Way back to porcelain art
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Sun Lixin's store is submerged in a jungle of ceramics outlets of different sizes lining almost every street. This is nothing strange in Jingdezhen, known as China's porcelain capital for more than 1,000 years.
Not many visitors stop by. But Sun Lixin, 41, believes the porcelain made in his own workshop "Sun Gong Yao" (meaning Mr. Sun's Kiln) is of real artistic value and only those who appreciate fine porcelain would behold.
His forefathers were all renowned porcelain artists but Sun is the only one of the family's fourth generation to have inherited the blue-and-white painting skill. He hopes "Sun Gong Yao" will not only restore his family's specialty, but also help Jingdezhen revive the industry.
With a long history of making artistic porcelain, Jingdezhen has become noted for a high level of technical sophistication during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Starting from 1990s, however, Jindezhen has been losing its dominant market share to rivals from the east and south coasts due to its incompetence in face of the market economy.
Sun Lixin is ambitious to build "Sun Gong Yao" into a brand name with superior quality and a business model for others to follow.
"Sun Gong Yao will turn into a porcelain research institute focusing on design rather than production," he said, "It will have a garden, a fishing pond and a swimming pool and my designers will work in studios with ancient decorations. It's totally environmental friendly, with no smoke or dust, and the water is recycled."
"Jingdezhen has lagged behind Chaozhou, Foshan and other porcelain-making cities in terms of production facilities, but it still has an artistic edge. We shall make best use of our strength to offset the weak points," he said.
Following family tradition
Sun Lixin's love for porcelain dated back to 1981, when he followed the footsteps of his father Sun Tongxin and secured a job, then an "iron rice bowl," at the state-owned Hongqi Porcelain Factory, where his father had worked for over 20 years.
Hongqi, meaning "red flag," was then one of the city's 10 state-owned porcelain factories. In its long porcelain-making history, Jingdezhen had seen the rise and fall of numerous private studios and workshops, most of them devastated in wars since the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). After the founding of New China in 1949, the local government merged remaining small workshops into 10 state-owned factories during a nationwide campaign to transform private enterprises into joint state-private operations.
"When I first took the factory shuttle bus, the adults on board couldn't believe I was a fellow worker," he recalled the days when he was 13 and the youngest worker at the Hongqi factory.
"I felt quite proud to be a worker in a state-owned factory with a good reputation and a welfare policy that could then match that enjoyed by government officials," he said.
Sun spent the first three years as an apprentice. He ran errands and performed daily chores, such as making tea and tidying up, before practicing the basic craft of porcelain making.
The first skill Sun learnt was line drawing, which is integral to the exquisiteness of porcelain patterns.
"When I practiced drawing, my father often sneaked to my back and pulled my brush over my shoulder abruptly to see if I had held it tightly and drawn lines attentively," he said, adding "If he caught me chatting with others, he would pick up a stool and throw it at me."
The strict discipline made the relationship between the father and son somewhat tense. When the father later realized he had been too impatient, he entrusted his son to better hands.
At the age of 17, Sun was brought to Master Fu Zhouhai, a well-known artist from whom Sun learnt not only the skills but also the art of porcelain making.
"Master Fu was a good teacher. He reminded me not to limit my vision or ideals no matter what I am doing -- reading, painting or making porcelain," he said.
Different choices
While Sun Lixin made progress with his porcelain skills, the Hongqi factory became mired in difficulties.
In the 1990s, Jingdezhen began lagging behind the market economy, despite its golden history of making top-quality porcelain for imperial use. Its state-owned porcelain factories, which had produced ware specially designed for late Chinese leader Mao Zedong and the Great Hall of the People, went downhill.
To stave off bankruptcy, the local government restructured state-owned factories. Many employees were laid off. For the few stayed, there was little to do as production was cut sharply.
At the same time, about 30 million workers throughout the country were laid off during widespread restructuring.
The father and son, once admired for both working at the same factory, were not spared.
"The factory collapsed and workers all left. Those who didn't reach retirement age for pension had to find ways to support themselves," Sun said.
