Dissertation Research On Porcelain And Social Changes Of The Modern Jingdezhen (1903-1949)

Jingdezhen is a porcelain handicraft town which is rooted in the traditional agricultural civilization.A stable production system and social structure is formed in the process of the procelain production and the long-term game of interests. In the overall balance, this system is also influenced due to political reasons and changes in consumption concept, but it is still able to absorb reasonable factors to maintain their social structure with a strong ability to repair itself. During Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty, The prosperity of Jingdezhen porcelain at home and abroad not only contributed to its being one of the most popular cultural products but also prompted the formation of Jingdezhen porcelain hand-templated production system. In modern times,owing to the porcelain trade recession and intense social changes, traditional Jingdezhen porcelain production patterns encountered enormous challenges.The commercialization of porcelain production patterns and social structures mainly show for the following salient features. First, Jingdezhen formed the market-oriented development pattern of commercial industry with the porcelain trade as the core.This pattern means that the porcelain production mode will change due to the change of social demand and cultural aesthetic. From bluish white porcelain of Song dynasty to the blue and white porcelain of Yuan dynasty and to color porcelain of Ming and Qing dynasty, jingdezhen porcelain product style based on inheritance innovation.Second, the rise of China trade give birth to manual templated industry model. From raw material extraction and processing,from production of porcelain bodies to draw, and from firing porcelain to trade, there are hundreds of working procedure, the different production processes have a clear division of responsibilities and closely cooperation, achieving the extreme production technology and product of refinement.Third, as a typical immigrant town, Jingdezhen has formed complex interests and social relationships. Under the principle of "profit" for the pilot, the surrounding people came to Jingdezhen engaged in Porcelain Manufacture,the financial industry and commercial industries to form a complete social business model with porcelain production as the core.In the process of social system operation, industry groups, geographical relationship and economic interests intertwined, forming a complex interests and relationship network.But whether labor parties in the process of production, or other economic, social organizations, the strength and weakness of are not absolute.In all, all parties work together to guarantee the benign operation and finally realize their interests to the best. Finally, Jingdezhen porcelain species diversity, production technology is complex, including both production of functional and artistic porcelain. Product consumption patterns externalized into diversified combination of a personalized, uniqueness and batch production, which determines the diversity of technology and complicated process.Production characteristics, social organization and the consumption mode determines the jingdezhen porcelain different from other parts of modern manufacturing pattern and make it have a stronger ability to repair itself. During the china trade prosperity, a large number of immigrants came to jingdezhen are engaged in the porcelain industry and other related industries; But during the china trade depression, builders go back to rural life unsustainable industry, engaged in agriculture or fishing, which, in turn, maintain the jingdezhen relatively stable social structure.In addition, since most of the ceramics factory owners were technology industry practitioners. In the case of bankruptcy of the plant, they still rely on technology to survive to seek the opportunity to rise again.This unique flexible social structure can skillfully resolve the huge impact of external forces and develop following the pattern constructed by itself.In modern times, under external shocks, the traditional porcelain patterns and social structure suffered a huge crisis and challenges. First, the mechanized daily porcelain replaces the international market, but also influences its domestic market, which result in the recession of Jingdezhen Porcelain. Secondly, the new political management model has changed the traditional social autonomy in the industry as the leading social mode of operation and further weakened the right to speak of the traditional social organizations.In addition, the ill-fated destiny and uninterrupted revolution in modern China also influence the jingdezhen porcelain. Finally, under the impact of the western culture, the national consumption ideas and aesthetic style is also quietly changing, the traditional shape and decoration style was no longer popular,Jingdezhen porcelain and system require a certain degree of change.Under the background of the huge gap between history and reality, officials, scholars and industrialists consider the revival of jingdezhen porcelain industry as the goal, and try to transplante western industrialized production system to jingdezhen, replacing the traditional backward to achieve social reform on this basis. In addition, the change of the administrative status also affects the jingdezhen social structure.In the early Republican era, Fuliang County Department migrate from the Old City to Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen Fuliang County is not only the economic center, but has become the political center. During National Government it has become the fifth administrative special location.Social reform and social regulating mechanism proposed the challenge to the traditional industry, and endanger the ceramics production system and the stability of social structure. But these social reform ideas and industrial practice ignored the rationality and ignoring the rationalityof jingdezhen porcelain industry production mode and social habitus, in defiance of the achievements of the modern jingdezhen ceramics production, in the meanwhile cut off the continuity of historical development, but interprete and apply the modernization theory at random, thus not only make the social practice unsuccessful but also deepened the opposite and misunderstandings of the tradition and modern.But inevitably, the modern Jingdezhen porcelain trade recession and the the limitations of traditional porcelain production model is closely related, the new porcelain production advantages are manifested in competition. In this context, Jingdezhen Porcelain practitioners from interests actively absorb the reasonable elements, and intergrate into the porcelain production patterns to optimize the traditional porcelain production, making it more suitable for modern production needs.However this convergence is not improved mechanization dominated by the elites, but under the market leading, industry producers changed with "benefit me" as the core. In other words, the leading practitioners of the traditional ceramics lead the improvement of modern industry. If new products are popular,or new technology can improve production efficiency, practitioners will take the initiative to absorb them. conversely, even if the authorities strongly implement it, it doesn't work.If we think about the impact of modernization, we can explore the habitus in Jingdezhen social structure and its central role. While traditional porcelain production patterns lost his voice due to trade fall and porcelain recession,which was seen as obstacles to the Jingdezhen revival, but relying on its own unique advantages, it still plays a dominating role in Jingdezhen Porcelain production in the ill-fated context. Analysis of Jingdezhen Porcelain and modem social structure helps to start from the perspective of specific cases to explore the limitation of the modernizational pattern under the complex background. Overall, the long-established industry pattern and social forms fit the development of jingdezhen porcelain industry. Modem Porcelain improvement groups ignore the rationality of Jingdezhen production structure, resulting in poor performance of its reform, which reflects the limited nature of modern transplantation and prove the stability and specificity of the social structure of Jingdezhen Porcelain.