Jingdezhen: Why China is called China

in this first episode in a two-part series we trace the fascinating story of the things so beautiful that Europeans once called it white gold and believed it was made with magic join me imaging the junk the porcelain capital of the world and the reason why China does called China [Music] g'day guys have you ever wondered why the country China is called China China or Portland is one of the greatest Chinese inventions and once upon a time most of the world's porcelain came from a town called chungnam warped by the foreign tongues of ancient ceramics traders Chung line became China today the town is no longer called Chung Lang it's now a city called Janardan and England is known as the porcelain capital of the world it's here in dilatant that the porcelain story is still being told [Music] in this travelogue episode the first of two in Ginga Jen we delve into the pulsing world of porcelain exploring its history in this prefecture-level city population 1.6 million Jimmy John is located in Shanxi Province in China southeast here a casual stroll through the streets reveals just how much this place lives and breathes ceramics say the name Jing urgent if any Chinese person and they'll automatically think toddler pottery and porcelain the best place to begin our porcelain journey is the Jing legend China ceramics museum which I've heard is the ceramics museum in the country it only opened in 2015 and within its airy contemporary spaces ceramic enthusiasts can find a whopping 400 thousand pieces of pottery on display and knowledgeable guides to walk you through the porcelain story jimmy Sambhaji what's the LA region doing Part C find its exact energy modules Argentinian each individual corner to turn logical decision showed rebalancing bathroom to children Roger Europe I buy dinner you'll find achieve the logic which furniture sale to New Jersey Tony Hong Tai Chi Chi to me are they in were thirteen billion engine turns over car Amir pop to the challenge answered email that was the year one thousand and four more than a whole new Lenny amigo over time the most renowned type of shifted from to the chin which is distinctive okay the anti-russian no Somali is a fertility issue by the hair by Osho so much I also hope you crazy boy [Music] now she was just kidding as if they'd let me get my grubby hands on that paragon of porcelain anyway it's more than enough for me to face my eyes on all the exquisite items on display naturally as the centuries passed the wares became more sophisticated and complex and gained a reputation overseas as exclusive commodities for the nobility and wealthy [Music] it was Marco Polo who first brought porcelain to Europe from Jun the gem that was in the 14th century a small grey green jar amidst his silk and spices not long afterwards the Portuguese were ordering customized pieces from here then in the 1600s it's estimated that more than 3 million porcelain pieces were shipped to Europe by the Dutch meantime domestically Jigme Jen had begun to mass-produce porcelain particularly for the imperial court in the last dynasty the designs became even more varied and marvelously delicate combining folk and imperial styles the artistry on this phase is absolutely phenomenal but what I find really interesting is the tale behind it so the ceramic artisans of jakajan they've never actually seen a foreigner before but they knew that foreigners came to China bearing gifts for the Emperor so what's depicted here is actually entirely created from their imagination so that's why you can see grumpy curly-haired men riding strange curly-haired animals I'd say they were pretty accurate weird for the strings and percussion of porcelain instruments I make my way to go out and popular tourist site that throws the best-preserved kilns from the Qin Dynasty [Music] [Music] it's official name is Jenna Jenna ancient kiln folk custom expert area so let's stick with Goya meaning ancient kiln the case the structure of the house is very simple but we have to frost the second floor is to stow the pine tree it's surreal to think that once upon a time this place would have been teeming with the leap artisans and sweat dredge skill masters all experts in their fields these days it's an interactive museum where aged tools and techniques are preserved by placing unfired pottery into protective containers known as Sagan's now anyone can join the oldest porcelain production line on earth my guide milling tells me how precise the firing process was indeed the SAG is insured each item would be subjected to a uniform temperature but the temperatures varied widely inside the kiln so in starting the sagas the kiln masters had to take into account the heat requirements for different types of wet and it could take several days for the kiln to reach the ideal temperature the highest temperature may be it will go to about 1,000 and 400 degrees you know one of the reasons why ceramics from other parts of the world they couldn't create porcelain for the longest time was because they weren't able to fire furnaces like this to a hot enough temperature so this one 1400 degrees you know it's incredible to think that Chinese people all these hundreds of years ago were able to create that sort of temperature our next stop in Goryeo is a Ching dynasty workshop still in operation today where master craftspeople are doing the individual bit to keep this intangible cultural heritage alive Wow yeah so you can see that many steps to finish or for just one bore struggling through the ageless workshop where ageless artisans work their magic and further come by a fusion of emotions it's a lot of admiration for the allegiance to that our a little bit of crime perhaps some ancestors of mine were involved in the development and continuation of this priceless Chinese invention that and a sense of gratitude for safeguarding traditions within these walls with the hands 72 steps in one ball oh my god so because every master has its own specialty that's 72 people that one vote