Introduction
Situated in the central region of the Pearl River delta, Foshan has a pleasant climate and is the hometown of many famous people. Its urban areas, Shiwan, Shunde, Nanhai, Sanshui, and Gaoming are advancing confidently and bravely towards prosperity, democracy, civilization and modernization, being worthy of the trust of the People’s Republic of China.
Foshan has a long history and was one of the “four best known towns” in China. It has witnessed the glory of commercial prosperity and bustling streets. It has won the reputation as the “ceramic capital in South China” and the “red bean in South China”.
However, when the western powers used gunboats to blow open the door of this ancient oriental country, Foshan also had gone through disturbances, explorations and protests for a century.
The reform and opening up brought vitality to Foshan. Zumiao Temple and Liangyuan Park took on a brand-new outlook. Foshan people work hard and vigorously to make extraordinary achievements. Foshan is among the top 50 cities in China in terms of comprehensive competitiveness. Its investment environment ranks among the top 40 cities. Foshan was one of the 98 excellent model cities for human settlement, awarded by the United Nations. It is also one of the top 10 clean cities in China, enjoying the title of “national clean city”, “model city of providing preferential treatment for families of servicemen and martyrs, supporting government and cherishing people”……Foshan people are creating a prosperous future with their inherited diligence and wisdom, broad horizon and courage.
In the 21st century, Foshan will develop into a modern city while still embodying the thousand-year history and culture. It will become a scientifically-advanced, prosperous, culturally-developed, clean and modernized city and make due contributions to the development of our country and people all over the world.
History
There has been no agreement as to when the Foshan ceramics (stoneware, porcelain) industry began. However, the stamped stoneware unearthed in 1977 in Beiqiu relics around Shiwan has a history of around five thousand years, which provides some evidence for the origin of “Shiwan Gongzai” (artistic ceramic).
During the Tang and Song dynasties, with the development of foreign trade, “Shiwan Gongzai” began to be exported to Japan, south-east nations and other countries. After the Ming dynasty, the production of “Shiwan Gongzai” entered a peak stage. There were many kinds of pottery products, mainly including character, animal series, vessel series, landscape pottery and micro-sculpt series. They have become the unique handicrafts with Lingnan characteristics.
In the late Qing dynasty, “Shiwan Gongzai” developed into a rather mature industry with 107 kilns further divided into 26 categories. It was said that there were around six or seven thousand households in Shiwan and five or six out of every ten households were engaging in the pottery industry.
“Shiwan tile is the best in the world.” The “kiln change” originated five thousand years ago turned Shiwan into the pottery capital in South China, which was as famous as Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of Jiangxi Province. With the development of thousands of years, the artistic style of “Shiwan Gongzai” is characterized with lively and vivid shape, dense and plain glaze and diversified techniques.
Shiwan, situated in the Pearl River delta, has a long history and is the hometown of many famous people. The culture and agricultural industry were highly developed early back in the Eastern Han dynasty. Shiwan is crowned the title of the “pottery capital in South China”. Its ceramic industry began in the Tang dynasty, grew in the Song dynasty and peaked in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, Shiwan is one of the largest ceramic production sites in China.
Shiwan ceramics originated in the Beiqiu relics in the late Neolithic period. The pottery techniques were rather advanced during the Qin and Han dynasties. Large batches of pottery tomb figures, pottery animals and vessels indicated that a kind of ceramic art form with local features was developed. During the Six Dynasties period, Shiwan people learned the glazing technique and in Tang dynasty, commercial ceramic production was seen in Shiwan. In Song dynasty, ceramics were produced from dragon kilns instead of round kilns and the ceramic production was more professional and in large-scale. In Ming dynasty, Shiwan ceramic industry entered a prosperous stage and as the centralized ceramic production site (the so-called “folk kiln”), Shiwan integrated the production techniques from various famous kilns in central plains region and often used high temperature glazing. With the technical improvement of ceramic manufacturing, artistic ceramic as an art form with local folk characters began to appear, which in turn enhanced the artistic quality of Shiwan ceramics. Ming Shi Zong (The Collection of Ming Poems) recorded: “Shiwan tile is the best in the world.” It reflected the high reputation of Shiwan ceramics enjoyed at that time. In Qing dynasty, Shiwan ceramics entered a peak stage. Various household ceramics were produced, together with unique artistic ceramics such as pottery tiles, decorative architectural components, pottery Buddha statues, landscape pottery, outdoor furnishings, pottery stationery, artistic pottery figures and pottery plants and animals. Shiwan ceramics were sold not only in various provinces in South China, but also in many south-east nations, Europe and America through the “Sea Silk Road”. Shiwan became the base for ceramic production and marketing with highly developed manufacturing techniques and commodity economy, which played a very important role in making Foshan one of the four national famous towns, like Hankou in Hubei Province, Jingde in Jiangxi Province, Zhuxian in Henan Province. Foshan was also one of the four national commodity distribution centers at that time.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Shiwan Artistic Ceramic Factory was established and it organized all practitioners in the industry. For the next thirty years after its establishment, the factory was the sole creator and manufacturer of “Shiwan Gongzai”.
Since Shiwan Gongzai originated among ordinary people, it has strong vitality. Ever since the late 1980s, Foshan ceramics has entered a golden period for a second time. The themes, representation methods, burning and glazing techniques are more diversified. Liu Zemian said, “The older generation did not know anything about sketching and it was difficult for them to represent the figures; however, the younger generation have all learned sketching or more and they used a lot of western artistic elements for reference.”
In Shiwan, there are “Shiwan Gongzai” museum, Gongzai street, Memorial Hall of Master Liu Chuan and the sole existing ancient kiln of Shiwan Gongzai. Shiwan was awarded the title of the “Famous Ceramic Town in China”. In 2004, the municipal government integrated all ceramic industries and established the Foshan Ceramics Industry Association and Artistic Ceramics (Shiwan Gongzai) Committee is one of its members.
Foshan ceramics has been developing for thousands of years and a large industrial system has been established. At present, there are 298 large-scale ceramic enterprises in Foshan with more than 1000 production lines. ( from ceramic | stoneware world)
