Page 270 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008
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were periods when people were intentionally creating knowledge about porcelain for
their own purposes. The records and pictures they produced were mutually constitutive
and even took on lives of their own. Meanings often escaped original intentions. Most
notably, porcelain stimulated cross-cultural discussion, enabling understanding as well as
misunderstanding, as attitudes of superiority and self-condescension showed.
The history of Jingdezhen porcelain is a story of abundance and multiplicity.
Porcelain comes in a diversity of material forms and styles. It has traveled extensively,
its material remnants and visual representations disseminated across multiple locations in
the world. From the perspective of production and technique, it was mass produced,
requiring hundreds of artisans and workers for each step in the process. Even within
China, kiln centers were located all over the country (Map 1). Porcelain embodied
different meanings. It is the quality of abundance that makes porcelain the most aesthetic
art form of all. Porcelain’s boundlessness inspires us to think beyond ourselves and
points us to a wider world of humanity.