needs what will become like this one the kind of a challenge into needs it is so beautiful you company this is done by hand look at that chun jung-bae is 72 years old and has been behind the wheel for the vast majority of his life for him throwing bows to perfectly consistent dimensions is as natural as breathing virtually instinctive like all the other elderly artists here he's inherited this individual skill and has spent an entire lifetime honing it sorry kids these are amazing yet yeah my scoring ability okay oh okay uh-huh how did he get it to spin so quickly huh it's actually quite taxing on the on the arms and shoulders he's having a good laugh at me I think I prefer the playing with the clay pot time to cue unchained melody' it's just so soft and malleable [Music] okay so back to my innocuous position as an observer this gentleman is making rice pattern or linglong porcelain one of the four classic types of Jing engine puttering my grain size holes are hollowed out and glazed applied to create translucent decorations though you can see also we not have a small one oh that's beautiful yeah and that's just glaze on engrave in the middle of the fall it also seems like the spiritual getaway for the artist meditative therapy and on top of that tremendous fine motor control especially for displacement is completely done yeah and the colors are so bright as well I never thought porcelain objects could be so mesmerizing nor did I know they could sing okay you know there's a famous saying about Jignesh in porcelain it's as wide as jade as thin as paper as bright as a mirror and also as tuneful as a belt you know it's crazy to think that this beautiful thing has come from the earth [Music] coming up next the Imperial China of Imperial China from antique markets to stop piles of knuckles and the elusive holy grail of porcelain the chicken cub yes the chimp up so this is an antiques market and it's open every Monday morning it's called grecian which means ghost market and that's because it opens at 4:00 a.m. well I wasn't about to call out of bed that early so look at antiques but Nana that's about 6:30 maybe even though it's technically an antiques market as expected not everything for sale is a genuine antique a good proportion of these ceramic bits and bobs are probably decent replicas so you just have to know your stuff I love a good wonder through bazaars like this but I've only ever look in touch and ever buy just in case numbers are they some kind of a you are well the only ceramics I'm familiar with are IKEA mugs and tableware so all I can do is listen and learn and amuse myself bizarre pieces that catch my eye [Music] I then come across what seems to be the site of a big dish hurling brawl in a Chinese restaurant [Laughter] nito Jim talk what so the Nagas like this yeah and tell them not everyone is a pedo Dada Caillou was happy to hold oh come on I don't top it yet chichen-itza oh it is yeah the possibilities are endless anyway mr. Liu says that in signature you can dig up porcelain fragments almost everywhere but there's one place where the most valuable ones are clustered too bad it's now protected site these royal kilns were relatively recently discovered in 2003 now there are seven of them in a row and all shapes like gauze which is very typical of Ming Dynasty design it's believed that if we excavate further underground we'll be able to find millions of pieces of discarded precious Imperial porcelain and here you can be sure that these are the real deal at the very peak of the development of royal kilns 58 of them were built here at this site now behind me here is a miniature and it's made of 1,300 pieces of porcelain now it just shows the the vastness of the entire operation it's pretty impressive isn't it at the imperial kilns it was always better to be safe than sorry so for example if the Emperor wanted one incense burner in the shape of a duck that would make terrible man fire ten of them because even though the process was strictly controlled the outcome was always a little bit unpredictable if by a miracle five of these duck incense burners were fit for the Emperor four of them would actually have to be smashed into the ground because the Emperor ordered it and no one else was allowed to use it so that's why these exhibits that you see are actually restored from these pieces that were shattered a tedious but noble task and the results are no doubt worth a little more than the paraphernalia at grisha next destination a very different type of porcelain market a sprawling treasure trove of Imperial knock-offs so this is fun judging market and you can come here to buy millions and millions of copies of objects that were once used by Chinese emperors so if you want to add a royal touch to your living room this is the place to come the web of alleyways here electing mijin's arteries pumping porcelain as its lifeblood it also feels like a detached microcosm of the outside world but strangely surrounded by ceaseless stacks of ceramics and we know our customers life must go on I have to admit I'm really disoriented right now reminds me of getting really lost in Jerusalem religion here's each bulbous object is green ting and gleaming at me I wonder what would the Emperor's decree if they were to see their wares becoming so accessible to the common people um I don't know yeah yeah yeah one now how about something much smaller in size but in measurable Raja you go how much company laughs you know this cup is considered the holy grail of Chinese porcelain well of course not discard because it's just a copy but there are apparently seventeen of them left in the entire world the real ones and just in 2014 one of them was sold for 36 million u.s. dollars can you believe that well later we're gonna go and see how these cups are made Lee shun is a master ceramist whose family has been in Jimmy John's porcelain industry since the Ming Dynasty over 400 years ago [Music] that's a little too apartment that shall she Aloha thanks Guido I willing to eat attach our