Sun had thought about going to Guangdong or Fujian for a new job. Private porcelain firms there have snatched up sizeable market share, thanks to their sensitivity to consumer demands.
But his father strongly opposed his plan, asking him to stay and find ways to keep the factory afloat.
State-owned enterprises, which used to provide "cradle to grave" welfare, had long been a "second home" to Sun Tongxin and his old folks. It was hard for them to accept the decline.
Sun Tongxin insisted on going to work every day, no matter how little he was paid or how many young people were seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Even after he was laid off in 1994, Sun still went to Hongqi factory, which was then already contracted to a private company, and worked for another four years with a humble monthly salary of some 300 yuan (US$ 44).
Meanwhile, the son went to Shenzhen, an emerging city next to Hong Kong to get away from Jingdezhen, not only for a job but a cleaner environment.
Kilns in Jingdezhen were fueled by coal before mid 1990s. At one time, there were as many as 600 chimneys in the 30-square-kilometer city proper, emitting up to 54 tons of soot per square kilometer every month. If not swept, the soot could have piled up to 30 centimeters to 40 centimeters within a year.
"It forced you to leave. The chimney started to emit smoke at 4 or 5 o'clock every morning and the city was blanketed in dust clouds all the time," he said. "When I walked on the streets, I could stir up a cloud of dust and soot could fill my nostrils and ears."
In 1995, kilns in Jingdezhen started to shift their fuel from coal to gas. In two years, the city dismantled and reconstructed more than 190 coal kilns and demolished most of the chimneys.
Dream of revival
In Shenzhen, Sun Lixin helped design porcelain ware for hotels, restaurants and golf clubs, earning up to 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month (US$ 441 to 588).
He even worked as a home decoration designer after he went to Zhuhai, another city in Guangdong, two years later. The new capacity brought him 20,000 yuan (US$ 2,940) a month.
He attributes his versatility to Master Fu Zhouhai's guidance. "He encouraged me to absorb knowledge from different disciplines, so I read widely, including books on home decoration," he said.
But all along, Sun Lixin had kept his hometown in mind, and waited to show his affection for it in his own way.
While he was working in southern cities, private porcelain workshops and retail stores reappeared in Jingdezhen. The small workshops, flexible as they were to market demand, were also churning out a large quantity of low-end porcelain ware, thus tainting Jingdezhen's reputation.
In 1998, Sun Lixin returned to Jingdezhen and opened his own workshop "Sun Gong Yao," with the money he had earned in Guangdong. He rented two floors from the old cafeteria of Hongqi factory for his studio and spent 40,000 yuan (US$ 5,880) on a gas kiln.
"I had left not only for money, but also for ideas," said Sun Lixin, "I was like an industrial spy, stealing advanced technologies, production modes and management experience."
However, his Shenzhen-style management was given a cold shoulder at the beginning. "Here in Jingdezhen, company management is usually based on friendship instead of institutionalization," he said, "When I pointed out for a worker things he needed to correct or improve, he would feel humiliated and refuse to comply. Sometime he would even conspire with other workers to quit, which is just impossible in southern cities."
Like many other workshops, "Sun Gong Yao" has had its ups and downs in the market economy. It started to produce popular modern porcelain in 2001, but returned to traditional styles, especially blue-and-white ware, when market demand for modern porcelain waned two years later.
Today Sun Lixin seems to have a clear vision about the future.
"Jingdezhen has to go through two revolutions to revive its past glory. One is a revolution of ideas -- craftsmen should lift their understanding of the world, the market and the way they make a living; and the other is an industrial revolution," he said.
"Manual crafts are our treasures, and we shall not abandon them. But we cannot expand their influence by making everything by hand," he said, "Excellent designs must be applied to mass-produced ceramics for daily use. That is what I mean by industrial revolution."
Sun Lixin has a dream that one day "Sun Gong Yao" would be able to focus on porcelain design and attract the best artists worldwide who can sell their creative ideas through his business.
"A revival will come, if the revolutions eventually take place."
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