Xu Ruifeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Born into a Dehua family of porcelain sculptors, he developed a strong interest in ceramic art under the influence of his family's artistic milieu and began learning the craft from his father, Xu Xingtai, in early childhood. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dehua Ci Firing Craftsmanship in Dehua, Fujian: Dehua County is located in the central part of Fujian Province; historically the name Dehua became known through porcelain, and in overseas trade porcelain ranked alongside tea and silk. Dehua porcelain is made in two ways: one is to shape high-quality kaolin directly by hand; the other is to cast a mold and then form the piece by slip casting or press-molding. The Dehua County Cultural Center serves as the project protection unit; the techniques are transmitted mainly from master to apprentice, dragon kilns and electric kilns coexist, and the white porcelain produced by traditional wood firing has an additional soft, moist luster. The making of Dehua porcelain rose in the Tang and Song dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and its distinctive techniques have been transmitted without interruption to the present day. In the Ming dynasty, the Dehua porcelain artist He Chaozong used locally produced high-quality kaolin and eight techniques — pinching, modeling, carving, engraving, scraping, joining, and appliqué — to create exquisite Dehua porcelain sculptures, which were collected by European countries for their distinctive artistic style. Dehua porcelain was thus hailed as an oriental artistic treasure, and was exported to Europe in the Qing dynasty.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a Han Chinese man, born in July 1969, a native of Dehua County, Fujian Province. National representative bearer of Dehua Ci Firing Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. A Master of Arts and Crafts of Fujian Province. His works possess a beauty of simplicity and approachability, a perfect union of traditional technique and modern aesthetic sensibility. His designs have won the gold award at the Fourth China Arts and Crafts Masters' Fine Works Exposition, among other honours; his work The Goddess Scattering Flowers has been acclaimed as a treasure of contemporary Chinese arts and crafts, and his Shepherdess has been collected by the China National Arts and Crafts Museum. Within the documented technical tradition of Dehua Ci Firing Craftsmanship in Dehua, Fujian: Dehua County is located in the central part of Fujian Province. Dehua porcelain is made in two ways: one is to shape high-quality kaolin directly by hand; the other is to cast a mold and then form the piece by slip casting or press-molding. Dehua porcelain is generally glazed or left unglazed, according to need, after the clay body has dried; it is then placed in the kiln and fired at a high temperature of more than one thousand degrees Celsius. It has always been an important Chinese foreign-trade commodity, enjoying worldwide fame together with silk and tea, and has contributed to the spread of porcelain-making techniques and to cultural exchange between China and other countries. After the late Qing dynasty, the Dehua porcelain industry steadily declined, but artisans such as Su Xuejin and Xu Youyi still persevered in the craft, and their works won gold medals at international expositions in Panama, Britain, and Japan. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Dehua porcelain industry gained a new lease on life, with new talents emerging in succession who, inheriting the fine techniques and styles of their predecessors and continually innovating, restored the vitality of the Dehua porcelain firing techniques. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Modelling from kaolin clay": One method builds the vessel or figure straight from fine kaolin, the method behind the great Guanyin and Buddha statues whose robes and flesh emerge as one surface. "Mould, slip-casting or pressing": The other builds a mould and casts or presses from it, allowing complex forms to be repeated in quantity for the export trade. "Glazing decided after drying": Whether to glaze is decided only after the body has dried, so unglazed biscuit and glazed porcelain both emerge from the same kiln tradition. "Chinese white": Always a major export, Dehua porcelain travelled the world alongside silk and tea, carrying technique and contact in its wake.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Xu Ruifeng was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Dehua Ci Firing Craftsmanship, with Dehua, Fujian as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Dehua Ci Firing Craftsmanship in Dehua, Fujian: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Dehua, Fujian as its declared area, and Dehua County Cultural Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Xu Ruifeng · National Representative Bearer Archive