Page 2 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

IMI Research Report No. 1902 [EN]

The Ceramics of Eurasia
How export porcelain has shaped a globalized world

*
By Thorsten Giehler

Introduction

The history of Asian ceramics is a history of cultural interaction and trade. The
famous Silk Road already linking the East and West together 2,000 years ago may not
have been an important route for trading ceramics when it was first established
between the Roman Empire and China. However, Chinese Tang dynasty (618-906)
ceramics have been found along the Silk Road in Persia, Iraq and Egypt, and one of
the first known foreign recipients of exquisite chinaware was the Abbasid Caliph
Harun al Rashid around 800. During the Tang dynasty a vibrant trade between China
and the Islamic world started. The Abbasid caliphate (750-1258) had already imported
millions of Chinese ceramics – beautiful white monochromes from northern China
and green glazed stoneware from the southern province of Zhejiang. Most of these
ceramics do not exist anymore, but in some fortunate cases shipwrecks found along
the former maritime trading routes give us evidence of these early forms of global
trade. One of the most famous discoveries was the Belitung shipwreck, an Arab dhow,
which sailed with a cargo of 60,000 ceramics from China towards an unknown
Abbasid port, and which sunk near the Indonesian island of Belitung. One bowl found
intact on the seabed was inscribed with a date: “16th day of the 7th month of the reign
1
of Baoli” or 826 . The treasure is now displayed in the Maritime Experimental
Museum of Singapore – where also the most relevant harbor city of the modern
globalized world is located. Another shipwreck of the 10th century found off the coast
of Java near the port of Cirebon had a cargo of 250,000 Chinese ceramics (see map 1).
This intensive trade relationship was replicated a couple of centuries later between
China and the Western world. A driving force of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and
English expeditions and discoveries taking place from 1450 onwards was the quest for
Asian commodities: spices, silk, cotton, porcelain and tea. Porcelain – even not the
most important trade ware – played its role in shaping a global economy and in
exploring new roads and maritime routes. An estimated 185 million pieces of
porcelain were exported from East Asia to Europe between 1550 and 1800. The age of
discovery is also the age of porcelain.
But more important than the mere trade relationships, are the cultural interactions
taking place by trading ceramics. Ceramics are manmade – shapes and decoration
vary and they can reflect the cultural traditions of the producer and/or the traditions of
the client. Asian export ceramics reflect both. A joint Sino-Islamic, Sino-Western and
Islamic-Western culture has been created over centuries and can still be sensed today.
Therefore, it would be reasonable to call them Eurasian ceramics in order to express
the unifying effects they have on the double continent stretching from Lisbon to
Tokyo. And even more, to perceive them as common Eurasian history and heritage.
The trade relationships and the interactions, in jointly developing cross-cultural

* Thorsten Giehler，Member of IMI International Committee, Country Director of GIZ Office China.
1