Jingdezhen – World Capital of Porcelain
by B.J. Antony
Together with the artists Jacques Oerter (Hanau) and Manfred Schaller (Nuremberg) and Chinese friends, the art creator B.J. Antony travels to Jingdezhen, the world capital of porcelain. Jingdezhen with today approx. 1.6 million inhabitants is considered the birthplace of the "white gold". Porcelain has been produced here for about 1700 years. Already declared as an imperial manufactory in 1004, only the highest quality was produced to meet the high demands of the imperial court. The porcelain lanterns, traffic lights and pedestrian bridges are striking in the streetscape, and even the rubbish bins are made of porcelain.
In this film we see impressions from city life, visit the oldest porcelain manufactory in the world, see the craftsmen at work, take a look at a modern porcelain manufactory, visit one of the countless porcelain shops and collect impressions in the village of Yaoli near Jingdezhen, where the porcelain is said to have been made and where, as in primeval times, the raw material is still crushed by means of an old water mill and processed by hand into small blocks from which the precious pieces of porcelain are made.
