Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, has over 1700 years' history of making pottery. As China is the center of the world's china production, and Jingdezhen is the center of China's china industry, many pottery artists around the world come to Jingdezhen to pursue their china dreams. It is estimated that there are 20,000 aspiring pottery artists coming to Jingdezhen each year and 1200 foreigners among them. Here are some of these artists' stories and the photos were taken between 2013 and 2015.
Just take Li jianshen for example, a pottery artist, at the beginning of the 1990s, Li Jianshen went to Alfred University in the US to further his study and got a master's degree in ceramic art. The development of pottery abroad surprises Li and he deeply feels that China's pottery needs international participation. "In the US, making pottery is a kind of therapy. Your soul will be released with the motions of your body".
Australian artist China De La Vegas came to Jingdezhen bringing her 2.5-year-old child one year ago. She works in her studio in the daytime and sleeps in a hostel at night. The profound cultural atmosphere here allows her to better pursue her pottery dream.
With a history stretching to the beginnings of humankind, pottery is the oldest handicraft in China.
As early as the Neolithic Age, roughly styled and artless grey, red, white, colored, and black pottery existed. More developed glazed and hard glazed pottery with primitive porcelain characteristics first appeared during the Shang Dynasty. Porcelain was first made in the Eastern Han Dynasty, its manufacturing blossomed and reached its peak during the Song Dynasty (420 - 479), and the production techniques became highly advanced level during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). Today, there are many famous kilns on display that take visitors back to the origins of Chinese pottery.
