My Stories of Chinese Porcelain China Plus
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- Arts
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Porcelain, also called Chinese ceramics, is one of humanity's most ancient inventions. The stories behind this unique and exquisite material are fascinating, detailing how it made its way across the globe and gave the modern world the word "china". Follow the stories told by a well-known Chinese porcelain expert to learn more about these timeless masterpieces borne from the creativity of ancient China.
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Episode 8: Challenges for Chinese porcelain
Despite China inventing porcelain and dominating worldwide production and trade for centuries, from the 19th century, due to the Western world's industrialization, the entire Chinese porcelain industry lagged far behind.
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Episode 7: The 72 processes of making porcelain
Traditionally, there are 72 steps involved in the making of one Chinese porcelain piece. Other traditional crafts, like weaving, blacksmithing or carpentry, usually take place in a small workshop with simple procedures. Why does porcelain making require so many processes?
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Episode 6: The rise of European porcelain producers
Even though porcelain originated in China, only a few commercial brands were created there. Despite being 1,000 years behind, the European porcelain industry was soon developing its own porcelain brands. What happened?
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Episode 5: Imari ware and a story lost in the mists of time
Imari is a style of porcelain named after the Japanese port from which it was shipped to the West. At around the same period, the Chinese porcelain industry suddenly reached its peak and lost its glamorous appeal in the world market, replaced by this new Japanese porcelain.
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Episode 4: Kraak ware and its European influence
Kraak ware has been popular in Europe for hundreds of years. However, it was not made in Europe but in China. To find out why this chinaware has a fancy Western name and how it looks, let's travel back in time to the Netherlands in 1602.
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Episode 3: The story of blue and white porcelain
In Chinese pop singer Jay Chou's famous song "Blue and White Porcelain", he mistakenly suggests that the colors are a "light sky blue". In this episode, we find the truth about blue and white porcelain, as well as how it became a global obsession.
Customer Reviews
Background
You can’t fully understand British Porcelain without a background on Chinese Porcelain. I can only say that I wished I had heard this years ago when I started collecting British Porcelain. Now that my interest has expanded to Chinese and Japanese porcelain, I’m glad I found this podcast.
Quite Informative
The series was enjoyable to listen to. Good balance between history, craftsmanship and personal experiences.