Porcelains From Jingdezhen

(Nearly 600 years ago, Marco Polo introduced chinaware to the West, and at first Westerners used the name "China" to refer to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province - China's porcelain capital. )

However, feeling a crisis of clinging too tightly to the old tradition, Jingdezhen potters have been struggling hard to invigorate new design concepts. At the ongoing exhibition at the Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel, visitors can see this endeavor.

The exhibition features 100 pieces, which boast the "best of best" from Jingdezhen.

The highlights on display are a hawk with its wings outstreched, ready to fly.

"Take a close look at its wing feathers," Wang said. "It is extremely difficult to make these delicate feather pieces and glue them together, even the potter himself can't do now as he ages."

Another work is a Taoist priest. The potter abandoned the traditional blue and white color, instead a coffee-brown hue was applied in the creative piece. The robe of the sitting priest swings in the air, achieving a detached aura around the priest.

"Fine porcelains share three qualities - whiteness, thinness and transparency," said Wang Mingqiang, organizer of the exhibition.

Jingdezhen was ideal for porcelain because it is near the necessary clays and on a major waterway. During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), porcelain experienced further development there, and that with the "blue flower" pattern was highly acclaimed.

But things have gone from bad to worse in the past decades, when ceramic research institutes stopped all innovation. Mass production gave way to small family business, which did nothing but copy the old ways of production. It was a decline dating back to the late Qing Dynasty.

"Some of the potters in Jingdezhen are aware of the crisis of sticking too much to tradition,"Wang said. "Thus, visitors might find some new ideas and patterns at this exhibition."(Eastday.com )