Potter Identity From The State And Local Perspective (1949-1958)

The time period to be investigated in this paper is the mid-20th century, which saw a major transition during the socialist transformation of the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen. In the city, the porcelain-making practices have prospered for a millennium. A social historical view centering on the porcelain industry unfolds before us. This study attempts to sketch the outline of the historical process during the transformation of the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen in the mid-20th century through several major fragments in this period.At the root, such actions as the ceramic making, changes of manufacturing technology, the continuity and restoration of the skills, the adjustment to the production and organizational pattern, and the transformation of the means of livelihood are what different groups of people carry out against various social-historical circumstances. These activities also mirror the interactions at various levels between the state and the local society as well as those among different people and groups. After that, the molding and changes of the individual and group identity during the socialist transformation are reflected on in this relationship network so as to identify the "group consciousness" in the "social facts". This paper attempts to probe into the porcelain industry of Jingdezhen in the historical context of the development of the state and the local society, and study the changes in the life, technology and thought of the craftsmen as a group during the interactions of the national power and local society through sifting and depicting the basic process somewhere around the socialist transformation period of the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen in the mid-20th century. Consequently, the craftsmen identity can be figured out and illustrated from the perspective of anthropology through the study on the various interactive factors during the changes of the local society in Jingdezhen and the integration of the multiple relationships.The development of the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen is in effect closely linked with the "state" all the time. The intervention of the national power in the porcelain production of the local society started as early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties via the "official ware". However, the control of the "state" over the local porcelain industry was in fact still quite limited as late as the Republican period.It was only after 1949 that the state began to have an overall control over the local ceramics, especially after the ceramics in Jingdezhen underwent the socialist transformation. The state-own porcelain factory remained as the main organizational form of porcelain production in Jingdezhen before the 1990s (the Reform and Opening-up). The intervention of the socialist national power in the local society not only reflected in the porcelain production but also in the daily life of the craftsmen after the liberation. The Jianguo Porcelain Factory is chosen as a case for study in this paper to make the research more justified in reflecting the practical situation and historical facts, and to better reveal the concrete responses of the craftsmen to the interactions between the state and the local porcelain society.More importantly, the study objects are the craftsmen in the porcelain industry of Jingdezhen who grew up in the 1930s and 40s. The daily life of the ordinary craftsmen in Jingdezhen in this period is engraved on their memories. With the passage of time, the memories of these old craftsmen become more and more important. To collect and sort out these oral historical data can make up for the lack of attention paid to the group life of the craftsmen over the traditional period in the historical documents. In the meantime, most of the study objects made their bow into the porcelain production of Jingdezhen in about 1949 and experienced in person the whole process of the "socialist transformation" as the first generation of the craftsmen after the founding of New China. Though they still worked in the porcelain industry as their forefathers, their identity is quite different from that of their forebears. It is evident that the study can not touch on all the perspectives and dimensions of the porcelain society in Jingdezhen. This paper mainly explores the issue of craftsmen identity during the socialist transformation in Jingdezhen in the mid-20th century through comparison based on the interview data and the practical situation of the interviewees.In this paper I will attempt to explore the issue of craftsmen identity during the socialist transformation process over the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen from the perspective of interactions between the state and local society. I will carry out the analysis by combining the macro historical background with the local social-cultural changes and individual lives.