Jingdezhen Shoulders New Mission of Porcelain Heritage Protection and Innovation

The city has witnessed ceramics making for more than 2000 years, including over 1000 years for official kilns, and more than 600 years for imperial kilns

As a cultural landmark and city card and Jingdezhen, Taoxichuan Cultural and Creative Block is based on ceramic culture and takes the cultural and creative industry as the main format.

For Jingdezhen, porcelain is its bone and flesh, its root and soul.

JINGDEZHEN, JIANGXI, CHINA, June 25, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — China’s porcelain capital city Jingdezhen in east Jiangxi Province has boasted of building itself into a ceramic culture inheritance and innovation pilot zone in the coming years, according to a newly released plan by Jiangxi Provincial Government.

Porcelain was one of China’s first globalized commodities, greatest export to the world, and main trading goods on the Maritime Silk Road,

The most craved porcelain from China were made by Jingdezhen’s workshops, fashioned from clay made smooth by skilled craftsmen, fired in kilns and then transported across the globe.

The city has witnessed ceramic making for more than 2,000 years, including over 1,000 years for official kilns, and more than 600 years for imperial kilns. Due to its role as an official and royal kiln, it developed porcelain-making techniques that put it in a league of its own.

The development of the city is supported by the ceramic industry.

Jingdezhen is a town in the south of the Yangtze River with a history of 2,000 years of pottery smelting and 1,000 years of imperial kilns because of the high quality of kaolin clay, abundant porcelain firing materials, convenient waterway transportation and many skilled craftsmen.

This world renowned porcelain city Jingdezhen has speeded up porcelain industry relics and cultural heritage protection work by promoting the imperial kiln sites. The city raised nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.43 billion US dollars) to build Taoyangli Imperial Kiln scenic area and expanded the imperial Kiln site protection area from the initial 13.1 hectares to more than 320 hectares today.　

From January to December 2022, Jingdezhen ceramic industrial output value was 66.537 billion yuan (about 9.51 billion US dollars), an increase of 28.95 percent to that of the previous year. The city witnessed 516 million yuan (about 73.71 million US dollars) of ceramic exports and 55.63 million yuan (about 7.95 million US dollars) of art ceramic exports last year, an increase of 148 percent and 89 percent to that of the previous year respectively, according to the statistics provided by Jingdezhen Customs.

From 2021 on, Jingdezhen clearly put “advanced ceramics” as the main direction of industrial development, and set the goal of scaling up to 50 billion yuan (about 7.14 billion US dollars) by 2025.

The passion for and adoration of porcelain and the porcelain industry are deeply engrained in the DNA of the people of Jingdezhen, and permeate every corner of this town. For Jingdezhen, porcelain is its bone and flesh, its root and soul.

With such an illustrious history, such a wealth of talent and skills, and so much interest from new generations, the future of Jingdezhen seems secure. The Time-honored Porcelain Capital has taken flight again.

Ann Smith
People’s Daily Online USA
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