feet to GCR we serve for two no like to eat you this cup was designed by one of the Ming Emperor's himself as a gift to his wife and even though from a distance it might look like a child's painting it said that no one has ever been able to replicate the design and artistry in it this guy's cups may be the closest we'll ever get was until I tell you to cut guard to guard 2001 that seven people ha ha ha he has a chicken beaches a contact or another we can take a choose at random day to campaign I chose AJ Allmendinger achieve who the county or Guney do not do about me the Chiefs warrant ideology said another cuchara which IP incredible conventional a contemporary it's been hundreds of years but people who are still buying copies of the chicken cup you know porcelain objects like these are still being made using the same traditional processes and skills are being passed down from generation to generation I really like how old designs of being modernized they and you know what great these cups are worth four thousand are mvh four thousand if I had that kind of money to spend on tea cups I know what I'd do buy both of them [Music] tucked away in the ordinary flats of gin dodging city his italic and tirelessness I've never before come across the Sun also earns a tiny workshop that employers seemingly the most focused wines and steadiest hands in the universe [Music] Challenge indispensable house um here to us Dona Ana if it's too - Adama Egypt's oceanography quick particles Usha Raj internal social media hates why eaten just much a limo limo Giovanni arena I'll just seen and three three couch big sofa - such a phenomenal time she didn't ever party again that was our one team that second row on the top : injunctions and knocked out in it's such a tight I'm not sure how much better than perfect these artists can be but perhaps the immortality of porcelain has something to do with that mindset [Music] coming up next the clay and glaze that gave Ginga Jen porcelain it's impressive international reputation and the quaint quiet Township that beamed with [Music] my mission now is to unearth the secret ingredients that made Ginga Jan porcelain world-famous so we hit the road and drive the little outside of the city center towards enchanting Hamlet's and greener pastures this is an area called Yali and in the ancient times this is the very place that ginger and porcelain actually originated today really good quality materials used in the production of porcelain are still being sourced from here [Music] yollie can be translated literally as inside the kiln and pottery has been produced here since the Tong dynasty over a thousand years ago it's as if this unruffled rustic place escape the grip of time almost like an insect fossilized in amber and has remained unaffected by the hubbub of trade and industry the villagers livelihood largely depended on porcelain and it was in this area during the Yuan Dynasty in the late 13th and 14th century that the essential component in porcelain was discovered Kalen there was definitely something to sing about as it gave Chinese porcelain a globally unmatchable pooi Tallinn is a silicate material providing porcelain with plasticity and structure and its primary constituent is the mineral kaolinite found in abundance around interestingly for two whole centuries there were countless failed experiments in Europe to produce porcelain finally the cowling code was cracked in the early 1700 nanometer yeehaw I really can't imagine what life would have been like for the kalman miners you know they were so poor that they sometimes mixed in kaolinite with their food much like flour and also it was so damp in there that they got arthritis and when they came out of the the tunnels you know after ten or more days it was so bright outside compared to inside that they had to use cloth to cover their eyes for about half an hour otherwise they'll get blinded just a short drive away within yoli is an age-old graze producing operation but still churning out a decent supply using age-old techniques with this brilliant bit of engineering to exploit the ample hydropower available a significant amount of physical labor is saved although it's still necessary Oh some stages I asked a worker by a machine couldn't do his job I'm gonna do Chicago Johanna turn I'll do why you don't just ice you turn in now hold on before tell her to change in that to get out socialize this is just a brick how did they know that they could make clear glaze out of this temperature winter now mentality to the I'm back at the Big Island village that once dreamed from porcelain production and trade it since shed that repute and adopted a low profile although vestiges of its glory days linger amidst its walls and floors and in the retold recollections of its residents [Music] the gold shimmer soju unicorn n2o once I ate say Joseph Angela - Tina Nagashima they did not eat of course another thing that I noticed the grooves on the ground left by the endless back-and-forth of wheelbarrows and carts it's an almost undetectable and yet indelible mark of diligence magnificent past a foundation to its present and future the ancient porcelain capital is still the number one supplier of porcelain to the world and no we're definitely not done here yet [Music] jinglun not only gave China its name but it gave China to the world and still to this day porcelain is prized for its durability its darkest II and desire now that we know a little bit about the history behind porcelain and also the processes and materials behind Boston we can dig a little bit deeper and discover more about the hands and hearts that we arey my name's Dean join me next time when travelogue for the second half of this journey in division [Music]

Channel: CGTN

Views: 81,938

Rating: 4.9042926 out of 5

Keywords: CCTV, CGTN, CCTVNews, News, ChinaNews, travel, culture, history, art, pottery, porcelain, ceramics, Chinaware, Fineart

Id: 6hx6OeIIC_k

Length: 28min 42sec (1722 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2018