At a dinner during their visit to China in February, US President
George W. Bush and his First Lady, Laura particularly admired a set
of porcelain. The genre as pictured, is known as "
Jixiang
ruyi" which means "blessed and lucky" in Chinese. They highly
praised the in-glaze, famille rose design.
And now a set in this exquisite Jixiang ruyi' style,
produced by Jingdezhen
Ceramics is to be presented to US President George W. Bush and
his First Lady by Chinese President Jiang Zemin during his US visit
this fall.
The tableware has already been made and special packaging is being
designed.
The King of Tableware
According to the records of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), this
special royal porcelain was designed and produced by ingenious
Jingdezhen artisans and fired in the government-owned kilns. One
famous set was known by the name "Wanshou wujiang" meaning
"infinitely long life." It was said to comprise possibly one
hundred pieces and was intended for the many dishes of a full scale
Manchu-Han banquet. It adopted the famille rose design. Following
its traditionally high profile usage, "Wanshou wujiang" has
long been regarded as the "King of Tableware."
In
the present day we pay careful attention to health issues.
Previously there was a problem with traditional famille rose
porcelain due to a technical difficulty in completely removing all
traces of lead and cadmium, both poisonous elements. Thus in
choosing porcelain for daily use most consumers have tended to turn
to white ware or underglazed celadon.
As
a leading company in the production of porcelain for everyday use,
Jingdezhen Ceramics launched new research work on in-glaze
tableware in 1997. Their mission was to use the latest advanced
technology available to produce a healthy porcelain in the
traditional famille rose pattern but free from lead or cadmium.
After years of effort, the company achieved a breakthrough first
with in-glaze ware in the "classical garden" style in celadon. The
technology was then extended to embrace "Wanshou wujiang"
tableware, which was taken to batch-production in 2000.
President Jiang Zemin visited Jingdezhen Ceramics at the end of May
2001 during his tour of Jingdezhen. He highly praised the Hongye
brand porcelain which is produced for daily use.
In
middle of June of the same year, the company received an order for
more than 10,000 sets from Zhongnanhai. This order called for an
innovative shape and pattern combined with a contemporary
functionality.
And so a special team was formed to take charge of the production
of the Zhongnanhai porcelain. Within two months, the first batch of
in-glaze "classical garden" tableware of both Chinese and Western
styles was completed.
At
same time, the company set themselves the task of developing
in-glaze "Wanshou wujiang" tableware for the second batch of
Zhongnanhai porcelain. However the old name "Wanshou
wujiang" carried unfortunate feudal connotations. In a popular
move it was given its new modern name of "Jixiang ruyi." By
December 18, 2001 more than 20,000 pieces of this new porcelain
were being transported by air to Zhongnanhai.
Most Complimentary
"Jixiang ruyi" is free from lead and cadmium and combines
modern aesthetic charm with strong traditional styling.
"In February this year, US President George W. Bush and his wife
Laura were most complimentary about "Jixiang ruyi" when they
saw it at dinner," said Mr. Wang Yao, general manager of Jingdezhen
Ceramics.
"Jixiang ruyi" comprises as many as 48 different items in a
total of more than 200 pieces. There are bowls, plates, pots, wine
cups, jars, spoons, chopstick stands and so on. The set is well
suited to both Chinese and Western dinners.
It
makes good use of a basic golden yellow with patterns of bats,
lotus flowers and clouds picked out in red, blue and various shades
of green. It features the Chinese character "Shou," meaning
"longevity" and other traditional motifs. Made from top quality
white porcelain, every piece is perfectly fine and smooth to the
touch. At present this particular tableware has not been made
generally available. A comparison with well known, high quality,
in-glaze tableware would suggest a price of not less than 10,000
yuan (US$1,200) for the set of "Jixiang ruyi."
Zero-defects Quality Standards
The highest quality standards were achieved by Jingdezhen Ceramics
in fulfilling the order for the Zhongnanhai Porcelain. This
required that there should be zero defects in the finished product
as delivered. Such a level of quality requires an extraordinary
level of endeavor.
Mr. Zhan Baolin, an engineer in the company's technical department
said, "Design work for the in-glaze Jixiang ruyi' for
Zhongnanhai started last July. Work on developing the shape and
patterns involved nearly all the engineers in the company. In order
to create functional shapes that were also novel and elegant,
designers worked round the clock on research and
conceptualization."
Stylist, Mr. Shao Wei, revised his original concept more than ten
times to achieve a sample with a perfect combination of pattern and
shape acceptable to the workshop after test firing.
Eventually in August the finished design was passed to the
administrative department responsible for approval and put into
production in September.
According to Mr. Zhan, all the workers who took part in the
production of the tableware were veterans of several decades'
experience. Most pieces of Jixiang ruyi' are of a
non-standard form, so extant solutions could not be employed to
avoid distortion.
For example, in order to fashion one unusually small steamer only
90 millimeters in diameter and 50 millimeters high, it was found
necessary to move away from traditional processes and engage in
time consuming experimentation which eventually proved
successful.
One particular plate was more than 500 millimeters long and
presented some tricky technical challenges due to its unusually
large size. Over a series of attempts, the edges of the plate were
repeatedly found to be unintentionally swept upwards. Eventually a
solution was found which involved a modification to the underside
of the plate.
Many individual breakthroughs were achieved during the production
of this new tableware. Few first-time solutions emerged as the
unexpected became commonplace. However, dedicated workers proved
themselves willing to "go the extra mile" to ensure perfect quality
in every piece.
(china.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, August 9, 2002)