color was thought to be a sign of the king. Common people were forced to raise orange ones, which is probably why that color is more common today. 

Until the invention of the goldfish bowl in the Ming Dynasty, goldfish were always seen to live outdoors in ponds. The goldfish bowl allowed more people to keep goldfish and interested people in raising more beautiful kinds such as the "lion head" that could not live outdoors. Goldfish traveled to Japan in 1502, Europe in 1611, and the United States in the early 1,800s

Chinese people have expressed good wishes through images(形象) of animals, plants and other objects. Chinese has many homophones, and these homophones connect images of objects with special good wishes that sound the same. The Chinese word for "fish" is a homophone of the word for "more", so fish express wishes for "owning more". The goldfish, however, also has the word for "gold", so goldfish images express wishes for "owning more wealth".

Goldfish competitions, which began in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty, continue in China. Even in Hong Kong, there is a busy goldfish market to meet the modern requirement of the fish of wealth and good wishes.