Fengxici Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
After the Song dynasty, Chaozhou's Fengxi became a center of ceramic production, a situation that has continued to this day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Beginning in the Neolithic period more than eight thousand years ago, porcelain had already appeared in Chaozhou, Guangdong. The Fengxi porcelain firing craft employs many techniques—carving, modeling, openwork, pinching, appliqué, engraving, incising, stamping, and pressing—and its decorative means are rich and varied, of which openwork carving and pinch modeling are the most famous. Fengxi porcelain artisans are good at shaping human and animal figures through realistic, exaggerated, and transformed approaches; the products are highly artistic, brilliant and lustrous, with a unique spirit and charm. Also unique in the Fengxi porcelain firing craft is the "openwork porcelain-flower" technique that combines fully openwork artistic colored porcelain with pinch-modeled porcelain flowers: that is, various patterns are openwork-carved on the original body, and various flowers are pinch-modeled from porcelain clay, then fired in the kiln. In addition, there are unique processes such as multi-level openwork and three-dimensional porcelain floral sculpture, all of which can be called superb craftsmanship. With the changing times and the restructuring of porcelain enterprises, the original creative personnel scattered; many veteran porcelain artisans were forced to change trades to make a living, and most of the middle-aged and young artisans went into business, resulting in a situation of few successors.
Nine shaping methods
Carving, modelling, piercing, pinching, applying, incising,划, stamping and pressing, with piercing and modelling the most celebrated.
Realistic and exaggerated figures
Chao opera figures and folk tales are modelled at once true to life and freely exaggerated, with a brilliance quite their own.
Eight thousand years of Chao pottery
Pottery in Chaozhou reaches back eight thousand years, and the workshops along the river still trade under the name of the old kilns.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Fengxi porcelain firing craft centers on the Fengxi District of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. Beginning in the Neolithic period more than eight thousand years ago, porcelain had already appeared in Chaozhou, Guangdong. The Fengxi porcelain firing craft is unique: workshops are distributed along both banks of the Fengxi, every household taking porcelain as its trade, and its products were sold far to Southeast Asia along with the Chaozhou port and the eastern-Guangdong salt industry.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, Fengxi porcelain production has greatly shrunk, some techniques have been lost, and urgent protection and rescue are needed. Wang Longcai (per the official archive of the related inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1932, a native of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. Representative inheritor of the Fengxi porcelain firing craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (third batch). Fengxi porcelain firing technician. At the age of 14 he studied under the famous ceramic artist Wu Ahou, and has been engaged in Fengxi porcelain making and research for more than fifty years. Rich in experience, profound in attainment, and superb in skill, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of Chinese Arts and Crafts by the China National Arts and Crafts Society and was appointed a Cultural Ambassador of Chinese Intellectual Property by the China National Intellectual Property Administration. He achieved notable results in through-carved porcelain flowers and porcelain sculpture, and in particular pushed the unique Fengxi through-carved porcelain-flower technique to a new stage, standing alone in the country. Among these, the "Spring Scenery Porcelain Flower Basket" is displayed in the Great Hall of the People, and the "White Jade Openwork Porcelain" won the gold medal at the Plovdiv International Technical Fair in Bulgaria. For many years he has spared no effort in transmitting the Fengxi porcelain art and has trained a large number of porcelain-art talents. Wu Weiming (per the official archive of the related inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1938, a native of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. Representative inheritor of the Fengxi porcelain firing craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (fourth batch). Senior arts and crafts artist. In 1960 he went to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts for advanced study. Later he went to museums in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Dunhuang, and other places for research and study, laying a good foundation for his artistic creation. Engaged over the long term in ceramic painted decoration, modeling, and decorative design, he broadly absorbed the compositional methods of Han pictorial stones and the artistic styles of Western modernism, and designed a great number of underglaze colored and display porcelain works. His works are known for their graceful shapes, soft lines, and elegant, restrained colors, and are thoroughly modern. All along, he has actively cultivated ceramic-art talent, teaching apprentices and passing on the craft through both words and personal example
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Longcai 03-1353
- Wu Weiming 04-1875
- Wu Weichao
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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