Page 52 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

5. The Eurasian Cultural Melting Pot – the Story After the Trade
“The Japanese had copied the Chinese, who in turn copied the Japanese, all of
which was copied by the Europeans. And then the Chinese copied the Europeans, who
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copied each other.”
The creation of a Eurasian ceramic market has now been described. However, this
is only the first part of the Eurasian ceramics story. The customers of East Asian
ceramics – in Europe and the Middle East – have not only imported hundreds of
millions of pieces of porcelain. They started themselves to replicate, invent and to
further develop the production of ceramics. In the long run, this had even more
culturally unifying effects on Europe and Asia then the mere trade. The import of
Asian ceramics influenced and broadened European senses and their feeling for décor.
However, applying Asian décor elements, colors and shapes to their own products, has
been much more: a reflection of Asia and an expression of a changing relationship and
identity.
The following chart is a summary of the various routes the blue and white décor
took and how it spread out within Eurasia. In chapter 3 and 4 we have described the
first two columns; now we want to look at the reflections East Asian ceramics had in
the Islamic world and in Europe.
Chart 1: The linkages of the blue and white ceramic production centers

5.1 Islamic Ceramics
The geographic area influenced by Islam is actually too heterogeneous and too
wide historically stretching from Spain, northern Africa, the Middle East to Turkey
and the Balkans,
Central Asia, South Asia and the Malay Archipelago - to be reasonably summarized
under just a religious category. However, more and more literature can be found
where common features of the pottery art of several Islamic countries are presented:
the use of glazed tiles in architecture, the lustre painting, the underglaze painting
technique, the three color splash décor. In the center of the research are countries,
such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Egypt where kilns have been found and
specimens are part of famous collections all over the world. Relevant in the context of
this introduction is of course the question, to what extent the Islamic World, China,
South East Asia and Europe have interacted and exchanged techniques, design and
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