As we know, ceramics defy easy categorisation. Part art, part craft, vernacular and dynastic, precariously fragile yet exceptionally durable, ceramics are quintessentially localised, yet also fundamentally global in their circulation and cultural meaning.
Such complex attributes have a bearing on how we need to think about Jingdezhen, a city that is increasingly recognised as a unique focal point of both artistic creativity and cultural heritage of global significance. A history of ceramics production stretching back centuries points towards a deep historical continuity and the transmission of craft knowledge across multiple generations. But such continuities leave complex and fascinating material traces, in the land, in the buildings, in the river and surrounding forests, and of course in the living memory of the city’s residents.
Such elements are central to the question of how Jingdezhen should move forward towards UNESCO world heritage nomination. Through a mixture of slides and videos, the talk considered how this city of porcelain should be understood and valued, as a space that sustains and safeguards, yet simultaneously reinvents and redefines, craft and artistry in fascinating and unique ways.
About the Speaker:
Professor Tim Winter is Research Leader, Inter-Asian Engagements at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He was previously a Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in Australia, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His interests largely revolve around understanding how Asia’s heritage comes to be constructed and reconstructed for public audiences and for diplomatic, geopolitical and nationalistic purposes. His most recent books are Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (University of Chicago Press 2019) and The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (Oxford University Press, 2022).