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A Critical Analysis of Jingdezhen Porcelain's International Influence during the Ming-Qing Period
Journal of Ceramics 2025, 46(2): 411-418
Published: 01 April 2025
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Background and purpose

Focusing on the golden age of Jingdezhen porcelain's global expansion during the Ming and Qing dynasties, this research investigates its international influence across artistic, economic, and cultural dimensions through three analytical lenses: The expansion of traditional international trade routes, the globalization of ceramic production technology, and the high-quality development of the global ceramic trade system. Jingdezhen porcelain, through its continuously enriched and innovated forms, motifs, and glazes, has served as dynamic mediators of transcultural exchange. These material embodiments not only captured the evolving dynamics of intercultural synthesis between Eastern and Western civilizations but also systematically materialized the philosophical ideals of perfection and harmony intrinsic to Chinese civilization. As transcultural signifiers, they established enduring spiritual archetypes that transcend temporal and spatial boundaries, while simultaneously epitomizing the profound Chinese ethos and intellectual legacy through their sophisticated material-semiotic systems. Adopting a globalization perspective, the study critically examines historical evidence and scholarly interpretations regarding ceramic trade patterns, porcelain artistic characteristics, aesthetic evolutions, and cultural dissemination mechanisms. Through deconstructing Jingdezhen porcelain's historical agency in shaping global trade networks, restructuring worldwide ceramic industry patterns, and transforming lifestyle and aesthetic paradigms, this work systematically elucidates the endogenous dynamics and cultural logic underlying Ming-Qing ceramic industry development. The findings aim to establish an interpretative framework for cross-civilizational dialogue through material culture studies, providing concrete historical references and Chinese exemplars for contemporary civilizational exchanges.

Methods

Three methods are mainly used in this research: including Cross-national Documentary Comparative Analysis, Consumption Data Tracking Research, Cross-cultural Symbolic Contrastive Study. The comprehensive methodological framework is to investigate the international influence of Jingdezhen porcelain during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Through cross-linguistic excavation of historical sources, it systematically integrated domestic archival materials such as History of Chinese Ceramics and Porcelain and the Creation of the Modern World Economy with foreign records including Appreciation of Western Antiques and Travels of a Chinese Pilgrim, establishing an empirical foundation for analyzing porcelain's global impact. By combining consumer society historiography with global microhistorical approaches, the research adopted a syncretic quantitative-qualitative methodology, utilizing Silk Road case studies to quantitatively delineate Jingdezhen porcelain's pivotal role in advancing early modern trade globalization while qualitatively examining its sociocultural embeddedness. Furthermore, leveraging cross-cultural theoretical frameworks, the investigation decoded porcelain's transformative effects on transnational ceramic aesthetics, technological hybridization (e.g., cobalt adaptation in Delftware), and quotidian practices across civilizations. This tripartite integration of archival verification, socioeconomic analysis, and cultural semiotics constructed a multidimensional analytical matrix, enabling systematic deconstruction of Jingdezhen porcelain's agency as both economic catalyst and cultural intermediary during proto-globalization, thereby laying robust epistemological foundations for theoretical conclusions about its enduring global legacy.

Results

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the international trade of Jingdezhen porcelain elevated the Silk Road to new dimensions, diversifying the commodity spectrum and extending the network of trade routes. As a cultural medium of profound symbolic significance, porcelain enriched both the conceptual boundaries and practical applications of the "Silk Road" paradigm. The immense economic and cultural capital generated by Jingdezhen's ceramic trade not only consolidated imperial fiscal systems but also sparked global emulation and technological catch-up efforts, positioning Chinese ceramic technologies as a driving force in proto-industrial globalization. Simultaneously, Jingdezhen porcelain exerted transformative influence on global ceramic trade systems—whether as a critical agent in reshaping global trade power dynamics or as a catalyst accelerating the stratification and specialization of transnational ceramic markets. Through these material-cultural interactions, Jingdezhen porcelain expanded China's cultural soft power within the crucible of multicultural exchange, forging enduring connections between material flows and civilizational dialogues.

