Great Wall

The first time I visited the Great Wall with the group, it was so foggy and misty that I couldn’t even see the wall 50 feet in front of me. While the wall was still beautiful in a mystical way, I was overwhelmingly upset about the lack of visibility. I had a postcard-esque image in my head of the Wall rolling through hills.

A few days after, I went to the Great Wall at Badaling by myself. I had spent a long time on the internet researching how to get to Mutianyu, which was described as the most picturesque portion of the wall. I had a general idea of which bus to take and asked the hotel clerk to write “Great Wall” on a piece of paper for me. After arriving at the bus depot, I was shoved onto the cattle call busses for Badaling, still a picturesque portion of the wall but I had read online that it was flooded with crowds. I woman shoved me onto a bus marked “Great Wall” and we started to drive out of downtown Beijing.

The bus was packed - despite the ride being over an hour, there were passengers that were standing the entire trip. A tour guide started speaking in Chinese through a microphone and when we unloaded from the bus, he continued to speak to the group and direct them. I had no idea what was going on so I wandered around until I found the ticket kiosk for the electric pull-cart up the mountain (I hiked up at Mutianyu, which was enough accomplishment for me).

I waited in line for the car for two hours. The people standing on the line seemed to ignore the heat or need for breathing space and people were crammed up against me on all sides. I was disappointed that people had managed to turn the Great Wall, an invaluable piece of Chinese history, into an unbearable tourist trap. Vendors were shouting at all sides and there was also a small zoo of baby bears.

Finally reaching the top of the wall, however, was incredible. I got to see the wall rolling over the hills and hiked around for a little bit. It was very hot and I didn’t have enough water, which eventually led me to leave the mountain. The wall itself was also so crowded. I waited over 15 minutes just to get through a doorway at one of the staircases.

Finally sunny at the top!

The foggy day

Everyone at Badaling was carrying an umbrella

Chen Lu and Mr. Li

Old kilns in Chen Lu

Mr. Li's coal kiln; he later sold us pieces that he made and fired in this coal kiln, which he no longer uses

Mr. Li with his Ming Dynasy table in his cave

Chen Lu was really high up in the mountains. It took us quite a while to get up there in our bus and along the road were a number of hitchhikers, mostly school aged children, looking for rides home. Chen Lu literally translates to stacked kilns and there the whole town was a mixture of cave-dwellings and defunct kilns.

Mr. Li’s studio was mostly made up of people making molds. The Chinese government gives him a sizable yearly stipend because he maintains his studio in the mountains. Mr. Li invited us into his home, which is one simple room built into the mountain side. The cave and home itself was simple, but Mr. Li pointed out to us his Ming Dynasty tables which were worth millions of yuan.  

Terracotta Warriors

This was one of the most sweltering days of my entire life. After staying up all night traveling from Jingdezhen to Xi’an by plane and bus, we finally made it to the Terracotta warriors in the afternoon. I knew that the Terracotta Warriors existed but I was completely unaware of the extent of the tombs or the story behind Emperor Han.

The refusal to further excavate the remaining pits and tomb itself truly embodied the Chinese attitude towards their 5,000 year old continuous culture. In the North and South Americas, people are digging up all of the ancient artifacts they can find and auctioning it off at high prices. The respect that the Chinese had towards an ancient dynasty and their culture’s history was a change from the views of Western values.

This girl's family forced her to give me this cucumber as a gift

Dressed up as a Terracotta Warrior

Yaoli and Tianbao

Yaoli was a really beautiful and old Chinese town. It seemed as if the town didn’t have any running water because people were doing laundry and washing dishes in the river. This was my first glimpse into the true Chinese countryside and it was cool to see what people lived like outside of the city. We walked around for some time and then an enormous group of Chinese tourists showed up. They epitomized a lot of stereotypes of Chinese tourists and were fun to watch.

After lunch, we visited Tianbao, where there is a 70 meter dragon kiln and tianbao clay is made. The studio there produced enormous wood-fired jars and they fired the kiln up to five times in one year.

Yaoli landscape

Old man in Yaoli

A house being built in Yaoli

Tianbao dragon kiln

Giant jars made of Tianbao clay and fired in the dragon kiln

Underglaze Demo - Professor Yangbing

Professor Yangbig brought in her own pot to decorate with blue cobalt underglaze. The piece was already sprayed once with a clear glaze and she painted over with cobalt. Her final design looked more contemporary than the traditional Chinese landscapes and animals that were being painted on vases at the big vase factory. Apparently her work sells for big bucks because she bought 6 apartments and knocked down the walls to create one massive luxury pad for herself and her husband, or so I hear.

Professor Yangbing painted an abstract lotus flower onto the pot. The end result was really beautiful and impressive but I wasn’t too interested in sitting and watching her paint for an hour. After she was finished, each of us got to decorate a small pot with cobalt.

