The white ceramic devices are layered on layer, like rising hands, and like white doves with wings. Croatian visual artist Sandra Ban has recently returned to Jingdezhen, the Chinese porcelain capital of Jiangxi Province. Six months ago, she spent more than three months working at the Taoxichuan Art Center. Last week, dozens of her pieces were displayed at the Sanbao International Ceramic Valley in an exhibition titled "Endless," which expresses environmental themes with ceramic art.
On the opening day of the exhibition, Ban took the porcelain pieces he had created in both hands and handed them out to the visitors. "Porcelain is the common language of mankind, and craft is the bond that connects man to nature." She said she hoped through these works to convey the idea that "man and nature are one and the same."
From June 28 to July 2, the 2026 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization International Ceramics Society Congress opened in Jingdezhen, where more than 400 ceramicists from around the world gathered to discuss ceramic culture heritage and innovation.
Outside the venue, the whole city resembled a giant live workshop - more than 60,000 porcelain workshops lined the streets, pulling, repairing, painting, and kiln, each holding a stall and performing its job. For international pottery artists from far away, Jingdezhen is most fascinating because of the orderly division of labor and skilled hands.
"The handmade porcelain in Jingdezhen is different from the products on a large scale assembly line. Each piece has the temperature of the hand." The division of labor in Jingdezhen helps potters create non-standard pieces, "whether it's exotic or oversized, it always helps me realize my creative ideas," said Ban.
French visual artist Karima Duchamp is in Jingdezhen for the third time. Last year, she spent three months in Taoxichuan and returned this time as a member of the International Pottery Society.
When she stayed last year, she finished her paintings on clay, but burning stopped her. In a street in Jingdezhen, she saw the local craftsman smoothly deliver a brick several meters long into a kiln without damage. That sense of hand, which had been honed over the years, made her suddenly believe in the craft of the old craftsmen in Jingdezhen.
"Not only did I borrow my hand, I borrowed the fire in Jingdezhen." Dushan said it was the craftsmanship of the Jingdezhen kilnman that helped her accomplish her artistic creation.
Today, walking up the Pearl Mountain Bridge, which spans the Changjiang River, can see 72 copper figures standing on either side, which stops the whole process of hand-made porcelain such as laying, repairing, painting, glazing, and making kilns.
For thousands of years, countless porcelain boys have studied art by teachers and worked in a single process throughout their lives. Today, Jingdezhen ceramic industry chain employees more than 100 thousand, a complete division of labor system still exists. There are more than 3,200 inheritors of non-heritage items at the city level, making it the largest city in China with the largest number of inheritors in ceramic technology.
Liu Yuanzhang, an 87-year-old master of Chinese arts and crafts, has never left mud and fire in his life. For him, the hand was much more than a tool for work.
Liu Yuanzhang said,“Jingdezhen's 'hands' have a division of labor and are more collaborative. There are artisans elsewhere, but there are few places like Jingdezhen where the 'hands' are organized into an ecology. Foreign artists come here to bring ideas and creativity, and the 'hands' of Jingdezhen can help him realize it.”
This is the secret of Jingdezhen, which does not require every outsider to become an all-powerful craftsman, but provides the "hands" of an extreme division of labor so that ideas come to fruition with maximum efficiency.
Since the Song Dynasty, Jingdezhen porcelain has reached Central Asia, West Asia, Europe and Africa along the Maritime Silk Road. Today, the city maintains the title of "World's Handicraft and Folk Art Capital" awarded by UNESCO, has established friendly cooperation with more than 180 cities in more than 70 countries, and artists from more than 50 countries and regions have come to create here.
Japanese ceramicist Takeshi Yasuda, 83, said:“Jingdezhen can last for thousands of years because it always innovates. Transmission depends on creativity, which is the core value of traditional ceramic culture.”
Thousands of years later, the "hands" of Jingdezhen, whose division of labor is extreme, are still taking in the creativity of the world. (Outlook New Era)
Edit：Zeng Mengqi Responsible editor：Li Yi
Source：XinhuaNet
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