Research on Development of Guangdong Porcelain Design Driven by Export Trade in the 16^th–19^th Century

Abstract

As the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, Guangdong has been a major foreign trade province famous at home and abroad since ancient times. It is not only an important trading hub of Chinese porcelain export, but also the location of kilns for porcelain manufacturing. Compared with kilns in other provinces, the porcelain design in Guangdong has caught less attention in relevant academic history. Guangdong porcelain has a long history of design, manufacturing, processing and export trades. The discovery and collection of Guangdong porcelain in Japan, the United States, Europe, Africa and other places demonstrate the acceptance of them all over the world. The export trade of porcelain becomes a medium of design aesthetics exchange between China and the Western countries with profound effects on the world’s creation culture.

At present the research achievements on Guangdong porcelain design mostly focus on the perspective of trading, relics, archaeology or art appreciation, while few of them are on the design development sequences of porcelain produced in Guangdong kilns. Taking the relationship between Guangdong traditional ceramic and porcelain design as the basis of research, this paper will focus on the driving effects of Guangdong porcelain export during the 16th–19th centuries on the improvement of local porcelain design techniques, modeling, decorative styles and Sino-Western exchanges from several aspects including folk kiln firing, famous kiln imitation, faience custom-making and Sino-Western interconnections.