Trimming Demo - Mater Guangyu and Brushmaker demo - Mr. Shen

I remember we were listening to a lot of Neil Young in the studio this day because I wanted to sing “Old Man” to the brushmaker. He didn’t speak much at all for the time he was there and worked with one bunch of hairs for the time he was there.

The trimmer couldn’t work much because a lot of the work was still too wet. He trimmed off at least half of the clay on each piece. I think he trimmed off so much because the nature of the porcelain having to be thrown so thick in order to remain stable.

Again the question of authorship came up. The trimmer made chattering mark designs on some of the pieces. When a person is looking at a ceramic piece, why are they attracted to it? Do they like the accent designs, for example, the chattering or do they like the glazes or the shape of the form? What is that initial attraction for people and who is in control of those aspects of the piece?

Song Dynasty kiln site

Not knowing anything about Chinese history, visiting the Song dynasty kiln site was one most interesting parts of my time in Jingdezhen. Amongst people’s homes and farms was an enormous pile of Song dynasty ceramic shards and saggars. Digging through the piles, I looked for shards with interesting colors and designs. The shards could be discarded for any reason. In some cases, the piece had become too hot in the kiln and slumped or attached to the saggar. Also, often the color was off, as the kiln needs to be at a specific temperature in order for the celadons to turn blue.

A pile of shards and saggars

Landscape and farmlands behind kiln site

Wheel Throwing Demo - Master Shaolin

Master Shaolin came into the studio to demonstrate throwing. After throwing a few of his own forms (unsure of the origin of these forms - are they his own or are they traditional Chinese forms?) we were able to draw some of our own shapes and Master Shaolin would throw them. I picked a bottle shape and Master Shaolin threw the form exactly as how I’d drawn it. After a certain period of time, I became disinterested watching Master Shaolin throw. While I do find his skill impressive, I believe with enough training and practice, mostly everyone can acquire the technical skill needed to throw forms.

Again, I’m confused at the line drawn between artist and craftsperson. It’s hard to pick out the bits of fact from all the opposing information that’s being told to me. I’m also interested in the the Chinese ceramics pay sale. What is Master Shaolin being paid? How much money did he invest in the education? Do students at JCI even attain the “master” status and what would they do after they have that status? Is JCI producing students that are artists or craftspeople? If they are artists, does China have the economic demand for so many ceramic artists that are so specialized in each area? I’m still unsure of how Chinese ceramic artists claim ownership of their artworks, especially functional works.

In the United States, artists have to learn how to do the entire process themselves, from the wedging (and often even mixing the clay) to unloading the kiln and marketing their works. Meghan was telling me about how she makes her own molds for an installation piece she’s doing but in Jingdezhen, mold making is a specialized profession.

In the afternoon, I tried out the eastern style wheel. I liked the control I had when my entire body was over the wheel but it was hard to see the shape that I was making.

Some pots after being thorn

My sketch for Master Shaolin

Slab Factory and Big Vase Factory

The slab factory was the first time we got to see the Chinese division of labor process at work. In one small neighborhood area, every turn into every alley led us into the slab factories. The process itself was rudimentary. Two people (or four people depending on the size of the slab) would set out a log of clay on a table and use a PVC pipe to roll it out into an even slab, with the thickness determined by two slats of wood on either side of the table. They would then pick up the board on which the slab was rolled and flip it over on a clay or plaster table to dry. The slabs were then fired upright in order to avoid warping in the kiln. In the slab factory there were also slab decorators who seemed to be rubbing powdered pigments into engraved lines in the already fired slabs. The people at the slab factory were so kind and welcoming to our group. Women held their children’s hands to wave hello and goodbye to us. In the downtown Jingdezhen area, people gape and stare at us but in this smaller and more isolated area, everyone wanted to engage with us and say hello.

In the afternoon, we visited the big vase factory, which was not running because it was a Sunday. There were, however, a couple of decorators that were painting on the vases were working. They painted traditional mountainous Chinese landscapes using the chung wah blue and white technique. Shoji explained that these are not artists but rather crafstman, who have been rigorously trained in the technique and the finished painting is simply the product of muscle memory.

Next to the big vase factory was a slip casting factory, making teapots to be sold at retail locations. We were not able to see any of the finished products. People were taking the slip cast parts out of molds and rubbing off the mold lines. At this point I was very confused about the distinction of “handmade” versus “factory made.” Many artists use and design slip cast pieces and categorize them as handmade and artist work.  What is the line between that which is sold in department stores and is mass produced and the slipcast and mass produced work of labeled “artists?”

Slabs are fired upright to avoid warping

Flipping over slabs onto a clay table

Rolling out a slab

Decorating a slab

Decorating the big vases

The slipcase factory