Page 22 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008
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My dissertation examines the circulation of knowledge about porcelain in order to
explore how china (porcelain) became a quintessential symbolic marker of the nation of
China during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time period when this
network of knowledge exchange flourished. By the end of the nineteenth century, texts
and images about porcelain from Jingdezhen had surged in numbers, circulating in and
beyond Qing territorial boundaries. In order to advance my research, I trace the history
of three major texts and one set of album paintings that have become the very basis on
which collectors and specialists have come to understand Jingdezhen “china.”
Knowledge about porcelain, the context in which it was produced, and the nature of that
knowledge are the primary foci of my inquiry.
The first chapter focuses on the first international exhibitions of Chinese art, in three
different cities between 1935 and 1936. The impetus for the massive exhibition came from a
group of writers, collectors, and Chinese art scholars based in London. The usual scholarly
focus has generally zeroed in on the London showing of the objects, the majority of which
were Jingdezhen porcelain objects. The London International Exhibition of Chinese Art,
held from November 28, 1935 to March 7, 1936, was the first exhibition of Chinese art to
showcase a large quantity of artifacts from the newly established Palace Museum in a
venue outside of China. Initiated by English collectors, the event was co-sponsored by
the Chinese government, then led by the Nationalist Party. There was also a pre-
exhibition in Shanghai and a post-exhibition in Nanjing, where the objects sent by
various Chinese institutions were shown to the public at home. The importance of these
three separate showings of Chinese art to the development of knowledge about porcelain
cannot be overemphasized. Together they provided the context in which Guo Baochang,
