Chinese material culture
Professor D’Haeseleer
People and Their Stuff in Chinese History
December 3, 2019
Porcelain in Chinese History
Porcelain has become one of the most valuable objects both materially and culturally within China. Chinese porcelain also played a huge role economically as it became a leverage point for the Chinese government in international trade. This increase in popularity of porcelain has caused Westerners to become more fascinated with acquiring such an object. Similar to other objects in China a lot of items, including porcelain, have been acquired by foreign countries by taking or stealing during a time of war from the Chinese people and ripped from their culture. Although some items including porcelain were legally obtained it hurts to hear about the items that were lost during lootings that occurred in China. This left many questions on how porcelain within the Gardiner Museum, British Museum, and the Risd Museum in Rhode Island came to be. Chinese porcelain has had a historical impact economically, culturally, and materialistically that has attracted interest from westerners making porcelain as well renowned as it is today.
Porcelain is a very famous ceramic in China that is made by mixing materials such as feldspar, ball clay, and glass together in heating it up in a kiln usually somewhere between 2,200 – 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit[1]. Porcelain within China was not as world renowned as it is today when it was originally first produced. It took nearly a century for Chinese porcelain to evolve and become popular throughout East Asian before spreading over to Europe and then eventually westward throughout the world. Robert Finlay talks about the first-time porcelain had a European touch in his book The Pilgrim Art in which he says, “The earliest known piece of blue and white porcelain with European decoration is an ewer of 1520 with Manuel’s coat of arms.” [2] The reason that it took so long for Chinese porcelain to get globally recognized is because during that century Chinese people were making many adaptations to Chinese porcelain. For example, Robert Finlay also talks about the adaptations being made saying, “Jingdezhen potters developed an improved ceramic body that offered an ideal surface for decoration and sufficient strength to replicate in pottery the massive metals basins and platters that people in the Middle East used as standard utensils.” In my opinion, Finlay’s reference to the Jingdezhen people really reiterated how makers of Chinese ceramic made positive changes towards ceramic that made it as popular as it has become in recent times. During the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 AD), the production of porcelain and other types of ceramic began being ramped up which giving China a leverage in international trade as porcelain became a highly valued and highly demanded good that many other countries were after.
Chinese porcelain played a very important role within China especially during the Song Dynasty in which porcelain was created as it gave China a lot of leverage over international trade and also became a source of revenue for China. Because it played such a key role within Chinese government the production of porcelain, specifically blue and white was ramped up in order to keep up with demand. Chinese porcelain became so world renowned that it became highly sought after by other countries. The Chinese took advantage of this and used their porcelain as a bargaining chip when trading with other countries and opening up china to a wider world during the Song Dynasty. Finlay talks about the monopolization that China has turned porcelain into by saying, “European merchants coveted spices, which were grown in India, Sri Lanka, and maritime Southeast Asia as well asin China but porcelain remained a Chinese monopoly until the early eighteenth century.” This section in the text really shows how China controlled every aspect of the porcelain market and was able to turn it into a business. For example, Finlay also comments on the Chinese ability to turn porcelain into a profitable business by saying, “The Government of Southern Song (1127 – 1279) came to depend on maritime trade for at least 20% of its cash income and manufacturers of porcelain dramatically stepped up production to meet demand from foreign markets.” Because porcelain became highly sought after its price began to sky rocket. Porcelain also played a huge role culturally for the Chinese. It became so universally admired that it was a way in which Chinese people were able to share a small aspect of their culture to the wider world. For example, a website talks about how porcelain, “promotes economic and cultural exchange between China and the outside world, and profoundly influences the traditional culture and lifestyle of people from other countries.[3]” Porcelain has positively affected the Chinese economy in premodern China as well as embed their culture of ingenuity while trading with other countries.
