A Handful of Porcelain, A Thousand Facets: The 6,000-Year Story of Chaozhou Ceramics

Chaozhou earned its reputation as a "seaside land of Zou and Lu"—a phrase praising its flourishing Confucian culture and education—during the Song Dynasty. But the city's story goes back much further.

More than 6,000 years ago, early settlers lived and thrived here, creating a pottery-making civilization. During the Qin and Han dynasties, scholar-official families migrating south from China's Central Plains brought Confucian traditions with them. By the Tang and Song dynasties, kilns lined the river for miles, their fires and smoke within sight of one another.

Education and craft—one intangible, one tangible—blended together to shape the "gongfu" ethos in the bones of Chaozhou people: a deep-rooted commitment to patience, precision and care. Kiln-transformed ceramics that enter the kiln in one color and emerge in a thousand hues; fine porcelain for daily use showcased on the international stage; smart bathroom fixtures whose output accounts for more than 30 percent of China's total... In the hands of Chaozhou artisans, a lump of porcelain clay takes on countless facets.

Watch the video to see just how many possibilities a lump of Chaozhou porcelain clay holds. (By Xue Yang)