Page 91 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 2 The Production of Enamelled Porcelain and Knowledge Transfer

However, China did develop institutions such as the imperial workshops and the

imperial court certainly played crucial roles in knowledge dissemination and

technology transfer. Dagmar Schäfer’s edited book Cultures of Knowledge:

Technology in Chinese History used European approaches to examine issues related

to Chinese technology in light of communication, appropriation, aggregation and

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documentation. Focusing on different material culture or industry, authors of this

volume have addressed issues of how knowledge and techniques were disseminated

and circulated in China. Anne Gerritsen studied Jingdezhen, a local production centre

for porcelain, which was embedded in networks of global, dynasty-wide and local

circuits. Through her research, we see how rulers and producers channelled

information for technical and design issues. 39 Susan Naquin links temple and

technology of brick making in north China and shows local managers and patrons

coordinated the technologies and raw materials. 40 Francesca Bray shows that

technical content was transmitted via technological texts and illustrations depicting

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the sequences of agrarian production. As we will see on enamelled porcelain, it was

the Qing court which established enamel workshops that promoted the technique and

more importantly, disseminated it via craftsmen exchange with other local

manufactures.

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38 Dagmar Schäer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History (Brill, 2011),
p.3.
39 Anne Gerritsen, ‘Ceramics for Local and Global Markets: Jingdezhen’s Agora of
Technologies’ in Dagmar Schäfer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History
(Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp.161-184.
40 Susan Naquin, ‘Temples, Technology, and Material Culture in Shouzhou 壽州 , Anhui’ in
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Dagmar Schäer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History (Brill, 2011),
pp.185-209.
41 Francesca Bray, ‘Chinese Literati and the Transmission of Technological Knowledge: The
Case of Agriculture’ in Dagmar Schäfer (ed.), Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese
History (Brill, 2011), pp.299-327.
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