Porcelain became a very famous aspect of Chinese art and ceramic and this caught the eyes of many westerners. The increasing popularity in porcelain made blue and white porcelain a luxury item in a way. Today, it is a very expensive object due to the quality, accessibility, and deep history blue and white porcelain has. For example, an article on the BBC news website talks about how a 300-year bowl made out of blue and white porcelain sold for a little over £220,000[4]. This particular piece of porcelain was estimated to be sold around £20,000 – 30,000 but sold for a significantly higher price to a Chinese buyer which really shows how sought-after Chinese porcelain is. Because porcelain became so popular amongst westerners’ counterfeit porcelain became popping up on the market which creates a whole additional problem in this industry because porcelain is so hard to authenticate due to how long ago it was created. However according to CNBC, an easy way of telling whether or not a piece of porcelain is authentic is by looking at how the piece of art was painted. It will either be hand painted which is easy to tell because you can actually feel the artists brush strokes on the porcelain or another possibility can be that the piece of ceramic is transfer printed which similar to the brush strokes can be felt by actually feeling it on the piece of pottery[5]. The increase in popularity of porcelain in China and amongst westerners has caused the overall value and price of porcelain to increase as well as the amount of fake porcelain pieces on the market.
Unfortunately, because porcelain is so valuable and highly desired, it increases its chances of being taken or stolen unethically and brings up many questions as to how Chinese porcelain collections ended up in museums. For example, in a podcast titled “A Question of Artefacts,” David Baker talks about moral issues and unethicality that took place when museums acquire certain items for their exhibits[6]. He specifically talked about how through military movements soldiers would take or even steal objects such as porcelain and treat it as a trophy from their time in China. A lot of looting happened while in invading China. The most recognized looting through military movements in China occurred during 1928 at the Eastern Mausoleum. This was mainly due to the political instability during the time period that lead to economic unrest within the world. Although museums are able to show off artifacts to a larger audience than if an individual had it, a lot of items within museums don’t include how these items came to be where they are now. For example, a particular museum in Rhode Island has a collection of porcelain cups and plates that were imported from China by an unknown maker as well as a donor not being listed at all on these artifacts. This museum’s website includes no information about where it actually came from making me wonder if this collection was possibly unethically stolen from China like many other artifacts were especially due to the lack of background information that the museum was unable to provide. Chinese porcelain and other Chinese artifacts were immorally taken and ripped from Chinese culture during times of war.
Chinese porcelain is a world renowned and universally admired piece of Chinese pottery that has been very prominent for many years. It has been a huge staple in Chinese culture and style as well as a huge economic lever that China was able to rely on as well as being a relied-on source of income for the Chinese government during the Song Dynasty. Chinese porcelain was also so coveted that China had a strong grip on international trade by using porcelain as a bargaining piece with other countries in East Asia and eventually Europe. The wide admiration that people have for porcelain has led to the increase in counterfeit pieces that are available on the market as well as the amount of pottery that was taken from China during its invasion, leaving many questions on how a lot of collections of Chinese porcelain came to be. China’s centuries old porcelain has slowly become one of the most recognized and famous type of pottery in the world.
Works Cited
Baker, David. “BBC Radio.” BBC Radio (blog). Accessed December 3, 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009b0s.
Bukszpan, Daniel. “How to Spot a Fake: Porcelain.” CNBC. CNBC, July 15, 2013. https://www.cnbc.com/id/100661682.
“Chinese Porcelain Bowl Nearly 300 Years Old Fetches £220,000.” BBC News. BBC, August 3, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-49219415.
Finlay, Robert. The Pilgrim Art: the Culture of Porcelain in World History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
“Porcelain.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 24, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain.
“SILK ROADS Dialogue, Diversity & Development.” UNESCO. Accessed December 3, 2019. https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/chinese-porcelain.
[1] “Porcelain,” Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation, November 24, 2019), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain)
[2] Robert Finlay, The Pilgrim Art: the Culture of Porcelain in World History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010))
[3] “ SILK ROADS Dialogue, Diversity & Development,” UNESCO, accessed December 3, 2019, https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/chinese-porcelain)
[4] “Chinese Porcelain Bowl Nearly 300 Years Old Fetches £220,000,” BBC News (BBC, August 3, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-49219415)
[5] Daniel Bukszpan, “How to Spot a Fake: Porcelain,” CNBC (CNBC, July 15, 2013), https://www.cnbc.com/id/100661682)
[6] David Baker, “BBC Radio,” BBC Radio (blog), accessed December 3, 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009b0s)