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Overseas Chinese Media and Influencers Visit Jingdezhen to Tell the Porcelain Capital’s Story from an Overseas Perspective
Source: Hong Kong Commercial Daily Online
Top photo: Cityscape of Jingdezhen. Photo by Kang Ziji
In golden October, Jingdezhen welcomed its first “world-class gathering” since its successful World Heritage inscription: the Ceramics Expo and the Jingdezhen Forum, held at the same time. More than 450 exhibitors gathered at the Taobocheng exhibition complex, 37 well-known foreign ceramic brands from 19 countries took part, and over 800 overseas guests arrived; the Jingdezhen Forum invited 89 foreign guests from 24 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland and South Korea, to discuss cultural heritage protection and international communication.
Photo 1: Crowds fill the Taoxichuan market
It is at just such a moment that more than ten publishers and editors-in-chief of overseas Chinese-language media — including Europe Overseas Chinese News, Kwong Wah Yit Poh, South Asia Online, China-America Post, Voice of Europe-China, Fuzhong Media, Star Malaysia Media, Africa Times, Georgia Unity Daily, Eurasia Times, Macau Commercial Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily — along with a popular blogger from Malaysia, will visit Jingdezhen from October 17 to 19 to see the new changes in this world-famous ceramic tourism destination from an overseas perspective.
Here, they will visit the Ceramics Expo halls and feel the bustle of global ceramic brands and guests from home and abroad; attend the Jingdezhen Forum and observe the dialogue between World Heritage and civilizations; and explore handmade-porcelain kiln sites, tracing how an industrial chain running from raw-material mining and fuel cultivation to firing and export kept operating over a thousand years.
Photo 2: Night view of the Taoxichuan cultural and creative district
And they will see the innovation and vitality of the city. The Taoxichuan Spring and Autumn Fair — Autumn Fair runs October 16–19, with a lively program including the Shangzhen folk-song parade, an international kiln-firing session, a handicraft conference and fashion shows, where global art and local creativity complement each other. The first-ever “Shangzhen · Tea and Vessel Contest” offers 820 tea and related seats, bringing together Jingdezhen highlights such as porcelain, tea and water. The dance drama “Only Qingbai” is staged at the Taoxichuan Grand Theater, weaving the development history of qingbai porcelain and the fates of its craftsmen into dance.
Photo 3: Taoyangli Historical and Cultural Tourism Area
All are full of anticipation for the trip. Lin Yixian, deputy editor-in-chief of Voice of Europe-China, said he hopes to immerse himself in porcelain-making, gain a deeper understanding of how Jingdezhen’s thousand-year porcelain craft has been passed down, and bring these stories and this history to overseas audiences. Deng Xinchen, deputy editor-in-chief of Africa Times, said he hopes to learn more deeply about the history of Chinese porcelain reaching the world, and to better help porcelain spread overseas.
Photo 4: Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum
What the successful inscription changes is not only Jingdezhen’s label, but also how the world looks at the city. When this group of overseas Chinese media people and influencers from five continents walk into Taobocheng, the forum and Taoxichuan, what they see is not just exhibits and events, but how a city carries a thousand years of kiln fire into contemporary life. In their own languages, with their own lenses and platforms, they will tell Jingdezhen’s story to the world.