Chaozhou, a provincial municipality in Guangdong Province, is located in the eastern part of the province, at the middle and lower reaches of the Han River. The Chaozhou ceramics history dates back thousands of years and is intertwined with the region’s rich cultural heritage.
Develop of Chaozhou Ceramics History
The ancestors of Chaozhou belonged to the ancient Min-Yue ethnic group. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the descendants of the Han people from the Central Plains moved southward into Chaozhou. In the 33rd year of Qin Shihuang (214 BC), after South Vietnam was pacified, three counties were set up: Xiang County, Guilin, and Nanhai County, with Chaozhou being part of Nanhai County. This marked Chaozhou’s first appearance on the map. It is named “Chaozhou” because of its proximity to the South China Sea, taking the meaning of “the tide going back and forth”.
Chaozhou City is a national historical and cultural city of the People’s Republic of China, the important birthplace of Chaozhou culture, known as “Seaside Zulu”, “Linghai Famous State”, “Lingdong Shouyi” and so on. The history of the founding of the country has been the political, economic, and cultural center of eastern Guangdong, the seat of the government.
Chaozhou city has many cultural relics and monuments, the city’s existing 728 cultural relics and monuments, the existing national key cultural relics protection units 8, Guangdong Province, 11 cultural relics protection units, city (county) level cultural relics protection units 55, is the place of Guangdong cultural relics and monuments.
The region’s ceramic history can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (676-679 AD)， when Chaozhou already produced ceramics on a large scale and saw the emergence of underglaze brown-colored porcelain, and became an important center of ceramic production. During the Song Dynasty, Chaozhou was the porcelain capital of Guangdong, with the center of porcelain production in the present-day Xiangqiao District. Nowadays, Chaozhou has enjoyed a reputation as the “Porcelain Capital of China”, and the scale of ceramic production is quite considerable.
Varieties of Chaozhou Ceramics
The Chaozhou Ceramics Manufacturers Association brings together many ceramics manufacturers to produce various types of ceramics, including arts and crafts furnishing ceramics, daily-use ceramics, architectural ceramics, and specialty ceramics. One of the most characteristic is the arts and crafts furnishing porcelain, including porcelain flowers, animal sculpture, painted vases (plates). Chaozhou Porcelain Flower is especially known for its exquisite hollowing and carving, which is well known in the history of ceramics in the world.
Chaozhou-Colored Porcelain: A Unique Art Form
Chaozhou-colored porcelain in the glaze painting, pigment-rich, fresh composition, brush painting, neat and delicate, and colorful, by successive generations of artists, forming a coloring style that is different from that of other ceramic areas, ceramics, known as the “Chao color! ”These ceramics are often characterized by detailed brushwork, vibrant colors, and unique compositions that set them apart from ceramics produced in other regions.
Fine art furnishings porcelain flowers for the characteristics of porcelain flowers, porcelain flowers to carve fine hollowing techniques with pinching the various types of porcelain flowers, with the beauty of exquisite and transparent and unique porcelain. Its decorative hollow geometric patterns for the background, the background of the continuous pattern for the quadrilateral, are easy to carve, suitable for firing, and easy to show the artistic effect of meticulous craftsmanship. Broadly speaking, there are through the flower and glaze painting combination, through the flower and relief combination, and the flower and porcelain flower combination. Carving techniques have single-layer carving, double-layer carving, and multi-layer carving and can be rotated. Is a national style and strong local characteristics of porcelain art, but also China’s premier sculpture hollowing and jacquard into one of the arts and crafts.
In addition to fine art porcelain, Chaozhou ceramics also include practical items like daily-use porcelain, which has been a significant part of Chaozhou’s ceramic industry for centuries. The city’s ceramic traditions are not only rooted in craftsmanship but are also a testament to Chaozhou’s role as a cultural and economic center throughout Chinese history.
Today, Chaozhou Ceramics continues to thrive, blending traditional techniques with modern innovations, making it a key player in ceramic history worldwide. The city remains a place of preservation for ceramic culture and continues to honor its legacy through a variety of ceramic arts and crafts.
