Soleil Hu, the author of “The Rich, Complex History Hiding Within Chinese Plate Designs”, asked a curator about a design she grew up with on the plates in her mothers cabinets. The design included a red band, flowers, and the phrase in Chinese characters “wan shou wu jiang” translated as “may you enjoy boundless longevity”. The curator told her that it was based on a porcelain that was commonly painted with flowers, dragons, and gourds and every example used the phrase. The use of this phrase can be traced back to a set of porcelain made to honor the wedding of a young emperor.

Chinese porcelain had been popularized all over the world. It was seen as a status symbol by Americans and Europeans. Red pieces of porcelain were preferred by people because it identified the porcelain as Chinese and also perhaps because red represented luck. In recent times, Chinese plastic dishes in the form of melamine became as popular as porcelain had been in the past – because plastic is cheap, but the melamine is beautiful in its own way, and also provides a positive atmosphere in restaurants. Hu had written “I think that’s why that red bowl pattern appeals to me so much: it’s an honest admittance that the way I grew up wasn’t fancy or exotic.”

A piece of red porcelain designed with birds and flowers with splashes of color

This week, I read exploration pack 1 – Robert Finlay’s “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History”. Chinese porcelain influenced ceramics everywhere and even replaced ceramic traditions in some places. It played a role in religious and social life, and was involved in cultural exchanges in the Afro-Eurasian world because it was a symbol of assimilation and transmission of art. However, porcelain has been overlooked by historians and is considered to be third to painting and sculpture while only slightly more respected then furniture and costume design. Despite that, porcelain holds cultural significance and is linked to advancements in commerce, art, and social values.

On Tuesday, we brainstormed different forms of art that clay could be used for. Pottery, ceramics, porcelain, fine china, earthenware, stoneware, and terracotta were suggested. These forms of art give us a window into how people lived and their effect on society.

Bibliography

Ho, Soleil. “The Rich, Complex History Hiding Within Chinese Plate Designs”. 

Thrillist, June 10, 2019. URL: 

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/chinese-plate-design-history

STEPHANIE H. SHIH. https://stephaniehshih.com/

Finlay, Robert. “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History.” Journal of 

World History 9, no. 2 (1998): 141-87