Conclusions

As the pivotal export commodity of imperial China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen porcelain profoundly reconfigured Afro-Eurasian trade networks through its technical sophistication and cultural codification, exerting transformative impacts on global ceramic industry structures and civilizational exchange paradigms. These porcelain artifacts not only perpetuated the mercantile legacy of the Silk Road but also pioneered transoceanic porcelain trade corridors spanning the Indian and Atlantic maritime systems. Their circulation catalyzed the structural realignment of global ceramic commerce, precipitated the emergence of new financial hubs, and functioned as a critical accelerator in proto-globalization processes. Simultaneously, they reconstituted transcivilizational aesthetic paradigms and material culture practices through sustained Sino-foreign cultural dialogues. The transnational influence of Ming-Qing Jingdezhen porcelain epitomizes the enduring vitality of Chinese cultural production, revealing historical foundations for contemporary cultural confidence. This historical precedent offers strategic reference value for advancing cultural product globalization within China's current Belt and Road Initiative framework, particularly in navigating the interplay between heritage commodification and soft power projection.

Issue
Design and Modern Enlightenment of Yongxuan Blue and White Porcelain from the Perspective of Cultural and Creative Concept
Journal of Ceramics 2022, 43(4): 726-732
Published: 01 August 2022
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Downloads:6

Yongxuan blue and white porcelain is a summit in the history of Chinese ceramics. The strong Islamic art style is the distinctive feature of Yongxuan blue and white porcelain design. Based on culture, contemporary cultural and creative ideas were integrated in both China and the west, crossing time and space, meeting ancient and modern times, realizing innovation and creation through transformation, and "activating" traditional culture. Yongxuan blue and white porcelain is the product of the interaction and integration of Chinese and Iranian cultures. In the historical context at that time, it already had the budding thinking of cultural and creative ideas. It is the inheritance and innovation of Yuan blue and white foundation. It is demonstrated from four aspects, namely function upgrading creative life, the integration of Chinese and Western religious narration, the vulgarization of elegant blue and white symbols and the elimination of red tape, which is suitable for beauty and brings enlightenment to modern design, i.e., innovation is not imitating tradition, but keeping pace with the times, realizing the "new evolution" of traditional culture, demand-oriented design, meeting and leading consumer fashion.

Issue
Familial Design Strategy of Daily Porcelain from the Perspective of Brand Image
Journal of Ceramics 2024, 45(1): 205-211
Published: 01 February 2024
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Downloads:3

Brand is the core competitiveness of enterprises, product image is the basis of brand building and brand building is the basis of product image. Family design is an optimization strategy of contemporary product development and brand image building, which has the characteristics of inheritance, stability and difference. Family design is also of great significance to the design of daily porcelain and the dissemination of brand image. Guided by problem consciousness, the authors constructed a multi-dimensional unified inheritance symbol of household design of daily porcelain from four aspects, including the design inheritance of uniform shape symbol, the design extension of similar pattern symbol, the stability of individual glaze symbol and the inheritance innovation of stable process symbol, thus putting forward the realization strategy of household design of daily porcelain. Through the family design of daily porcelain, the user’s daily porcelain personality and brand image are associated to matching experiences, the high-quality development of daily porcelain brand is promoted and the great goal of ceramic power will be achieved.

Issue
Creative Strategies for Daily Ceramics from the Perspective of User Experience Design
Journal of Ceramics 2024, 45(5): 1060-1066
Published: 01 October 2024
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User experience design is a product of the experience economy. In the era of experiential economy, daily ceramics are no longer individual daily necessities, but are deeply integrated with usage scenarios and user environments to jointly create an aesthetic landscape of life. The emotions carried by daily ceramics are increasingly strengthened, while cultural consumption has become an important goal. Product quality is the core of high-quality development and brand building in the daily ceramic industry, while design is at the forefront of the industry chain. Under the concept of user experience design, designers deduce design creativity from experience content and goals and construct creative strategies for daily ceramics, by creating visual experiences, behavioral interaction experiences, cultural and emotional experiences and comprehensively enhancing user experience.

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