When dealing with China, there is no way around porcelain. Along with silk and tea, it is one of China's traditional products that led to the country's wealth. It's all long gone. You can't get rich with porcelain these days, but China and porcelain simply belong together. So what could be more obvious than taking a course to learn the basics of porcelain making? Said and done. The workshop for the course is located on a small cul-de-sac off Shaanxi Road.
Central Shanghai has these quiet cul-de-sacs all over the place, separated from the main road in the Chinese compound style by a gated driveway. Things are tranquil there: neighborhood, no through traffic, small gardens - everything is a little neglected, but the negligence has charm. The leaves from last autumn are still in the gardens, the flowers in the pots have dried up and the dead leaves on the palm trees are not even cut off. These cul-de-sacs remind me a bit of the "Mews" in London, also small cul-de-sacs that were built there in the 18th and 19th centuries to house stables and garages for cabs and wagons. The coachmen's apartments were then on the upper floor above the garage. These days, these London mews are absolute luxury residential areas - right in the center, yet quiet and manageable, almost neighborly. This is exactly how the cul-de-sacs in Shanghai seem to me. It must be a dream to live there.
Cats lie around sleepily, motorcycles are parked at the edge and while I explore the area, my eyes fall on apartments whose chandeliers and paintings suggest stylish residents or I see an old woman at the piano through the window while her husband practices Chinese calligraphy at the table .
The workshop The pottery workshop offers various courses, I choose pottery on a rotating potter's wheel. Four students - three Chinese and I - and a Chinese teacher set about learning the basics over four Saturday afternoons. The teacher speaks next to no English, but the best way to learn is to watch anyway.
Beginner's luck helps to stay motivated. Things can quickly get out of hand on the spinning potter's wheel, and once the lump of clay that's about to become a cup starts wobbling, there's nothing to be saved. You have to concentrate and keep an eye on several things at the same time.
It's exhausting sitting for hours, hunched over, concentrating with wet, soggy hands. After work comes tidying up and cleaning. I am tired. Next Saturday the work steps are already much cleaner and not so muddy. The objects are dry and get their finishing touches: a beautiful base with a flat depression that protects the later glaze on the underside, everything is smoothed and brought into a beautiful shape, the handle is also attached. In this work I sink into concentration and strive for the perfect, round, smooth form. The steps remind me of turning. The rotating object grinds away neatly.
The first cups and plates are ready.
The grooves on the cup are meant to represent stylized bamboo sticks. The course was supposed to take place over four Saturdays. But the Corona lockdown interrupted everything. I'm back in Germany now, I didn't see the pottery school before I left. When I return to China, the course is expected to continue. But all of that is still up in the air.
General information about porcelain What is porcelain? Porcelain is one of the most traditional products in China. That is why the British also refer to it as "China". It is made from three basic materials: kaolin, quartz and feldspar, which are mixed in a specific ratio depending on the type of porcelain (e.g. East Asian porcelain, Meissen porcelain, etc.). Kaolin is a white clay that occurs in Germany in Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, the Upper Palatinate and occasionally in the Westerwald and Rheingau. The mixing ratio of kaolin with quartz and feldspar determines the subsequent degree of hardness of the porcelain. The more kaolin that is added to the mixture, the higher the firing temperature must be and the harder the porcelain becomes. Soft porcelain is fired with a proportion of approx. 25% kaolin at lower temperatures of 1200-1300 degrees. Hard porcelain has a kaolin content of over 50% and is fired at a temperature of around 1500 degrees. During the firing process, crystalline, granular and powdery structures combine with each other. The feldspar component melts during the firing process and does not crystallize again when it cools down, so that porcelain - similar to glass - is a supercooled melt which is in the solid state of aggregation at normal temperatures. This makes porcelain transparent when it is thin.
The porcelain capital of China Jingdezhen Until the 17th century, kaolin was known in Germany as Weißton or Passau Earth. Today's word kaolin derives from the name of the Chinese village of Gaoling, located in the southern Chinese province of Jiangxi. The village is part of the city of Jingdezhen and that is the most important place of Chinese porcelain production. China's porcelain and its ceramic precursors have been produced in Jingdezhen since the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD). In the year 1004 AD. The Song Emperor made Zhendong Jingdezhen the imperial porcelain manufacturing base and it has been China's porcelain capital for a thousand years. There are rich deposits of white clay near the city, as well as the Changjiang River for transporting the products, but also forests in the surrounding mountains, which provided wood for firing the kilns.
A shop at the corner of Shaanxi Road North and Nanjing Road West in Shanghai, which exclusively sells porcelain from Jingdezhen. How long has porcelain been in China? The question is difficult to answer because even the definition of porcelain varies. In China, a distinction is made between hot-fired and cold-fired porcelain, while in Europe cold-fired products are referred to as ceramics or earthenware. Ceramics according to the European definition have existed in China since 7000 BC. BC, one speaks of porcelain that was fired at a temperature of 1260-1300 degrees only since the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, i.e. around 100-200 AD. From this time there are archaeological finds of sherds, which at burned over 1250 degrees, in Zhejiang Province, found south of the Yangtze River estuary.
Porcelain in the Shanghai Museum There is a lot of ancient Chinese art on display at the Shanghai Museum, located in People's Park. The porcelain department is the largest in the museum. There are also bronzes, sculptures, traditional paintings, calligraphy, seal carvings, coins, jade, antique furniture, and artifacts and costumes of China's national minorities. One can follow the entire history of porcelain in China in this museum. Here is just a few pictorial information, porcelain is a gigantic subject in which acquiring expertise is a life's work.
In the porcelain department, traditional pottery workshops and firing methods are shown and described in detail.
There are also small models of the areas where the manufactories were located. It looks a bit like a model railway landscape.
Section of a model of a landscape with former porcelain production. I have particularly cute memories of two small children who looked in amazement over the edge of the table display case at this model. In China, children are introduced to their own culture at a very early age. I also sense a deep identification with it in my Chinese student body. In Germany you would not see such a large number of children in museums. Parents in Germany prefer to take their children to the zoo.
Typical product of the Tang Dynasty (7th century), camels and other figurative representations were often produced. The most striking feature is the tricolor lead glaze of brown, green and cream.
Celadon porcelain (960-1279) was mainly made during the Song period. The grey-green color is the result of the reduction of iron(III) oxide to iron(II) oxide during the firing process. This porcelain meets our European definition of stoneware because of the low firing temperature. It finally made its way to Europe during the Ming Dynasty, where it was worth its weight in gold.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the so-called blue and white goods became particularly popular. The heyday of this style was reached in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The decor, a mixture of cobalt and water, was applied with a brush before firing and glazing. It was mostly floral, geometric and ornamental, later figurative representations were added, e.g. dragons. The best-known adaptation of this style in Europe is the Meissen onion pattern decor.
In contrast to the underglaze painting in the Ming Dynasty, in the period from 1662 - 1796 the period of the three great Qing Emperors (Qing Dynasty: 644 - 1911) the decoration was painted on the glaze. The addition to the color palette is particularly striking. It will be more colourful. Motifs also turned to more representational depictions: flowers, birds, scenes from Chinese history, mythology and literature, etc.
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