Most porcelain wares fired by the state-owned “Top Ten Porcelain Factories” of old Jingdezhen were produced in coal-fired kilns, while only a small number continued to use ancient pinewood-fired wood kilns. Starting in the 1990s, these high-energy, environmentally unfriendly kilns were gradually replaced by eco-friendly and energy-efficient kilns. Ceramics fired in modern kilns carry a distinctly different charm compared with those made in the old coal or wood kilns. In particular, coal-fired kilns were gradually popularized from the late 1950s and completely ceased operation by the 1990s, with a firing history of less than 40 years. When measured against Jingdezhen’s millennium-old cha kilns and wood kilns, this was but a fleeting chapter. It forms an irreplicable and remarkable discontinuity in the long history of Jingdezhen’s ceramic development.
Over those four decades, the “Top Ten Porcelain Factories” employed tens of thousands of ceramic workers. Inspired by slogans such as “Grasp revolution, promote production”, they created a golden age for Jingdezhen porcelain. With an average foreign exchange cost of less than 2 RMB per US dollar, they earned tens of millions of US dollars in badly needed foreign currency for the nation. The factories also produced massive quantities of domestic-use porcelain and porcelain for ethnic minority communities, and undertook research and production of state gift porcelain, porcelain for Zhongnanhai, porcelain for Chairman Mao and porcelain for Lin Biao.
Today, Jingdezhen is designated by China as a resource-exhausted city. During the transition from a planned economy to a market economy in the 1990s, the state-owned “Top Ten Porcelain Factories” underwent restructuring and were dissolved one after another. Porcelain produced by these factories has gradually entered the collectibles market, with fine works eagerly sought by many collectors. Prices keep climbing year on year, and select masterpieces repeatedly achieve record-high prices at auctions hosted by major auction houses.
