Leadership Insights | Illustrated Lectures: Porcelain Craft Handed Down from Generation to Generation

Fine traditional Chinese culture has survived uninterrupted since ancient times. Porcelain is both a treasure and a calling card of the Chinese nation.

Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province has been noted for its porcelain industry since ancient times. Historically, across the land of Jingdezhen were numerous kilns with everlasting flames, producing porcelain wares every day. High-quality porcelain raw materials and convenient river transportation made Jingdezhen a city born and thriving on porcelain. It has a history of more than 2,000 years of pottery making, more than 1,000 years of official kilns, and more than 600 years of imperial kilns. Over centuries, the uninterrupted flames in Jingdezhen kilns are an epitome of the inheritance of traditional Chinese handicrafts. A popular saying goes that “Jingdezhen represents half of the history of Chinese ceramics”.

Located in the old district of Jingdezhen, Taoyangli Historical and Cultural Block retains rich historical and cultural connotations of the “porcelain capital” and is reputed as a “living fossil” of Jingdezhen. The block is composed of the ruins of the Imperial Kiln Factory, a key historical and cultural site under national protection, as well as historical and cultural relics such as the Imperial Kiln Museum, the Ming and Qing kiln groups, and the surrounding alleys. Dozens of tons of porcelain fragments from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have been excavated from those historical sites. The Imperial Kiln Museum boasts a rich collection, and its permanent exhibition showcases the 600-year history of the imperial kiln in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Exhibited in the museum are key archaeological achievements made by the Jingdezhen Ceramic Archaeology Institute through excavations of the ruins of the ancient imperial kiln over the past more than 30 years, as well as the precious cultural relics of various periods unearthed there.

The Xujia Kiln, dating back to the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is the oldest, largest and best-preserved firewood kiln site existing in Jingdezhen. In June 2024, the Xujia Kiln was restored, with more than 6,000 pieces of porcelain produced. During a livestream, as soon as some porcelain wares came out, they were quickly purchased by the fans. Nowadays, traditional ceramic production technology and modern creative designs continue to integrate in Jingdezhen, driving the innovation of ceramic products. A variety of innovative products have won the favor of young consumers, injecting new vitality into the millennium-old “porcelain capital”.